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We continued on, and the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up and goosebumps covered my arms. The air in the building seemed to be cooling off. Had the doors somewhere been kept open?
“Anyone else think something is off?” Archer again voiced my thoughts.
“Why’s that?” Jeff puffed out. He needed a break. So did my back, legs, and arms. My brother-in-law was heavy, even with Archer helping me carry him.
“We haven’t run into anyone and haven’t heard anything. Even on the way to the library, we had a run-in with Demons and almost another run-in with people leaving the library.” Archer grunted as Jeff’s legs gave out and the two of us were forced to take all the man’s full weight.
“Sorry, guys. I need a minute. Set me down.” We did as Jeff instructed, placing him so his back was against a wall.
Tessa crouched in front of him. “You’re too weak to keep going like this, Jeff. You need help.”
“We can’t stop long.” Jeff’s eyes were heavy as he tried to keep them open. “He’ll find us. We need to move.”
“What happened to him?” Archer knelt beside Tessa as Jeff drifted off to sleep.
Tessa frowned. “We were attacked, and he spent his energy killing the enemy. Then, we were brought here. It’s been one bad situation after the next, and I’m ready to kick someone’s butt.”
“May I help?” Like the others with me, my head whipped to the right to see a man standing in the hallway looking at us with a smile. His hair was blond, and he was tall. His facial features made him very nice to look upon, but the eyes, his eyes were black. They weren’t like a Demon’s. No red pupil could be seen.
“Everyone be prepared to run.” Tessa rose and stood in front of Jeff. “This man, this is the Mindolin.”
“Now, now, now, dear witch. Don’t warn my dinner.” His black eyes locked on mine. He had no white to the eyes, but I could tell they were looking at me as a chill swept up my spine.
The air around me grew colder, and I half expected to see a puff of chilled mist when I breathed, but it might have just been me. My body wouldn’t allow me to control it, so when Tessa warned us all to get behind her—she was the witch, after all—my brain heard one thing and my body did another.
“Brynn!” Archer called after me as I took off running down the hallway.
Footsteps followed me, but I could barely hear them over my own heartbeat and ragged breaths. My nerves were shot. I’d been afraid for too long, and now the reflex to run was too high to push aside. If I died, I’d die running for my life, because I was not anywhere close to being a fighter.
When I rounded a corner at the dead end in the hallway, I went right and took a glance over my shoulder. I screamed and pushed myself harder, my long legs carrying me fast, when the black-eyed Mindolin came into view. A smile covered his face as my heart rate tripled. He was playing with me, like an animal before it kills. Sick.
In the hopes of losing him—my fear-filled mind wasn’t in its correct state of mind at the moment—I turned left at the next hallway. Further down the hallway, with the monster on my tail, I turned right.
The sight that met my eyes brought a whimper out of me, and my legs pushed even harder, not slowing even as a roar sounded behind me, until I crashed into Adam’s giant body. There was noise and other people, but I was now crying and breathing too fast. My body had had enough, and now I was safe, or as safe as I would ever be.
I passed out.
My best friend in the entire world, my wife, my everything, went limp in my arms. The terror on her face as she’d rounded the corner and come running to me down the hallway freaked me out.
My brothers were fighting someone, a someone who vanished in the seconds after Brynn arrived.
“Brynn!” The male voice sounded familiar coming from a different hallway.
“Archer?” Sylee, followed by Carmon, took off running toward the voice while Sophie hustled to my side as I lowered Brynn to the floor.
I cupped her cheek with one hand and kissed her forehead, my eyes squeezing closed. Brynn was here with me. After so long apart, the longest we’d ever been separated, we were together.
“This is your wife, isn’t it?” Sophie asked as she took one of Brynn’s hands in her own. “I’m going to check on her, okay, Adam?”
I nodded. “What’s wrong with her, Sophie?”
The kind healer smiled after a minute while Drew, Jazz, and Chris stood guard around us. Dalton and Grace had followed Carmon and Sylee to give them backup if they needed it.
“Nothing.” Sophie pulled her hand away and smiled at me. “She fainted, probably from fear. Not that I can blame her. Chris thinks the man following her was the Mindolin.”
Ice chilled my body. Being a Fire Elemental, that was a tough one.
“The Mindolin? Why did he leave, then?” I turned the question up to my brothers. Not that they’d have an answer, but maybe they’d have an idea. Now that Brynn was safe, my mind only cared to keep her by me and keep her safe.
