it seemed to be linked to my anger. Linked to the very hatred I could feel burning inside me as if it would soon burst and when it did, I knew exactly where I wanted it aimed at!
So, I rolled to my front, mindful of the blood and once my knees were under me, I got to my feet, looking out to the Harpies below and getting ready to unleash the fury that was building inside me.
I would kill them all!
I started to lift my arms out wide, as if this was all instinct kicking in and knew that it would cause more damage this way. When suddenly I heard a muffled scream just as the Harpy Queen laughed. Then she raised a slender hand, flicking it aside and giving a command for the swarm to separate. I also knew that my time for getting them all was now or never, as I needed them in a large group like this. Because I didn’t know how hard it would be directing this power at any should they decide to take flight and attack me from above.
But then something in me couldn’t seem to go through with it. As though I was being held back and it was a feeling only explained the moment when enough of the Harpies parted, that I knew why.
Because I wasn’t their only prisoner.
And death had not been delivered like I thought it had. Suddenly those fingers in my memory curled back into a fist as those dead milky eyes flickered back to life.
A sight my mind had missed before unconsciousness had taken me.
“Thank the Gods…” I muttered closing my eyes before whispering her name like a prayer that had been answered…
“Nero.”
Chapter Eleven
Back from the Dead
“She’s alive!” I muttered in utter shock at what I was now seeing!
Nero was currently chained to a wooden post like I had been down in the dungeon, only for her it looked as though it was one that was part of some contraption. A large H shaped frame stood over what looked like an old well of some kind, with a large crank at the side which was obviously used to lower and raise the large bucket I could see hanging over the opening.
The relief I felt at seeing her alive was only soured by the sight of how bloody and beaten she was. She definitely looked as if she had seen better days, especially with the way the swarm of Harpies had obviously been toying with her.
I narrowed my eyes at the sight, feeling myself getting angrier by the second at who I considered a friend, tied up and picked at like fucking meat for these bitches! I looked down at my hands seeing the thin streams of red particles snaking from my fingertips. They each looked like some miniature Milky Way amongst the darkening sky that was rolling in from all sides.
It was a power that I knew if I wanted to, I could unleash like a plague, destroying all those it touched by ridding them of their life force, controlling the very blood that ran through their veins! But then one look back at Nero and I was pulling back that dangerous power, knowing that I couldn’t risk it. I didn’t have enough control on it yet…and like I said…whatever ‘it’ was.
No, I needed to know more about this power before just throwing it out there. Because Nero wasn’t like Lucius or the McBain brothers. She didn’t have their strength and means to fight against it. And accidentally killing her just to take them all out wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. No, what I needed to do was be smart and sneaky, if such a thing were possible for my stumbling ass.
So, I decided I would wait until they all slithered their grey asses back underground to sleep, as I had read somewhere they were like bats, only they weren’t nocturnal. They preferred the cover of darkness and slept in large groups, which meant I hoped the moment night started to take hold that they would piss off. Because, like this, with so many of them down there, well, I had no hope of getting Nero out of here. Which was why I lowered back down, leaning my back against part of the wall that hadn’t fallen to ruin.
“Come on and think, Fae!” I snapped at myself banging my head on the back of the stone in my frustration. So, not only did I