“Morax took me,” I repeat, and I hate how small I sound as the confession falls to the ground between us.
Surprise moves through me when Ire’s other hand moves up to cup my cheek. His bright blue eyes jump up from mine to take in my hair and then behind me to the deep purple wings, and then I watch as blood drains from his face and his eyes widen.
“Oh, fuck,” he whispers, looking at me like he’s seeing me in a new light. “I know who you are,” he states, his voice hoarser than it was before. “You’re one of the missing sisters.”
My head rears back in surprise. How the heck does he know that? I nod slowly at his questioning glance. “Sable,” I provide, and his blue eyes are tinged with horror as he connects the dots.
“We’ve been looking for you,” he tells me, looking down and taking in my state with new knowledge.
His eyes harden with each smudge of dirt he sees. I can practically feel him counting my ribs before he traces up the strap of my bra, and fury rips through him.
“What did he do to you? Where are you? Is your other sister with you? I’m going to rip his head off and spit down his throat,” Ire snarls and then lobs more questions at me.
“I don’t know!” I answer, the blanket statement pretty much covering everything he’s demanding I tell him. “Medley is captured with me. There’s another man—demon—here, Toreon, and his protector who’s pretending to be a guard, but other than that, I don’t know. We’re in Hell, probably Ūnus, but we don’t know where,” I tell him frantically, his crackling fury freaking me out. I have no idea why he’s so mad or how he knows about me, but it’s making my anxiety spike. Who is this guy?
Ire seems to absorb all of what I said, and then he suddenly starts pulling me in the direction of...well, nothing, because this is my darkness and there’s nowhere to go.
“What are you doing?” I demand, stumbling alongside him as he stomps off with me in tow.
“I need to take you to my Matron. She’ll call your Sire, and we’ll make sure that snake-eyed fucker never touches you again,” he growls. “Fuck!” he screams out in frustration as he spins around, like he’s looking for a way out of here. As if he can just yank me right out of the cell and pull me to wherever he is. “I’m such an idiot,” he mutters to himself. “I was so pissed at being beaconed that I didn’t even realize what the hell was going on!”
“Ire—” My voice gets cut off when a tingling starts in my limbs, and out of nowhere, his grip on my arm disappears. I stumble back and look down as he tries to take a hold of me again, but his hand passes right through my arm.
Whoa, that’s freaky.
“What’s happening?” Ire calls out, worry bleeding out of his voice.
“I think I’m waking up,” I tell him with strange trepidation.
I want to stay here. Such a weird thought, considering the rude interloper standing in front of me. It must be the comfort of my palpable darkness that I want to cling to.
I watch as my body starts to disappear, and Ire rushes forward, attempting to grab hold of me again, but it doesn’t work, and I just fade more and more. “No!” he shouts out, but no matter how hard he tries, he can’t get his hands or arms to grab onto me. “Tell me where you are!” he demands again, terror etched in his features, but my answer hasn’t changed.
“I don’t know.”
I’m pulled away from my darkness and shoved back into consciousness, an echo of I’ll find you, Sable. I swear, I’ll fucking find you echoing in my mind.
12
Awareness snaps at me like a rubber band around my wrist. The remnants of Ire’s voice shouting in my mind slowly fade away, until his presence is gone completely, and my heart beats wildly in my chest.
That was one of the strangest experiences in my life. Not a dream, not quite reality, but one hundred percent real. I now have a face to put with the voice that keeps shoving its way into my head. I don’t know how it’s happening, or if I’m calling to him like he said I am, but I’m left reeling, my arm tingling from where he touched me.