Raised voices neared the pit, entering the space mid-argument. “—send against you four mermen, an entire nation of kits, a witch, a—Austin?”
Austin looked up. Char hovered at the intruder’s back with a bleak look, hands flexed as if he wanted to grab the man but kept stopping himself at the last second. Like the monster on his knees wearing a hoodie from Ireland, the intruder produced a similar disconnect for the opposite reason. A man who should be wearing a hoodie stood dressed in the attire of this world: canvas shirt, dark pants and boots. A sword strapped to his waist.
Honey-blond hair. Dark-brown eyes.
The urge to flee swept through Austin, twinned with stomach-dropping apprehension. Connor’s little stepbrother despised Austin and made no secret of it, and Austin was convinced that this little blighter was the reason Bee and Dew hated him too.
“Laurence.” Austin let none of his trepidation show. “What are you doing here?”
Laurence looked from Austin to the man on his knees, his expression going from surprised to thunderous.
“You’re insane.”
His voice was packed with so much venom that Austin instinctively flinched. Laurence marched forward, glare intensifying. “What are you even trying to achieve with this?What, you’ll—you’ll—” Anger choked his words. “Threaten Connor into getting back together with you, is that it? By kidnapping Nick’s boyfriend?”
“I—what? I have no interest in Connor.”
Laurence scoffed. “Right.Yeah. That’s why you have your creepy friend watching our house. That’s why you go around stalking him. Because you havenointerest.Right.”
Austin’s cheeks grew painfully hot.
Eli stepped in front of Austin, expression as thunderous as Laurence’s.
“A nation of kits? Four mermen? A witch? All I see is a kit on his knees and one weak human.”
He fixed Laurence with a glare that could have scared the bravest of monsters. Laurence’s ire shot to Eli, and it shamed Austin how much relief he felt to have it deflected, even for a second.
Laurence bristled. “I’m not weak. I’m being trained by the best fighter in Aridia!”
Eli’s disdainful gaze slid down Laurence’s body. “I grew up assessing fighters. I know a loser when I see one.”
Laurence’s mouth dropped open. “Loser?” he squeaked.
“Shall we spar, then?” Eli took a challenging step forward. His hand flexed, and Austin realised the silver smudges all over his fingers were scars. “Would you like to prove me wrong?”
Austin caught Eli’s elbow. Laurence’s attention snapped down to that hand, then back to Austin. He seemed to shake off Eli’s challenge with a fleeting glare.
Laurence turned fully to Austin. “Let him go.”
Austin’s heart pounded in his ears. Thought became nearly impossible, and his power surged, ready to attack what threatened him. He couldn’t tamp it down, but he couldn’t stand there mute, either. Everyone was looking at him!
Austin forced his attention to Inx. “Why was he taken?”
Laurence reared back, hands flying to his ears. His eyes went wide in alarm. Eli’s elbow ripped from Austin’s grip with a cry of pain. Reba’s wings billowed up a wall of sand as they flapped in a full-body flinch. Inx rocked back on his heels, wincing, and the Troop members who had finally contained the man released him as they recoiled. The only one not to stir was the man, who, despite his freedom, remained cautiously on his knees.
Austin shrivelled.
Inx recovered first. “Tristan was inquiring about a gift for you.” He fixed a pointedly displeased look on Oran. Inx looked over Laurence, over the man on his knees, and then sighed. “The man has a pendant Tristan wished to gift you.”
Austin looked at the man. A thin silver chain hung from his neck, disappearing beneath his shirt. The man clutched whatever hung from it with a protective fist. Whatever it was, now that Austin was focusing on it, he could feel like the first throb of a headache. It repelled him. And he knew instinctively that the reason the man hadn’t reacted to his voice wasn’t because he was strong like Tristan, but because of what he wore around his neck.
A shield.
A pendant that shielded from the pain Austin caused.
Liam was on his way to the estate.A solution.It was fate. The universe finally throwing some good luck his way. A solution to his impossible problem! Austin trembled as he drew in an excited breath.
“How do you make—”
