Page 22 of Saved By Her Guardian
“Give it to me, sweetheart.”He let go of her wrist and held out his hand.
She met his gaze and he could see that she was struggling, but he didn’t know what was going on.Something seemed to have a hold on her mentally.Was it a spell?
She turned her hand over like she was going to drop the stone into his upturned hand when a portal appeared behind her so fast that he wasn’t sure what he was seeing.
And then Azure lunged out, wrapped his arms around Aralyn, and stepped back into the portal.
Maverick roared in alarm and reached for her, but she was gone, the portal crackling into oblivion as Azure smirked at him.
“Fuck!”Maverick yelled.He picked up the stone and turned for the buildings.“Someone get me Santa, right the hell now!”
Aralyn was the coldest she’d ever been in her life when she slowly woke.Her wrists were particularly cold, and as she sat up and lifted her arms, she saw what looked like cuffs made of ice encircling each wrist.
Her breath puffed out in front of her in the frigid air as she sat on a bare cot in what could only be described as a cell.The bars were made of dark metal and covered with ice, and the stone floor and walls were shiny in places where water had dripped through cracks and frozen.
Where the hell was she?And what had happened?
She heard something whir and click, and then the smell of tobacco caught her nose.
She looked to the bars and saw Jack Frost.
He had icy-blue hair, the palest blue eyes, and a devilish smile.
“Hello again, Aralyn.Oh, you don’t recall meeting me before?Let me try this on for you.”He swiped his hand over himself and he changed forms before her eyes, turning into the ancient reaper.The same devilish smile remained though everything else about him had changed.
Her heart sank.
It had all been a trap?But for what purpose?
Then she remembered the feel of that rune-covered shard of stone in her hand, and how it had felt off to her but she’d been so determined to get out of her assignment that she’d ignored the red flags.
As Frost returned to his natural form, he took a long drag on his cigarette and then blew out the smoke.It hovered in the air above him like a wraith before it dissipated.
“Good news,” he said, sounding jovial, “while you failed to plant the shard in the Portal, you’ve got a chance at a new assignment anyway.I’m going to give you one more opportunity to help me.”
She rose to her feet, anger surging through her.
She tried to open a portal, but her magic was gone.The cuffs on her wrists felt heavier suddenly and she looked down to see them glowing.
“I’ve contained your magic, dear.You can’t go anywhere.Except to your new assignment where you’ll be bait.”
“What?”
“You’ll lure your mate here to my lair, and I’ll use him to draw out my brother.It’s possible my brother won’t leave the protection of his magical perimeter, and if that’s the case, then I’ll just kill your mate, along with any other shifters and elves I can take out.”
He chuckled when she recoiled in horror.
The book appeared in his hands and he waved it at her.“You were so easy to con, Aralyn.Honestly, I’m embarrassed for you.If only you’d accepted your lot in life as a reaper and done your job so Grim didn’t have to put you in my path, then you wouldn’t be in this position.You’ll lure your mate here or you’ll die screaming.”Frost tapped the edge of the book against his chin in thought.“Maybe you’ll die screaming anyway.”
While dread coiled in her stomach like a snake made of acid and lava, she still managed to lift her chin in defiance.“I won’t help you harm my mate.”
“Oh, I think you will.I’m already in your head, Aralyn.I can make you do whatever I want you to.”
“No, you can’t.My magic is neutral; it won’t help your magic at all.”
“I can still take it.I’ve never taken a reaper’s magic and turned them into one of my followers, but it doesn’t mean I can’t.”
She stared at him.She wanted to ask if he was joking, but there wasn’t anything funny about him taking her magic the way that he did to those with good magic.They became entirely new creatures, not knowing their families or friends and fully beholden to Frost.
