I continued slashing and swinging at, what I assumed to be, the dead body until an arm wrapped around my neck. With one swift twist, and a sharp snap, I fell to the ground.
Chapter 6
NAAZ
From the time I had left Harley’s room to assist the others, everything seemed to move in slow motion.
I recalled when I entered what appeared to be some kind ofthroneroom, and found Kaiden on top of someone. The absolute animalistic sounds that came from him… He was tearing into the guy—and I meantearing. He didn’t stop even as the body turned to a pool of blood.
But it wasn’t the actualacthe was doing that struck fear into me. It was hiseyes. Whenever he used his shadows, instead of glowing like the rest of ours, black veins would crawl across his eyes and cover the whites of them. That was something we had grown used to. But this time? The darknessappeared to seep into the skin under his eyes, spreading to his cheeks.Thathad never happened before.
I knew I had to do something, and when I looked at Eris, I saw him holding Cain against the wall, and Kaiden’s shadows gripping his neck. We couldn’t risk taking a single eye off of Cain right now. So, I made my way to Kaiden, screaming his name. He couldn’t hear me, though. And if hecould, he wouldn’t have listened. Because above Kaiden hung a large, human-sized bird cage, and it was more horrifying than the scene unfolding before me. Pulling myself together, I finally reached him and did the only other thing I could think of… I snapped his neck.
It only ever lasted a few minutes, and he was alwayspissedwhen he woke, but at least he washimagain… and that’s all that mattered to me. We didn’t have time to lose our control right now. Morrigan was stillmissing, and the very person that had her this entire time was the same person who had also lost her somehow.
The sheets shifted in front of me, and Harley let out a deep groan. Once we had left the tunnels, we made sure to find Harley a room immediately so he could heal and rest. He had been asleep for hours after the priest left.
“Whoa there,” I said quietly, standing to help him sit up. “Just take it easy, old man. The priest did what he could, but you’re still healing.”
“Mor… Morrigan,” he rasped, his voice too frail for the man that had raised the seven of us. “Let me… see her. Get me out of this… gods damned… bed.”
As he tried to push me off, I placed my hand firmly on his shoulder.Great… I’ll have to be the one to tell him. “Just lay back down, and I’ll tell you what we know.”
His blue eyes shot to mine with a blazing glare. “What do you meantell me what you know? Where is?—”
“We don’t know,” I blurted faster thanI expected to.
All the patience in his eyes simmered away, and somehow—within the obvious fatigue and pain that I could see in his face—he found room for anger too. “Where is my daughter, Naaz?”
Hearing that word from him felt far stranger than I had anticipated it would. I could still barely believe it myself. But the more I looked at him, the more of a resemblance I could see. “When we got there, she was gone. That’s all I know. We’ve had guards searching every part of the woods. Shewillbe found.”
His fingers dug into my collar, using the minor strength he had regained to pull our faces closer together. “You can’t let Cain—” A rough, dry cough interrupted his words as he clutched his side. “He can’t have her. Find her, Naaz,” he pleaded.
While the priest’s healing powers were strong, Harley’s injuries were near fatal. He needed time. But with Morrigan still missing, I knew he wouldn’t rest until she stood before him.
“I’ll find her, Harley,” I whispered, removing his hand and forcing him to lay back down. “Wewill find her. I promise.” He settled back in his bed, and I continued to watch him. “Can I… Can I ask you something?”
He grunted his approval.
“How did you and Guinevere meet?”
He turned his face away from me, and I could see the emotion in his tensed jaw. “I knew her as Ernmas, thoughknewmay be a strong word. I had only spent a week with her. We met at a tavern one night when I had visited Kaiden. She was ready to devote herself to the palace and said she had a close friend who was one of the priestesses. A couple of drinks and laughs later, and, well, you can guess the rest.”
“And you never knew that she was?—”
“Pregnant?” He released a painful sigh. “No. She left one morning without even a note to tell me where she had gone. I tried finding her, but quickly realized that the name she had given me was fake.”
Hefinally turned to face me again, but his eyes were hard as stone.
“If Ihadknown, I promise you, I never would have let any of you into her life.”
“I’ll be damned if you think you’re going alone, Kaiden,” I barked at him, stepping into his side.
He scoffed, lifting his nose into the air and shaking his head. “I don’t need a babysitter, Naaz.”
“I share in your anger with the old woman’s deception, and I won’t stop you from doing whatever’s necessary,” I assured him. “But I willnotallow you to scare the rest of the seers into withholding their help. They are the only ones who can find her now.” He lowered his head slowly, dragging his gaze down to mine. “We need them. They’re no use to us dead.”
I could see his jaw tick, but agreement flickered in his black eyes before he cracked his neck and extended an arm. “Iamkilling her, though.”
