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“No!” I wrenched out. “I can shut this down. I just need time. If she has to cast an actual spell, that’ll bring them right here. That’s what they want.”
That might even be why they were doing it in the first place. Trying to provoke her into using magic that would reveal where we were. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Gabriel—”
“Don’t you dare,” I gritted out. “I’m going to see where this is taking me, and maybe it’ll wear off in another minute or two. And if it doesn’t, I’ll figure out how to break it.”
Ky hesitated and then scrambled off the bed. “Fine. I won’t get her involved yet. But I’m coming with you.”
I couldn’t exactly stop him. I couldn’t even stop myself. I gave in to the urge for a moment to give myself a chance to gather strength and consider my options. My hand rose to the door knob and opened it. I ambled out into the hall, Ky right behind me.
I half-expected my legs to carry me toward Rose’s room, but of course that wouldn’t make sense. Whoever was sending this magic at us didn’t know where she was. So where did they want me to go? Were they going to try to walk me across the country to wherever that magical decoy of hers had led them to?
The impulse told me to get out of the building. I moved toward the elevators. With each step I tested how difficult it would be to change direction, to stop completely. Every time I tried to exert control over my muscles, the magic shoved me harder.
Shit. I couldn’t let them ruin this brief respite we’d found. We weren’t ready to face them again.
Kyler obviously wasn’t affected at all anymore. Whatever power Rose was able to channel through their consort bond had shielded him completely now. He watched me, his expression worried, as he kept pace with me to the elevators.
“Are you sure—”
“Yes,” I snapped, the lack of control fraying my temper. “I’ll tell you if I need help. Maybe—maybe if you just distract me from the impulse. Talk about something that’ll get my thoughts going in a different direction.” Maybe then I’d be able to break this hold.
“A different direction,” Ky murmured to himself as the elevator arrived. Thankfully it was empty. I automatically reached for the button that would take us to the lobby.
“Rose,” he said. “You want to talk about her? She’s plenty distracting.” He grinned a little tightly, his gaze still anxious as it lingered on my face. “Do you remember that time when we were kids and someone had the bright idea of going to the apple orchard after that thunderstorm? The whole place was a mud slick. We practically skated on the stuff—until we’d all fallen down at least ten times and there was as much mud on us as the ground.”
I did remember: the earthy, gritty flavor that had worked itself even into my mouth, the giggles carrying between the trees, Rose’s dark green eyes lit with a brilliant light amid the dirt streaked all over her face. Her amusement had faltered for a few minutes when she’d thought about going back in the house looking like that, but the weather had come to rescue us, dumping another heaving of cool rain all over us and washing us clean.
I tried to focus on that impression of water rushing over my skin, as if it could carry away the magic compelling me now. Resistance shivered through my muscles. The elevator dinged as it reached its destination.
My legs balked—but only for a couple seconds. Then, with an ache that spread up from my knees, they jerked forward.
I looked up at the glass doors that separated the elevator alcove from the main lobby, and a new urge tickled up my throat. I clamped my lips tight against it, but it didn’t leave.
Oh, no. Understanding hit me. They weren’t going to make me come all the way to them. They just wanted me in a public enough place where I could shout and make a scene, do who knew what crazy things, so they’d hear about it.
Panic flashed through my body. My fingers closed around the door handle. I clenched my jaw. I let my arm push the door open, and then I gripped the door frame and yanked the handle back with every shred of control I could summon.
The door slammed back into the frame—and into my other hand. Pain splintered through my nerves. I gasped with it, staggering.
“Gabriel!”
A couple people in the lobby had turned to look. I propelled myself back toward the elevators, pain still radiating up my arm in pulsing shards. A metallic taste trickled through my mouth—I’d bitten my tongue.
But I came to a stop at the elevators without being driven back. The outside impulses had faded. I’d managed to sever that magical hold after all.
Ky had lifted his phone. I grabbed his wrist with my good hand.
“No,” I rasped. “I’m okay now. I stopped it. See? We can go back to the room now.”
He gazed at me for a long moment before he lowered his arm. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.” I held up the hand I’d bashed. It was already red with burst blood vessels under the skin. Fuck, it hurt, but I’d never welcomed pain more. “I showed them they can’t use me like a puppet.”
We got back on the elevator, and I sagged back against the wall. My body felt as exhausted as if the magic had wrung me out like a towel. Ky shifted his weight from foot to foot beside me as the elevator ascended.
“That impulse to come down here—it only grabbedyou,” he said, and then his expression shuttered. “Oh.”
