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I bit my lip. If he would just jump on over here and get me out, then we could talk. Right now, I waited for the assassin to burn her way through my floor. Did elven assassins walk around with flamethrowers? Probably not, but I’m sure she had a magic that would allow her to do it.
“Arcana ride share,” I said.
“Got it,” Maddox said right beside me.
He pulled the phone away from his ear and hung up before winding an arm around my middle. Deathly chill arcana surged through the air. It was met with unnatural heat.
“Cerri!” Rhoan’s voice echoed across the room.
I threw my arms over my face to protect myself as the floor buckled inwards and flames erupted between Rhoan and me. The last thing I saw was his countenance twisted in rage as he rushed towards us.
There was no time to tell him that Maddox was on my side. Rhoan had seen him the other day. I remembered watching Rhoan size Maddox up at the café. Yet, Rhoan wasn’t in a rational state of mind.
“Hands off her!” Rhoan roared.
He leapt across the burning void at Maddox. I tried to shout that Maddox wasn’t the danger, but the fire stole the oxygen from my lips. It plucked the air from my very lungs and left me gasping. I covered my mouth with my hand, but that did nothing to fight off the searing heat.
Maddox tugged me out of the way of both the fire and Rhoan. While I wasn’t literally between the two men, I definitely felt trapped between them in other ways. The elven assassin would weasel her way in if these two started fighting. I would be left on my own all over again.
Her white head breached the newly formed hole in the floor. I leapt into action. Before she could climb all the way up into the room, I darted out from beneath Maddox’s arms. Rushing to Rhoan, I threw myself into his embrace.
“Cerri,” Maddox exclaimed, confused all over again.
The assassin pulled herself up and stood. She took in the two men in the room before turning her attention to me. A smile curled over her face.
The poison.
In my panic, I’d completely forgotten. This whole time it’d been working its way through my system. I couldn’t reach my cauldron. There was no time to brew another antidote. If we went to Rhoan’s trailer, I might steal a few minutes to brew an antidote, but Delphine could rush us and come through the portal all over again.
Adrenaline kept me standing, but it would soon run out. My body would start to fail despite the chemicals rushing through my blood. I turned to Rhoan with an apology on my lips. His eyes were wide. His lips formed a trembling O as he cupped the side of my face.
I gripped the front of his shirt and held on tight. So much for protecting my heart. I didn’t want to leave him yet.
“I came here as fast as I could,” he said. “I left to find a way to protect us. In doing so, I failed you. I never meant for you to be alone. I thought…”
He’d been trying to keep me safe. So few tried to protect me. They all left me to my own devices. I was friends with three of the strongest people I’d ever met. They all seemed to think that I could handle my own problems, as if I was just as strong as them.
I could be.
The thought fluttered through my mind. At first, it didn’t feel like the truth. I was lying to myself. There was no way that I could rival Ness, Vi, or Addie. They were all gifted with divine power. One had even twistedfatein her own favor.
But my arcana grew. It doubled, making my body sun-kissed warm. The way it pressed against the inside of my skin made me rethink my previous assumptions. Greater and greater, it swelled to the point where it bloomed beyond my skin.
The floor curled with plant life. It spread in all directions like a rug being unfurled. It slapped the floor at the assassin’s feet and made her look up with an odd expression. Confusion and laughter mingled on her face.
I had no time for her dismissal. With a flick of my hand, my arcana sprang forth and wound around her. Thick wood, the same that I’d been covering my windows with, wrapped around her like a coffin. It left only her head free. Her eyes went wide.
Shit, why hadn’t I done that in the first place? I’d doubted myself so much that I hadn’t even wanted to try. I’d held back out of fear of failure. Yet, I was capable of so much.
Tired, my knees gave out beneath me. Rhoan caught me with one arm. With his free hand, he flipped the assassin woman the bird. It seemed that there was something between the two of them, something that I didn’t really want to look too closely at.
Rhoan tilted my chin upwards so that I would look at him. A proud smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “You amaze me,” he said quietly.
My heart thumped wildly. Now, why did he have to go and say something like that? Didn’t he know that he was only teasing me? I clung tighter to him because I couldn’t bear to let go yet. Right now, I could pretend that this fae warrior was all mine.
In a way, he was. In many—lustful—ways, he would never be.
Maddox, on the other side of the room, pursed his lips while he looked around. “Well…that was certainly anexperience. Why am I here?”
