Page 114 of The Dark Rising
I feel Leo’s stare bore into the side of my face. “Then what do we do?”
I move toward the exit. “We find the location where he’s keeping the wolves and we end it. We’re running out of time where he is concerned.” I pause and look at him. “Come to the basement, then I will deal with the bitch upstairs.”
Leo sighs but follows me anyway.
Closing the basement door behind me, Damian rests against the wall, his eyes full of concern. I brush it off as I walk down the hallway, Damian and Leo following. I roll my shoulders as I reach the bottom of the stairs, looking up at them and taking a deep breath. Drax’s hackles rise, wanting to tear out of my skin and rip Maize apart, knowing she’s just above, waiting for me.
But she is no threat to Rhea. He doesn’t understand that as my magic pores out from my body, a mist shadowing my skin.
CalmI say to him, and he snarls so forcefully that my teeth bare.
I didn’t expect Charles to come here, or to bring Maize.
Not now, not yet.
The threat of what Charles said hangs heavy over my head when we last spoke, of what he said he would do to my men and Kade.
Stretching my neck to the side, I head up the stairs. Dread settles inside of me, and I know whatever happens in that room, it will change the course going forward.
I don’t know how fast things will change, if I can hide it, if I can make it work to where no one knows for a time until we get things sorted enough here.
But I have to try and do something to give me more time until the unknown breaks loose.
Every step I take, my shoulders stiffen in resolve.
A scream suddenly sounds from up the stairs, and my head snaps to it as Leo and Damian are instantly at my side. I’m rushing up the stairs in the next second, unsure of who that was, but worry very much at the forefront of my mind.
No one should be up there apart from Maize, and Rhea is locked in our room with my magic, far away from where I sent Maize.
We take the steps two at a time, pausing at the top as silence descends. I tilt my head, trying to listen to where that scream came from.
A gurgle reaches my ears, and I’m walking down the hallway in the next moment. Rounding a corner, the smell of blood hits me, and unease fills me.
I sense Damian and Leo tensing at my back as we move further down, following the scent of blood. I spot an open door to my left, the one where I sent Maize, and I look over my shoulder to them and nod in its direction. My blade is in my hand in the next second, wondering who the blood is from and if someone else came up here without my permission.
Another gurgle, and then nothing.
I reach the entrance to the bedroom and pull up short, my eyes taking in the scene before me.
“Fuck.”
Forty Two
Rhea
Before
I growl and pace, my fury and nervousness shaking around inside of me at the image of those rogures in the distance, at Charles’s presence within the keep.
I can’t stay in this room, I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong.
I walk over to the table next to the bed and pick up the new lesia flower there, after Darius replaced the last one. I inhale its scent, trying to calm myself but it doesn’t work. Putting it back in the glass carefully, I look at the door and growl before walking over to it.
I ease my mind and feel for the power inside myself, the power that was gifted to me by a God. Darius cannot keep me in here.
I place a palm on the door, feeling Darius magic locking it tight. I will my power to move to my palm, and the call works. It seeps out of me and to the door, feeling around Darius’s magic, trying to slip through a crack. When I find none, I close my eyes and push harder, forcing more into the wood until a tiny crack in the seal reveals itself. I punch my magic into it, getting beneath and forcing Darius’s magic away from the surface. Sweat beads at the back of my neck, and my arm shakes with trying to stay in control, but I press on.
A small burst of power hits my face like a gentle breeze, and I open my eyes, smiling that I managed to release it. I take a breath and pull down the handle, popping my head out into the hallway. I’m not sure what I was expecting to find, but it’s empty.
