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She has a name, I thought sourly but didn’t dare interrupt.
“Thanks, Thomas. Stay safe out there.”
He nodded once, looked at me, then left the room. Once we were alone, I let out a long breath. “Who’s been taken? Anyone we know?”
Draven paled, then pulled out a handgun. “Take this,” he said, avoiding my question. The gun was small and could easily be concealed up my sleeve. Surely that tiny thing couldn’t do much damage. I turned it over in my palm, one eyebrow raised. “It’s small, but it’ll take down a man,” he assured me, his wary expression steeling.
“Like my mom.” I joked to ease the tension, but I knew what the gun meant. He no longer felt safe here. “Will you be leaving the guild?” I tried to push the anxiety from my voice, but it cracked through at the end.
“I won’t leave your side unless I have to.”
I licked my dry lips, feeling the cracks below the tip of my tongue. The cold, dry air had stolen any moisture from them. “Then why give me this?”
“It’s just a precaution.”
I grabbed his arm, squeezing, begging him to look at me. “Who was taken?”
He looked as if he might faint, an expression I’d never seen on him.
“We’re going to get them back.” He tried to push a lock of my hair back, something he only did when comforting me, and I knocked his hand away.
“Draven?” I asked again as an aching grew in my stomach.
“Your mom. Her codeword is‘Eagle’.”
The world crumbled beneath my feet. “My mom is gone.” I mulled over the words as they shakily left my lips, sending pricks of cold through my body. My mind blanked for a minute as the reality of what happened hit me.
I needed to find her and get her back. She couldn’t be gone. Not my mom.
“Let me out,” I ordered Draven.
“I can’t do that.”
My mouth dried as I tugged at the lock, swearing loudly. “I swear to the gods, Draven, let me out.”
“You can’t help her.”
“She’s my mom! She’s all I have in this world.”
He stood, arms crossed over his broad chest, and watched as I pummeled the steel with my fists.
“I’m not a fucking prisoner here. Let. Me. Go,” I warned, my face heating as beads of sweat formed above my eyebrows.
“No.”
Something snapped inside of me, releasing all the control I had. Without thinking, I pulled the gun on him, my finger trembling over the trigger.
His eyes widened, but he didn’t show anything else in his expression.
“You going to shoot me, Livi?”
A shiver snaked down my back. He rarely ever called me by my nickname, not since we were little in school together. I tightened my grip, sweat slicking against the trigger. “Open the door.”
He looked me up and down, his lips curling inward. “Put the gun down. Before you hurt us both.”
“No. Now open the door or I will shoot you,” I threatened, but he didn’t budge.
“Don’t make me restrain you.” Something in those green eyes told me he would.
