Despite the thunder battering my chest, I had done nothing. I had been too scared to be dragged away too soon and lose the chance to see them. Without my voice or even my own face to warn them, I had no time to convince anyone. So I stayed silent and sucked in the energy from my family.
I had no idea how they found me, but they did. And they would again.
Between the alleys, someone yanked my arm and slammed me against the wall.
“Your little stunt cost me valuable resources today, half-breed,” Madden said, his body towering over mine. “Whatever protection I offered you is gone. You will do good to remind me why I am bothering to keep you alive if you’re bad for business.”
He tore the choker off my neck, and the relic obeyed him instantly. Cold rippled over my skin, followed by a rush of heat.
His compulsion sank into my skin like claws. “Why is he here?”
My voice scraped out, hoarse. “I don’t know.”
“You’re useless if you offer nothing.” His lips peeled back. “Why is he here?”
“I…” I ground out. “Don’t. Know.”
For a heartbeat, I imagined spitting in his face, humiliating him. Forcing him to lick the grime at our feet, to taste something as foul as it had been to lick his blood.
His hand snapped around my throat so brutally that I hit the wall. The air left my lungs in a woosh. “You’ll call me Master from now on, filth,” he snarled, “to remind you that in the order of things, you rank below the roaches infesting this town.”
My anger flooded my mouth. “Then ask the roaches to See for you.”
His grip tightened, cutting my air. There was no way to breathe, even as I clawed at his fingers.
“Maybe he got a tip,” Cahir said half-heartedly. “She had no way to pass a message. Not when we only feed her before using her.”
A stream of people came our way, and Madden let me go. I gasped, staggering against the wall. Cahir caught me roughly and pressed me to a wooden door, shielding me from thehumans. I barely registered the glamour settling over me as he snapped the choker around my throat again.
“We split here,” Madden said. “Take her quietly. I will draw their attention. Be quick.”
“Any cargo?” Cahir asked.
My breath stilled.
“Handled,” Madden replied, already striding away, the Scions following his trail.
“Walk,” Cahir ordered once we were alone.
Instead of using the main street, he steered me through an alley. I couldn’t stop myself from searching for familiar faces in the lanes. He was guiding us back to the train station, where we would return to their mansion. To the padded room.
The alleys were packed. Cahir cursed and hauled me behind him, forcing a path through the melee. His grip on my wrist tightened as he dragged me forward, shouldering through the press of bodies.
The sky darkened above the low brick balconies and shuttered windows, dusk gathering with a dull crack of lightning. Thunder rolled, urging the crowd to push harder, crushing us into a single heaving mass.
Too many people. Too many heads.
I stumbled into a man’s back, nearly tripping, while a chorus of complaints flared around us. Thunder answered again, promising rain.
A shoulder wedged between us, blocking my view.
Cahir’s sneer flickered in and out of sight. “Get. Out—”
A violent shove struck him from the side.
I staggered forward, air rushing past me as I braced my hands for the ground. My feet left the alley floor, and everything went dark. Something clamped around me, pinning my arms to my sides.
Cahir’s hand was gone. The crush of bodies and the angry voices drifted away, distant now. My back struck something unyielding. A hand clamped over my mouth, cedarwood rushing through me in a dizzying wave.
