“Odette,” Emma whispered, and we went faster. The screeching of a woman in pain rattled our ears. Theo winced, and increased his strides so he was far ahead of us.
As we got closer, the screams formed into words. “Please… stop.”
“Why is this taking so long? You should’ve cracked hours ago!”
“No. Don’t.”
Odette screamed again, but the screams turned into gurgles. They were drowning her.
Theo burst through the doorway, and we weren’t far behind him. Emma gave a rattled sound from her throat as we took in the scene. Odette was bound to a chair by a tank full of water, shaking with sobs as a shifter towered over her.
Odette was much worse for wear than Kiara was. Her hair was drenched, and all of her fingernails were gone. The water that they’d been dunking her in was red with her blood. There were long marks around her neck, like someone had been choking her as they’d attempted to hold her underwater. Her spirit had appeared completely intact in Edinmyre when we’d spoken to her a few hours ago, so I hadn’t been prepared to assess the image of her mangled form once we’d gotten here.
I was so appalled by Odette’s poor appearance that I didn’t realize that I recognized the man who was torturing her. Absolute hatred ran through me at the sight of him. It was Igor— Odette’s ex. I hadn’t realized he’d joined up with Gabby.
I was still too stunned to move, but all Theo felt was pure male instinct. He charged forward, arms outstretched. Igor didn’t have time to summon a spell as Theo body-slammed him against the wall. I heard multiple bones in Igor’s body break as Theo tackled the other alicorn with all the force he could muster.
Theo put his hands around Igor’s neck and squeezed. Igor clutched at Theo’s wrists for a moment, but his attempts to fight back failed as Theo clenched his fingers. With brute strength, Theo broke his neck.
Igor’s body fell to the floor and remained still. Odette gave a great sigh and slumped in her seat. Emma rushed to prop her up.
With the animalistic rage gone, Theo turned away from Igor and fell to his knees before his mate. His fingers shook as he grazed Odette’s face, taking in her injuries. “My love, I’m so sorry I didn’t come sooner.”
“Oh, Theo. I love you, Theo.” A bit of blood leaked out from Odette’s cracked lips. Her eyes lolled as she struggled to remain conscious.
The binds holding Odette weren’t noxite, just ropes. She’d been so weak they hadn’t expected her to use magic to escape. I cut her loose, and Theo caught her before she fell out of the chair.
He stood with Odette cradled in his arms. “Can you make us a portal, Emma?”
“I might be able to—” Emma started, but I cut her off.
“No,” I said. “We already broke down Gabby’s ward. If Emma makes a portal, it’ll alert Gabby that she’s still alive, since she’s the only sorceress strong enough who would be able to create one inside of Dolinska and get around the protective spells here.”
“Odette’s hurt! She needs medical attentionnow!” Theo growled.
“I understand. We’ll move quickly.”
I turned away from Igor’s corpse with a sneer as we left the room. That a shifter had tortured a woman he’d once claimed to care for was an insult to our kind. His remains deserved to rot down here, and be consumed by the rats.
We hurried quickly through the dungeons and back up to the surface. Odette gave soft moans of pain against Theo’s chest before going unconscious.
Just before we exited the trap door, I threw out a hand to stop the others. I became suddenly aware that the sounds of the diversion outside had ceased.
“Fuck,” I growled. They hadn’t been able to hold the soldiers off long enough for us to get out of here. We were on our own.
“Halt!” A deep voice filled the hallway, and we were forced to turn. A dozen soldiers carrying noxite guns marched into the area, blocking us off. They pointed their guns at us, waiting to pull the trigger.
“Surrender now, or we’ll be forced to shoot!” the guards barked.
Theo balked next to me. With Odette in his arms, he couldn’t fight. I stared warily at the noxite guns, trying to decipher how to attack without getting shot full of bullets.
Emma was more than willing to do it for us, though. With one hand, she created a shield to defend us from the bullets, then cast battle magic with the other. She gave a wild yell and fired off an illusion spell without warning. Unseelie magic welled out of her and rushed down the hallway. The rush of black-and-purple smoke wrapped around the bodies of the soldiers, filtering into their mouths. The smoke began suffocating them, and blood ran from their eyes as Emma yanked at their magic, using her Unseelie powers to turn their own illusion magic against them. The soldiers began convulsing, and fell onto the stone in a heap. They clutched at their throats until they died, giving last gasps as the Unseelie smoke streamed from their throats.
Emma dropped her hand with a reserved look of ferocity. I was more than a little terrified of her.
“Well done,” I said. “Now let’s get out of here.”
“I told you I’m tired of people messing with us,” Emma said darkly. “I meant it.”
