Her gaze is shrewd, and I can see Kymaris calculating whether to hit me with something else. Instead, she says, “You’ve got spunk. Have to admire that.”
“I don’t want your admiration,” I snap. “I want to know why you’re doing all of this.”
Kymaris blinks in true surprise. “Why I’m doing all of this?”
I watch as she tips her face up to the sky—devoid of rain and clouds so she can see the stars—and holds her hands outward while turning in a slow circle. I cut a glance at Carrick, who watches with the eyes of a hawk.
Bringing her gaze back to me, Kymaris says, “This world is amazing. You’d never understand that since you haven’t been to the Underworld. The better question is why wouldn’t I try to take it over?”
“Yes,” I say with exasperation. “I can understand that. But you could live here peacefully like many other Dark Fae do. You could have had an incredible life like your brethren.”
“All unambitious fools if you ask me,” Kymaris snorts.
“You mean they don’t have your ambition to subjugate,” I growl.
“Precisely,” she says with a blinding smile.
For some reason, that infuriates me more than anything else she’s done so far. Shaking my head as if I pity her, I say, “You’re weak, Kymaris. Your ego is over-inflated, and the only way you can ever feel good about yourself is to tread on the backs of others. It’s pathetic, and it makes you unworthy of ruling anything.”
Clearly, I had gotten a little too comfortable in our conversation and forgotten what a cold-blooded monster she is. I’m not prepared for her snarl of fury or her hand shooting out to latch onto my throat. With her preternatural strength, she squeezes as she lifts me into the air. My hands come up to try to pry her fingers loose as a few people near us scream in alarm.
“Oh my God,” a woman yells. “Someone help her.”
Kymaris waves her free hand. Although my vision starts to go hazy from lack of oxygen, I see she’s frozen every human around.
Her magic clearly can’t touch Carrick as he materializes at our side with a quick bending of distance. As I struggle to breathe, I take in Maddox and Titus appearing behind him with relief.
Behind Kymaris, Pyke appears, along with several Dark Fae. They far outnumber our side, but I’d stack two demi-gods and an annihilator against them any day.
Kymaris seems utterly unperturbed by Carrick standing there with fury in his eyes, and that’s to her detriment. She has no time to react when he conjures a mighty battle ax out of thin air and swipes it down hard and fast, cleaving off the arm that is holding me up.
Gravity takes me down as Kymaris shrieks in pain, clutching the stump pouring black blood just above her elbow. As I hit the ground, I realize her hand is still clutching my throat but without any strength. I’m completely wigged out as I pull it loose, tossing it to the side and crab-walking backward away from her. Unfortunately, Pyke appears and hauls me to my feet, placing a dagger at my neck in warning to Carrick to hold his ground.
Carrick glances at me and Pyke. While I know him well enough to realize he’s vibrating with fury because Pyke holds a dagger on me, it’s with complete nonchalance that he bends and picks up Kymaris’ arm. When he tosses it underhand to her with a smirk, she hisses as she catches it.
It’s with ease that she magically reattaches it, but her anger is palpable. She snarls at Carrick. “That was a mistake.”
“I said Finley wasn’t to be harmed,” he reminds her with a shrug.
“Give me the Blood Stone,” she demands, holding her reattached arm out and shaking it as if to get the blood flowing again.
“Finley first,” Carrick demands.
Kymaris cuts a glance to Pyke, nodding curtly.
Pyke removes the dagger, puts his hand between my shoulder blades, and gives me a rough shove in Carrick’s direction. I don’t need any further prodding as I hurry to his side.
“You good?” he asks without taking his eyes off Kymaris. I can hear the unspoken statement, though, which is if I’m hurt, he’s going to kill her here and now.
“Peachy,” I reply because I’m fine.
Without any delay, Carrick tosses the satchel to Kymaris. She deftly catches it. Pulling the flap open, she peeks inside and her eyes start glowing with victory.
Before she can even look up, perhaps to prepare for her and her crew to leave, Carrick points a finger at Pyke and yells, “You.”
Pyke, who had been gazing at Kymaris with a victorious smile, turns to Carrick.
His smile slides from his face.
“A reckoning is coming, Pyke,” Carrick says in a voice that promises severe retribution for the kidnapping. “I suggest you put your affairs in order.”
I want to laugh when Pyke goes a little green in the face, but I don’t have time.
Carrick nabs my hand and bends distance, then we’re stepping into the kitchen in his condo.
CHAPTER 5
Finley
I no sooner plant both feet on the kitchen tile before Carrick has me engulfed in his arms, face mashed to his chest and his chin on top of my head so I can’t even turn it to take a breath. He squeezes—not in the demi-god way that will crush bones, but the way a man does when he misses his woman—and I cherish it, just as I cherish everything about him.
When he releases his hold, it’s merely to take my face in his hands and kiss the breath out of me—far more effective than the hard squeeze of his hug, and he does this while everyone watches.
“Are you okay?” he asks, pulling back slightly to look me over. He even turns me around to check my backside, before turning me again and pulling me into another hug.
“I’m fine,” I assure him.
“Good,” I hear Rainey say before I’m pulled from Carrick right into her embrace. She’s a brave woman, holding back her tears but fervently whispering in my ear that she’ll kill me if I ever scare her like that again.
“Noted,” I laugh, and then Myles is hugging me.
Then Titus.
Then Maddox.
Zaid is sweet, with his usual awkwardness and tiny pats on my shoulders, but as we release from our embrace, the relief in his eyes is great.
And finally… I turn to Boral.
The only time I’ve ever touched the mass murderer Dark Fae was when he protected me from the pine tree top about to crush my body.
But fuck it… he’s a proven member of our team, and I’m the one who moves in for a hug. I get just a glimpse of his eyes widening in shock before I throw my arms around his neck for a hard squeeze, which he returns far more exuberantly than his son had.
“Are you hungry?” Zaid asks, and I nod effusively.
“The dungeon fare was awful,” I quip, and everyone around me looks horrified.
Carrick steps forward, taking my hand. “How about we get you into a hot shower while Zaid prepares you something to eat, then we get you to bed?”
I smile at Carrick—a smile that says, ‘you’re sweet but a little patronizing’. I shake my head. “How about we sit down and talk right now about what we’re facing because things have drastically changed and I know we’re all reeling.”
The dubious look I get from Carrick is expected, but because he knows I don’t want to be coddled and he respects my grit, he glances at Zaid and says, “Fix her up some food and let’s talk.”