although grudgingly doing a little better since Siah forced that blood into me. As irritating as it feels to fall in line like I’m being ordered to do, I need to choose my battles with this mental case very carefully. Is refusing to cooperate now going to gain me anything? I push slowly off the bed. My body protests the movement at first, my muscles stiff and angry, but with each step around the bed toward Adriel, my body feels a little better.
I keep my movements shaky and cringe a couple times for show. According to Siah, Adriel expects me to be down for weeks. I can work with that and play the battered and broken Sentinel to my advantage. All I need to do is find something to cut this fucker’s head off, and I’m back in the game, magic or not. Adriel’s eyes light up as I make my way sloth-fast over to him. I sneak a quick glance at Siah as I pass, and I try to piece together what his deal is. He brought me here to Adriel and, for all I know, had Sorik attack everyone I left behind, and yet he’s trying to get me back into fighting shape as soon as possible and whispers cryptic shit like “it’s not what you think.”
I rub at my chest and reassure myself that everyone is fine. They’re all more than capable of kicking serious ass, and even if they were surprise attacked, it doesn’t mean they lost. I would feel it if something happened to them, wouldn’t I? I ask myself and immediately decide that I would. We’re all connected together through magic, and if that connection was severed somehow, I would know. A reassuring calm washes through me, and I hobble right past the open palm that Adriel is holding out to me. I’ll listen to this fucker, but if he thinks I’m going to touch him, he’s got another thing coming.
I wait to see if he’s going to press the issue of my not taking his offered palm, but he just releases an amused chuckle and falls into step next to me. We exit through the large black doors out into a hallway made of the same stone that the walls of the room were. I look up and gasp at what I find. The ceiling is high, roughly domed and completely made up of crystals. They sparkle from the dim light of the sconces in the hallway, and I run my awed gaze over the various shades of blue and purple. There are small groupings of clear crystals interspersed amongst the other colors, and the whole ceiling looks like a bejeweled image of deep space.
“Magnificent, isn’t it?” Adriel asks me.
He looks so satisfied by my appreciative reaction to the ceiling, you’d think he’d hand made it himself.
“There are many breathtaking places in our home. Just wait until you see the dining room or the pools,” he tells me and then leads me through the hallway.
I’m certain that we’re underground now, but I’m less hopeful that we might be located under the ruins that Siah stopped the car at. I suppose it’s possible that the ruins had lower levels that might have connected to these cave systems, or maybe that’s just my wishful thinking. I didn’t ask Siah how long I was incoherent from the pain the collar caused me, so it’s possible they had enough time to move me somewhere else.
My eyes roam over everything we pass, and grudgingly, I have to admit it’s a good hiding spot. Whenever I pictured Adriel and where he might be, I figured he had a building or home that was hidden just like Solace. But a fucked up sparkly bat cave is a smart move and not something I would think others are likely to search for.
I’m herded down a hallway and into what looks like a massive lounge room that has different spaces that lamia are congregated around. There’s a corner with some pool tables, different sitting areas facing TVs, a grouping of high tables and stools that laptop-using lamia are perched on, and chairs bookending chess boards scattered around the room. Everyone is stunning and appears to be around my age. The place looks like a rad dorm common room or a community center for the super-hot. I look around, and it’s not hard to forget that each of these individuals is a supernatural predator and part of the nest that hunts my kind.
I