if you’re good,” Adriel chuckles at his taunt, but I’m no longer paying attention to him.
My brain is slow, and it’s like I’m wading through jello as I try to think back to the night Enoch and the others showed up to my house with runes. I work to recall which runes Becket said he had. I think it was my maces, but I’m not one hundred percent sure.
“So I can create bodyguards by marking them with a weapon?” I ask Adriel like I’m confused by the concept, but my eyes are locked on Becket’s.
I hope he’s catching what I’m trying to throw his way, but I realize even if he does, I’m not sure if he’ll be able to do anything about it. He hasn’t been training with us. He probably has no idea how to tap into whatever I did to him. I blink, the movement slow, and I tilt to the side, not able to keep my exhaustion at bay a minute longer. My body shuts down against my will, but I swear the last thing I see is Becket shoving the tip of an arrow through Adriel’s neck before my head slams against the black, shiny stone floor.
“Vinna…” a distant voice calls me, and I groan against the intrusion into my peaceful sleep.
“Vinna, can you hear me?” Valen asks again, and I turn toward the sound of it. I grunt in disappointment when I roll over and he’s not right there to cuddle with.
“I miss you,” I tell him sleepily, and I hear him release a relieved sigh.
“We miss you! Tell me you’re ready for us to come get you,” he pleads, and I groan against the ache I’m starting to feel in my body as I drift further away from dreams and sleep and move closer to consciousness.
“Adriel killed Keegan,” I confess to Valen, and I can sense the shock and subsequent sorrow that flashes through Valen, even though he doesn’t immediately say anything.
“How’s Lachlan?” he asks, a hitch in his voice and worry bleeding out of every syllable.
“Shattered,” I tell him resolutely. My chest aches with sadness, and I try to bat away images of Keegan bleeding to death in Lachlan’s arms as they rise to the surface of my mind.
“Fuck,” Valen laments, and I realize I just accidentally shared the image with him. “Shit! Valen I think Siah is still with us—,” I start, but he interrupts me.
“We’re coming, Vinna. Enough is enough.”
“I don’t even know where I am, Valen. We’re underground somewhere, but I couldn’t tell you where.”
“When you wake all the way up, activate your runes on your ring finger, the ones that signal us. We’ll compare it to the tracker we had on the car, and then we’ll get into position around that area. The next time you’re with Adriel, activate those runes again, and we’ll pinpoint where you and he are more specifically and attack. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yeah, if I don’t keep those runes activated for too long, I should be able to manage the pain.”
“Okay, we’re going to start heading your way now, so just hang in there. This will all be over soon.”
“I couldn’t stop him,” I confess, and sorrow bleeds out of me with the admission. “You guys were right. We should have never split up. I thought I could do it alone…” A sob cuts me off.
“I love you, Vinna. We love you. We’re coming for you, and then we’ll end him together.”
Relief floods me and helps drown out the throbbing ache that’s hammering my insides. I start to become more aware of my surroundings, and Valen’s voice gets further away.
“I’m waking up,” I warn him, and a soft echo of, “We love you, we’ll be there soon,” wraps around me before it disappears.
I open my eyes slowly and look around. I’m in a cell, but I can immediately tell it’s not the same one I was in with Lachlan. That cell had stone walls that were darker, but the stone in this cell is tanner and more porous. I test my muscles by trying to sit up, but it hurts and takes too much effort, so I drop back to the cool rock floor.
“Your leech friend told me to give you this as soon as you woke up,” a voice sounds behind me. The distinct pang of metal on rock rings out to my right, and with way too much effort, I turn my head to find a metal canteen.