Tucker was about to pluck a young boy from the ground when he froze to kneel before him. I couldn’t hear what they said, but the boy started crying before he threw his arms around Tucker’s neck.
Tucker pulled him close and lifted him off the ground. He said something to an older girl, and she took the boy and placed him on a gargoyle’s back. She climbed on behind him. Tucker grasped the boy’s hand and held it until the gargoyle was ready to leave.
When Ryker came to stand beside me, he slid his hand around my waist and pulled me close. “Who is the boy?” I asked.
“Val’s son, Georgie. He was there when the duke killed his mother.”
My hand went to my mouth as the boy disappeared into the tunnel. “How horrible.”
“It was, but look at what you’ve done here. Look at what you’ve given them.”
“Look at what we’ve done. All of us, together. We’ve been working to unite the amsirah, and while we didn’t accomplish it how we’d planned, we are uniting them. None of us worked alone for this.”
“It’s not over yet,” Samael said as he stepped forward to stand on Ryker’s other side. My mouth curled into a sneer before I clamped my lips together. “We’ve succeeded in debilitating the duke by killing the aristocrats and freeing Ryker and these children, but the wrath he’ll unleash on this realm is something that will destroy many.”
“We?” Ryker inquired.
Samael’s smirk grated on every one of my nerves.
“I did free you,” he reminded Ryker. “Without me, she’d still be crippled by your captivity, and so would you.”
“And without me, you’d be dead when this is over,” Ryker told him.
“He still might be,” I muttered.
Samael chuckled. “Bloodthirsty woman, isn’t she?”
“Don’t push me!” I snapped.
“I take it you’re still pissed about me searching your manor.”
His cavalier attitude wasn’t helping with my irritation. “My mother made some of the things you and your men destroyed. You didn’t have to trash our home like you did.”
If he shrugged, I’d kill him.
“No, we didn’t,” he admitted.
For some reason, his honesty irked me too. “Then why did you?”
“Because we could.”
My teeth ground together until I was certain they’d shatter. When lightning flickered across my fingertips, Ryker grasped my forearm. My lightning calmed, but I’d still love to shoot a bolt straight up Samael’s ass.
“He’s an asshole, but he knows this palace better than almost everyone in it,” Ryker said. “We need him.”
“If he doesn’t stab us in the back,” I said.
Samael didn’t look at all perturbed by my words. “It wouldn’t matter if I handed you over to the duke right now. I freed Ryker from his cell; Veni will kill me no matter what I do now, and he won’t make it an easy death. Turning on you wouldn’t save me, so why would I?”
“Because you enjoy the suffering of others.”
“Says who?”
“I saw the look on your face when your goons destroyed our things; you enjoyed our misery.”
He looked like he was about to deny it, but then he sighed. “I carried out my orders.”
“Is that your excuse?”
