Page 125 of Trust In Love (Love Mark 2)

I shot Farrow a glare for being extremely unhelpful.

“Christ, Nic,” Indigo finally snapped. “Will you just throw the damn thing on the floor and stomp on it already?”

Lord help me from aggravating men. Cursing both of them, I tossed the pin onto the ground. “Just so you know,” I announced as I lifted my foot above it and hovered a moment. “If we all die because of this, I was against the idea of using magic from the beginning.” Then I jammed my heel down and crushed the pin underfoot.

It spark

ed, and I leaped back. When nothing else happened, I tilted my head. “Maybe it’s a dud.”

“Fucking hell,” Farrow hissed. “That would just figure. I gave up my flagon for this piece of shit? I’m going to murder Mydera.”

And just like that, the clip began to tremble and morph, growing and expanding, shooting upward. I yelped and skittered another few steps back. Before our eyes, it turned into a thick, ropey vine, with short, stubby branches sprouting off to the sides every few feet, providing lattices so it could be climbed.

“My God.” I sucked in an amazed lungful. “It’s a ladder.”

Once it reached the ceiling, it paused and shimmered as if ready to be scaled. Hesitantly, I eased forward. With a moaning cringe, I released a breath and grabbed the vine.

“Oh,” I said in shock, glancing either way toward both men. “It’s surprisingly durable. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Then climb that son of a bitch,” Indigo urged. “Because I refuse to marry the psycho of a queen who tossed me down here.”

“Okay, but I must warn you,” I told him as I started my ascent. “Kalendria doesn’t deal well with rejection. Just ask Farrow.”

“Funny,” Farrow groused dryly from behind his bars.

I smirked to myself though, finding some humor there, until I reached the roof of our cell. “Great,” I realized, moodily. “I’ve climbed to the top of this pit. Now what? The trapdoor’s still padlocked closed.”

“Use the pendant on your necklace,” Farrow instructed. “It should unlock anything.”

“Of course,” I muttered, shaking my head. “You had that charmed too, huh? What other magic am I wearing right now?”

“Your wrist guards,” Farrow said, surprising the heck out of me with his forthrightness. For once. “The left one turns into a sword and the right is a shield, I believe.”

Weapons. I’d been wearing weapons all this time? “Wow. Would’ve been nice to know that right about the time my Colt ran out of bullets.”

“Apologies,” Farrow replied mildly. “I was a little too busy trying not to die to remember and mention them at the time.”

“Well, if you’d told me about them when you actually had them enchanted...” I snapped, unlocking the cell with a snarl and shoving the door open. It swung back on its hinges, toppling to the stone floor beside it with a jarring echo that resounded around the entire dungeon.

I froze, wincing big.

“Well, shit,” Indigo said. “What’re the chances none of the guards heard that?”

“About zero,” I said since I already heard footsteps headed our way. “Farrow! How do I activate the sword?”

“Twist your wrist,” he shouted. “Quickly!”

A guard burst through a closed metal door near me. Exclaiming in surprise when he saw me half-climbed out of my cell, he jolted to a halt. “What the—?” After shaking his head, he charged forward, screeching in indignation.

I flicked my left wrist, expecting a sword or something to appear in my hand. Instead, a crackling blue web of lightning grew off the side of my forearm, making the shape of a shield.

I blinked at it. “Uh…”

The guard reared back his leg with the clear intent to kick me in the face and send me falling back into my pit. Wincing against the approaching pain, I lifted my arm to shield myself, and my attacker screamed in pain when he crashed into it, vibrating as if he were being electrocuted by lightning before he tumbled to the ground, still twitching and moaning.

“Sorry, my bad,” Farrow called from below. “I had that backward. Apparently, the right one is the sword, and the left is the shield.”

“Did you see that shield, though?” I cried in amazement as I straightened, still gaping as the guard started to recover and sit up, shaking his head dizzily. “It’s made of pure lightning!”

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