Rage and Ruin by Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,129
to pale cheeks, and the shirt he’d worn was shredded and hanging from his shoulders. He’d shifted at some point into his true form and his pupils were still stretched vertically.
“Where...?” The back of my head throbbed, causing me to draw in a shallow breath. “Where am I?”
Zayne’s pale eyes flickered over my face. “You’re at the compound.” He sat next to me on the bed. “When I found you, you wouldn’t...you wouldn’t wake up, and you were bleeding from the head. Bad.” A muscle tensed along his jaw. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay.” I started to reach for said head, but Zayne was fast, gently capturing my hand. “I think.”
“You think?” He gave a small shake of his head and then added quietly, “Your wrists.”
My gaze followed his to bluish and deeper violet marks along my inner wrists. Everything that had happened started to come together. Several emotions spiked—fear and anger churned together, quickly followed by disbelief.
Zayne’s gaze flew to mine. “They look like finger marks.”
Because they were. I stared at them, thoughts still fuzzy. “I fell through the ground into some kind of tunnel.”
“I felt you—through the bond.” He laid my hand on my lap, his fingers lingering on mine for a few seconds. “Panic and anger. I got out of the school as fast as I could, but I didn’t see you. The bond,” he said, placing his hand to his chest. “It led me to you, but it took me too long to find you.”
“I fell into some sort of tunnel,” I told him. “Was I alone when you found me?”
“You were when I reached you.” He rose, voice hardening. “What happened, Trin? The injury to the head could’ve happened in the fall, but not the other bruises.”
I looked down at myself. Holy crap. There were streaks of dried blood on my arms and chest. My shirt was dark and felt damp in areas, either from rain or more blood. How badly was my head injured?
That didn’t matter right now.
I shifted my gaze up, tracking Zayne as he passed beside the bed. As the fuzz cleared from my head and my body, I could feel his anger through the bond, and it was as hot as the sun. “There’s another Trueborn.”
Zayne stopped and then slowly faced me. “What?”
“That’s what was in the tunnel with me. He’s a Trueborn, like me, and I think he’s been what I’ve been feeling. That weird coldness and feeling of being watched? I think it’s him.” My focus shifted to my wrists. “A Trueborn is the Harbinger.”
Shock splashed over his face and through the bond. “You’re the only one.”
I laughed and then winced as that made my head hurt. “Yeah, apparently I’m not.”
Zayne was immediately at my side, concern pinching his features. It was strange to see him so concerned after days of being standoffish or annoyed with me.
“It makes sense,” I said once my head stopped feeling like a cracked egg. “It explains why the Harbinger hasn’t been sensed by Wardens, and a Trueborn can take out a Warden or an Upper Level demon. It doesn’t explain the video feed interference, but I saw his grace. He has a spear like my sword, and he was fast.” I paused. “And he sounded like he was from the South.”
“Did he say anything?”
“Nothing of real value.” I closed my eyes. “You didn’t see him?”
“I didn’t hear or see anyone but you.” A moment later I felt his fingers graze my cheek. He scooped up a strand of my hair, brushing it back from my face. “And you were gone maybe twenty minutes.”
“I think he... I don’t know. He could’ve killed me after he knocked me out, but he didn’t. If you didn’t run him off, then...”
“Then this was a message. He was finally showing himself.”
I opened my eyes and saw that Zayne’s expression was downright murderous. What I was about to say wasn’t going to help. “He was at the school, watching us. I saw him on the lawn. I didn’t know what he was when I started toward him, and then the ground just gave out.”
“I’m sure that wasn’t a coincidence.” Zayne’s gaze met mine. “He wanted you down there, alone.”
That couldn’t be argued. “We need to get back there. Like now. There were things written on those walls, and he could still be there—”
“We’re not going anywhere right now.”
“I’m fine. Look.” I lifted my arms. “I’m okay.”
“Trin, you have been unconscious for nearly an hour—”