Despite not seeing or hearing anything, my mouth parted when a woman responded. “If you’re going to free my friends, then I’m coming with you.”
“So am I,” a male voice stated, and I recognized it as Callan’s.
From behind the trunk of a large tree, Callan and Luna emerged. The siblings had been hidden from view, but somehow, Ryker knew they were there. I didn’t know if he’d sensed or heard something I’d missed, but he hadn’t seen them as his back had been to them.
Callan and Luna eyed us all as they came closer. Both looked paler than normal, but defiance radiated from them.
“We’re not sitting this out,” Luna stated.
“Then you’ll have to prove you’re worthy of being there. We’ll only take the best with us for this. You’re quiet, I’ll give you that, but I still knew you were there,” Ryker said.
“We’ll prove it,” Callan said. “We trained for the ball.”
“And look at how well the ball turned out,” I said, not because I wanted to hurt them but becausesomeone,besides Ianto, had to realize this was aterribleidea. “They want to do thisbecauseof what happened at that ball.”
A muscle twitched in Luna’s cheek as she glowered at me. “We won’t make the same mistakes twice.”
“You already are!”
Luna’s hostility toward me didn’t lessen as she stopped a few feet away. “Those imprisoned men and women are myfriends. You have no idea what all of us endured at the hands of the earl. If you’re going to rescue them, then we’re coming.”
“No one is going anywhere,” I said. “I understand you want to save your friends—” I looked at Callan and Luna before shifting my attention to Ryker and Tucker. “—and I understand why you want to stop those amsirah from being tortured, and rightly so, but we already have somuchgoing on. We have too much to lose by putting ourselves in danger when we don’t have to.”
And I just lost my mother. I can’t lose you too.
But I bit those words back because the possibility of Ryker dying was like a knife to my heart. I could barely breathe as I stared pleadingly up at him. Hehadto see reason.
“Not you,” Ryker said. “You won’t be putting yourself in danger. It’s best if you stay out of it.”
I gawked at him before releasing a bitter laugh. “Oh, soyouget to put yourself needlessly in jeopardy, but you intend to havemesit on the sidelines while it happens. Absolutely not. If you go through with this, then Iwillbe there, no matter what you say. And there’snothingyou can do to stop me.”
Ryker’s eyes narrowed as I folded my arms across my chest and glared back at him. Callan and Luna stared at us in shock. They probably believed Ryker Locke, the Scourge of the Ghouls, son of the duke, and only known lightning bearer could stop anyone, and he probably could… but he couldn’t stopme.
“I understand why you’re thinking about doing this?—”
Ryker cut me off before I finished speaking. “I’m not thinking about it; itwillhappen.”
CHAPTER NINETY
Ellery
My fingers bitinto my arms before I lowered them to my sides. “I don’t want the prisoners to suffer either. What happened today was… was….”
I had to swallow the lump in my throat as memories of the day overwhelmed me. It took a couple of seconds before I could speak again.
“It wasvile,” I whispered. “It shouldneverbe done to anyone,ever, but if you try to rescue them, you’re putting everything we’ve worked to achieve at risk for immortals you don’t know. Immortals who we might still be able to help if we follow our original plan. We can’t do that if you’re dead or in a dungeon.”
“And how many pieces of themselves will they lose before then?”
The lethal quietness of Ryker’s tone was more frightening than his thunderous wrath. I couldn’t look at him as tears burned my eyes.
“How could you help them if you don’t rescue them?” Callan asked.
Ryker and I didn’t acknowledge his question as Ryker continued speaking. “I don’t care if I know them or not; I’m not leaving them there to suffer.”
“You could be casting thousands uponthousandsof other amsirah into permanent suffering if you are captured or killed.”
The increasing constriction in my chest made my voice take on a shrill pitch at the end. When I spoke again, my voice was calmer but barely more than a whisper.
