Caged Kitten (All the Queen's Men #2) - Rhea Watson Page 0,157

led to the outside world across the foyer, their shattered windows tinted purple with fae fire. “If we don’t want to personally experience a cave-in, I suggest we get moving.”

“What?” Seriously, what had these boys plotted without me? While I hated to abandon the unfolding beauty of shifters and supers finding themselves again, Fintan and Rafe left me no choice. Each locked on to one of my hands, then marched me right out Xargi’s front doors. Rollo and his warriors trailed behind us, and once we were in the great outdoors, met by the scent of scorched earth and ancient magic, by the crunch of gravel underfoot that grated on my nerves, by the cries of bird shifters taking flight, those left in the foyer followed. Former inmates from all blocks spilled out through various doors, and as soon as someone saw another had removed their collar, off came the leather, the air thickening with a new punch of power.

Pockets in the purple flames appeared, allowing inmates to pass untouched, and while some took advantage of that, particularly the collared wolf shifters, many just drifted around on the outskirts, lost. Displaced. Searching for home and finding the Siberian tundra in the throes of autumn instead.

While Fintan, Rollo, and Rafe discussed the logistics of assisting some of the stranded supers and shifters, I hovered outside the group, staring at Xargi, waiting. Studying the faces of every jumpsuit that blitzed out, scrutinizing anyone in blue, desperate to find Elijah’s golden curls, his rugged face, his enormous frame in the mix.

Nothing.

Arms crossed, I wandered closer, searching frantically now, a series of horrific thoughts wheedling into what was supposed to be a victory. But there was no real celebration without him. No success if we weren’t all together. No—

“Willow!” At least one navy blue jumpsuit came with a familiar face. The petite rabbit shifter staggered out one of the side doors, her collar gone and her face coated in dirt, her loose brown hair an absolute rat’s nest. I sprinted toward her, hating how dazed she looked, how she stumbled, how her one good eye had a slash through it that she didn’t have the last time we had sat together in the cafeteria. Slowly, she turned in my direction, and by the time recognition flashed across her lovely features, I’d crashed into her and dragged her into a hug.

She stood limp for a moment, arms dangling at her side—no surprise if she questioned all this. In my time behind bars, I’d had so many dreams about this exact moment, about blowing a hole through Xargi’s walls and strolling out, free as a bird, the prison in cinders behind me.

“Oh, gods, I was so worried about you,” I whispered, hugging her harder like that might wake her up.

And it did.

Finally, my Cellblock B dinner companion wrapped her arms around me with a sob. We stood together like that, locked in an embrace that would have gotten us beaten just hours earlier, holding each other, lifting the other up.

She could go home now.

Back to her children, her harem of husbands.

Freedom tasted brilliant, even as fae fire burned the world around us.

“They put me in solitary,” she muttered when we slowly eased apart. Tears cut through the brown smudges on her face, and she rubbed at her cheeks with both hands, rolling her eyes. “Apparently refusing to suck off a guard is a deeply punishable offense. Been in a hole for three fucking weeks.”

A familiar fury lashed at my insides, an inferno sparking for her. “Have you seen the one who put you in there? Is he still alive?”

If he was, I swore to the gods I would cut off his—

“Your dragon killed him,” Willow admitted softly, purple reflecting off her clouded eye. She rubbed at the red ring around her neck, then shot me a coy look, voice lowering as she added, “But I did curb-stomp his disgusting face on the way out… Gave him a good kick in the nads for the afterlife. Pretty satisfying.”

“You’re really living the Xargi dream.” I tried to keep my tone light, not wanting to sidestep her newfound freedom and the delivery of some deserved justice, but just the mention of Elijah with no follow-up was driving me nuts. “And… You saw Elijah, then?” When Willow nodded, scanning the purple flames, fingers drifting to her jumpsuit’s buttons like she was seconds from stripping down and shifting, I cleared my throat and stepped into her wandering eyeline. “Not to diminish