Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,159

I’d felt little more than hate and fury. And when she trapped me in the Broken World, I’d decided enough was most definitely enough.

That anger didn’t go away, but my plan for what to do now had to change.

Matthias stepped between me and the bed. “Give her a moment,” he said in an undertone.

I turned away and reached for the familiar buzzing of Malcolm’s magic in my arm cuff. “Release,” I murmured.

Malcolm appeared next to me. He drifted back and forth and looked down at himself. His face fell at the sight of his translucent body. My heart ached for him.

He touched my arm. Damn, it’s good to be home, but I’m going to miss being a real boy, he said in my head. And this is so not what we expected to find waiting for us.

We figured something wasn’t right and she needed the scroll badly, I reminded him. I just didn’t think it was this bad.

So what’s your plan now? he asked.

I’m rethinking things a bit, but bottom line, I’m still here to settle a score. In the meantime, I need you to jump to Sean and tell him we’re home, where I am, and that I’ll get home to him as soon as I’m done here.

Malcolm frowned. I don’t want you to face Valas by yourself.

I’m not by myself.

He raised his eyebrows and looked around again. Our feathery friend is here somewhere?

Yes, he’s here. Please go to Sean. I need him to know I’m here and I’m safe and I’m coming home. Tell him I’m sorry I didn’t tell him where we went and I’ll tell him everything when I get home. Then go see Liam.

Are you sure? He plainly didn’t like the idea of leaving me here.

I’m sure. I have a score to settle.

I have a score to settle too, he reminded me.

I know. I’ll get justice for us both.

He glanced at my abdomen. And what about that?

Later. First things first: Sean and Liam, and Valas. Then I’ll deal with this mess.

He didn’t look happy. Okay. Summon me if you need me.

I will, I promised.

He vanished.

My stomach twinged again—this time, with hunger. I had some protein bars left from the last way station stop I’d made with Ronan before we got to the portal home. Valas was still drinking from Niara, so I got two bars from my backpack and ate them quickly. Normally seeing a vampire feed would have taken away any appetite I had, but this wasn’t just any hunger gnawing at my insides.

I washed the bars down with the last of the water in my Hawthorne’s bottle. The metal bottle had collected a few dents on its travels, but it was quite a souvenir. I stuck it back in the bag.

Niara’s dark skin had developed a gray tone. Valas had drunk more from her than was safe—far more.

Niara started to pull away and flinched. I heard a sibilant hiss. Valas wasn’t letting her go. Niara would have to tear herself free of Valas’s enormous fangs unless Valas would retract them.

“Valas, I’m here,” I said, hoping she could hear me. “I’m back with the scroll. Let Niara go. I can heal you.”

Valas hissed again. Niara finally moved back and slid to the edge of the bed. Her throat was badly torn. “Thank you,” she said hoarsely. In her desperate need for life-sustaining blood, Valas had damaged Niara’s vocal cords.

I barely heard Niara. Half of Valas’s face and one eye were gone, leaving only grayish-white bone and an empty socket. Most of her lips were gone, and one cheek, revealing her teeth and extended fangs. Blood streaked her skull, jaw, and remaining skin.

No way in hell Valas was moving from that bed, but she still had power and magic. How much she could wield in this condition, I wasn’t sure.

Somewhere, Malcolm was talking to Sean and reassuring him we’d returned. I hadn’t realized how much strength that knowledge would give me until right now, as I stood in Valas’s room, facing the grim reality of her condition and that I had no scroll with which to heal her. I could deal with this as long as Sean knew I was back.

Niara made her way unsteadily to the door. Matthias opened it and ushered her into the hall, where her head of security, Nadya, waited. He closed the door behind her. Wards buzzed on my skin.

“Ver isssss it?” Valas hissed. “I do not sense the sssss…scroll.”

“I’m here, and you locked the door so I couldn’t get