Nadi. Nadi.Nadi!
The blade bit deeper. A thin line of warmth trickled down her neck.
And then something hit her like a freight train.
The world spun as she was tackled from the side, the blade flying from her grip and clattering across the concrete floor. She hit the ground hard, the impact driving the air from her lungs, and suddenly the fog in her mind shattered like glass.
Raziel was on top of her, his weight pinning her down, his face inches from hers. His crimson eyes were wild with something she’d never seen in them before.
Fear.
He was shaking her. His words barely able to break through.
“Fight! Fight me!”
“What—” she started, but the words died in her throat as the memories came flooding back. The command.Kill yourself. The absolute certainty that she needed to obey. The way she’d lifted the blade to her own throat without hesitation, without question, without?—
A gunshot cracked through the processing plant.
Raziel jerked, his whole body going rigid above her. For a moment, she thought he’d been shot in the heart—thought this was it, this was how they both died, in this rusted-out hellhole surrounded by enemies. But then he was moving again, hauling her up by the arm and dragging her behind a massive processing vat as more bullets sparked off the metal around them.
“You’re hit,” she gasped, seeing a dark stain spreading across his left arm. The fabric of his already-ruined suit was torn, and beneath it, she could see where the bullet had carved a furrow through his flesh.
“I’ll live.” His voice was tight. Controlled. But she could hear the pain beneath it. “You almost didn’t.”
The reality of what had just happened crashed over her like a wave of ice water. She’d tried to kill herself. She’d wanted to kill herself. And not because his words had dredged up any of the despair or hopelessness or any of the dark thoughts that had plagued her over the years—simply because Raziel had told her to.
“You can control me.” The words came out flat. Dead. “Your power works on me now.”
Raziel’s jaw tightened. He didn’t deny it.
“Since when?” she demanded, her voice rising despite the danger of their situation. “Since when, Raziel?”
“I don’t know.” He peered around the edge of the vat, tracking the movement of their enemies. “It shouldn’t be possible. It’s never been possible. My power doesn’t work on fae?—”
“Well, it clearly does now!” She was shaking, trying to control the volume of her voice. Actually shaking, her hands trembling at her sides in a way she couldn’t contain. All this time, she’d thought she was immune. All this time, she’d believed that no matter how dangerous Raziel was, he couldn’t touch her mind the way he touched humans’. That had been her safety net. Her secret weapon. The one thing that made working with him bearable.
And now it was gone.
Then it hit her. “The—the wedding. I…” Terror sank into her. “I drank your blood.”
For a moment, he stared at her in shock. Gunfire broke their moment of revelation. “We’ll discuss this later,” Raziel said, his voice dropping to a hiss. “Right now, we need to?—”
“Oh, don’t stop on our account!” Lana’s voice rang out across the facility, bright and amused. “This is fascinating. I had no idea your little pet was susceptible to the family gift. Mother would have loved to know that.”
Nabrisi’s deeper voice followed, cold and mocking. “Looks like the bullet found its mark. How does it feel, Serpent? Being on the other end of a hunt for once?”
“I’ve been shot before. And you have poor aim.” Raziel’s tone was casual, almost bored, but Nadi could see the way his injured arm hung at his side. The wound was worse than it should be. Silver, maybe. The Rosovs would know what it took to put down a vampire. “You’ll have to do better than that, Rosov.”
“Oh, we intend to.” Asha’s soft, giggling voice drifted from somewhere to their left. Closer than the others. Flanking them.“The question is whether we take you apart quickly or slowly. I’m rather partial to slowly, myself.”
Nadi forced herself to think past the panic clawing at her chest. They were surrounded. Outgunned. Raziel was wounded, and she had just discovered that her supposed immunity to his power was a lie. But she’d been in bad situations before. She’d survived the slaughter of her family. She’d survived years as an assassin in the metropolis. She’d survived Volencia’s court and Mael’s machinations and being thrown back into the Wild.
She could survive this.
“The Iltanis,” she whispered to Raziel. Panic was taking over. “Where are the fucking Iltanis? They were supposed to?—”
“Not coming.” His voice was grim. “This was always a trap. Kalo and Ebiti sold us out.”
