Page 49 of He Who Ignites The Flame
“Barrett!” Lucia called, gesturing me to her side. “You’re on my team.”
Damien approached from behind her, and the flames within me recoiled.
“Damien,” he said by way of introduction, holding out his hand. I eyed him before taking his hand to shake, and his voice lowered. “I apologize for everything that happened to you. I swear, if I could’ve, I would have done something that day. Atticus was smart in his approach.”
I didn’t respond.
“We’re working hard getting everything we need to bring Atticus and Jissena to justice,” he added, glancing at Lucia, who offered him a warm smile.
“We’ll see,” I said, still unsure how we could when Atticus had exploited the laws so skillfully as to climb the ranks to Kyrios in only a few months. Regardless, they would either be put in chains or I would put them in the ground myself.
Damien grasped my arm, forcing my attention back to him. His tone shifted, his voice dipping lower. “I’m trusting you to look out for her in there.”
Lucia rolled her eyes. “We’ll be all right,mea sol.”
“I want to know someone has your back when I’m not there,” he said without taking his eyes off me. “If she trusts you, I trust you.”
“I’ve got her.”
He nodded, giving me an appreciative smile before turning to the others, lost conversation.
“There you are,” Micah said, and I glanced over my shoulder to find him and Thalia slipping through the crowd toward us.
The sight of Thalia was like a punch to the gut, her cornsilk hair pulled back in a braid, her body clad in black leather, armed to the teeth with daggers.
“No short sword?” I asked, arching a brow, trying not to focus on every dip and curve of her body.
She’s your friend’s fucking bonded.Friend… Fuck. Was that what Micah was becoming? Gods, I was getting soft.
Thalia crossed her arms, responding with a deadpan look.
“Can’t believe you’re making me stay behind for this.” I turned to find a male come to a stop at Lucia’s side. I’d seen him around the training yard. He was big—not tall, but strong and, from the scent of sage and pine, I assumed he was a shifter.
“Who else could I trust to hold this place together while we’re gone?” Lucia said, turning to him.
His pale green eyes flitted to me briefly, something like distrust flickering within them before he muttered to Lucia, “You’re seriously going to trust this guy to be on your team? Why not someone else? Put him on anoth?—”
“Zephyr,” Lucia said, her voice soft and even. “We’ll be all right. Barrett is a good person. I trust him to do what I need him to. He will come through for me when things go south.”
Something stirred deep within me at her words, something I’d been shoving down since she’d dragged me out of that cell.
“So you say, but how can you be sure?” he retorted.
Lucia planted a hand on her hip. “Have I been wrong about a person before?”
Zephyr let out a sigh and grabbed the back of Lucia’s neck to pull her closer to him, pressing his forehead to hers. “Gods, there’s never any talking to you once you’ve made up your mind. Just come back to me in one piece. Don’t make me lose you a second time.”
“Calm down,big brother. We’ve all got her back,” Thalia assured him.
“I’ll kick your ass if she comes back hurt,” Zephyr said, pinning me with a glare that burned with promise. A part of me relished the threat.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Care to test that theory now,big bro?”
“All right, that’s enough, you two,” Lucia said, shoving at Zephyr’s big frame. “This isn’t about me or you. It’s about the prisoners.”
He seemed to soften in response, and he pressed his finger to her forehead. “And I know you’ll get them out. Stop making that face, or you’ll get permanent wrinkles.”
Lucia’s shoulders sagged, and she rolled her eyes as he left us to stand at Damien’s side at the head of the room.
