“They put him in solitary. Down here,” she said, leading me to a white door I hadn’t noticed. She opened it up, revealing a dark corridor. “There’s another cell back there.”
“Go with Darius. I’ll be right back.” Not wasting another minute, I darted into the cell and down the corridor.
I found the cell at the very end of the hall. It was smaller and dingier than the others, with bars rather than glass, and bare cement walls and flooring that looked like they hadn’t been cleaned since Nixon was in office.
And there, slumped in the center of the floor, sat a man in camouflage pants and a black T-shirt that had been torn to shreds. At the sound of my approach, he lifted his head, revealing a face covered in bruises, his nose clearly broken, a fresh gash carved from his ear to the corner of his mouth.
But then he smiled, and I let out a cry of happiness, drinking in theverywelcome sight of one long-lost, sexy-as-sin, bad-boy smirk and a pair of piercingly beautiful eyes the exact color of the deepest part of the sea.
“Hello, Cupcake,” Asher croaked. “You miss me?”
Thirty-Three
Asher
Gray really was magic. One look at her, and all the fucked-up shit around me disappeared in a blink.
No longer electrified with fae mojo, the bars of my cell pushed open easily, and I stepped out from behind them and took a breath. I knew we weren’t out of the woods yet, but I still felt free. It’d been a long time since I’d seen anything from this side of a cell.
And an even longer time since I’d seen anything as beautiful as her.
“You’re hurt,” she said softly, the spot between her eyebrows wrinkling. Tentatively, she reached up and touched my face. “They really did a number on you.”
I pressed her palm to my cheek, soaking up the feel of her touch. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Tough guy.”
“Me?” I laughed. “You’re the one who made it through the Shadowrealm.”
“Hell, too.”
“Hell… what?” I closed my eyes, shaking my head. “To quote our friendly neighborhood vampire, I seem to have lost the plot.”
At the mention of the vampire, sadness filled her eyes.
“What is it?” I asked, my heart thumping. “Is he—”
“He’s okay. Just… there’s a lot of plot to cover.”
I sensed the weight of her words, the depth of everything that must’ve happened while I’d been locked up in these bullshit prisons.
“And Jonathan?” I asked. “Tell me you blasted that motherfucker into oblivion.”
She shook her head. “I blasted him, all right. Multiple times. And he fell right into my magical realm. Liam is still hunting him. But that’s—”
“More plot,” I said.
Gray nodded. “We should probably stock up on bourbon and tequila on the way home. We have alotof catching up to do.”
Silence came between us, and I took her hands, stroking her soft skin with my thumbs. Just having her near me again, feeling the heat of her skin, my body was already responding, my wounds knitting back together, the force of her healing energy pulsing through my veins.
“When I didn’t see you in that other room,” she said, her voice breaking. “I thought…”
“You thought I’d checked out?” I smiled, pressing my forehead against hers, taking another deep breath of her sweet scent. “Not a chance. You kept me alive in there, Cupcake. You know that, right?”
“I’m glad my magic gave you strength. It—”
“No, not the magic. A thought. One simple thought.” I pulled back and took her face in my hands, trying my damnedest not to tremble. I could seriously drown in those blue eyes. “I couldn’t die in that fucking hole knowing I’d never kiss you again.”
