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Valanga’s words echoed in my mind as we hurried to find the others - we are not our ancestors. I was not Merden, and my people would judge me by my own actions.
CHAPTER THREE
KANA
By the time Blaise and I found the wolves, they’d ripped through a fair amount of the attacking gobbelins.
The wolves’ claws and bulky, muscular bodies made it easy for them to leap onto the gobbelins, knocking them down and tearing through their thick, greenish black skin without the danger of ingesting the sludgy, toxic blood.
Still, there were plenty of the creatures to go around, and just like in the maze, it seemed as though they kept respawning. Blaise and I quickly fell into a herding pattern, using our vampire speed and the heavy weapons we’d grabbed to push the gobbelins toward a central area. And that was where the wolves pounced, hemming them in from all sides and doing maximum damage.
Iridescent, foul-smelling gobbelin blood ran deep in the grooves between the cobblestones.
“Your fae is here,” Blaise called, and I glanced over to see Rush had joined the fight, twisting up vines from the landscaped areas and spearing branches through the chests of gobbelins with that feral fae cry I loved so much. I darted closer to him, returning his ferocious grin. There was no need for him to hide as Monsieur Saint Laurent now, and his pointed ears and forest green skin were beautiful to me as his muscles twisted and flexed.
Although, maybe his skin was a little too similar to the gobbelins’ for a quick and dirty fight.
I snarled at a wolf who’d taken a swipe at Rush, mistaking him for one of the nasty creatures.
“Maybe a little glamor wouldn’t hurt,” I called, winking at my fae.
He chuckled and the glamor of Saint Laurent glided down his form, fastidious suit and all.
“Glamor can never hide your traitor skin, Torrence,” a tall gobbelin shouted, lunging for us. I whirled and leaped, catching the brute in the neck with my sword and chopping his head clean away.
Another came at us, and I barely had time to shove Rush to the side and tackle the gobbelin. My fae was shaken - frozen in place by the gobbelin’s words - and I worked like a whirlwind to clear a path. Finally, I wrapped an arm around Rush’s middle and dragged him back to the safer sidelines of the fight.
When our backs were to the wall and the wolves had cornered the remainder of the gobbelins, I turned to Rush.
“What is it? What’s Torrence?” I asked, recalling what the gobbelin had said. I knew the fae rode horse-like animals called torrents... but that wouldn’t explain Rush’s pale face and wide eyes.
“Who,” he managed after a long moment, his voice rasping. “Torrence. He’s... was... my brother. My twin brother,” Rush said, forcing out the words as though their existence was painful.
A heavy beat of silence settled between us as I absorbed the information, while the screams and clashes of metal continued in the background, sounding tinny and faraway.
“And how did that gobbelin know him?” I asked finally, not sure I wanted the answer.
“I don’t know, love. He’s been dead for many, many years.” Rush had regained control, and his features were now a mask of hard refusal. Whatever else was left to this mystery, I wasn’t getting it out of him today.
“Did you look alike?” I asked instead, and my fae only nodded curtly. Twins were rare in Haret, except in the shifterraces. I wondered if his brother had shared the same energy magic. None of it made sense, though. Rush wasn’t old enough to have a twin who knew the gobbelins before they were frozen in ice - that was generations ago.
Rush pushed off the wall and leaped back into the remainder of the fight, his energy more feral than ever. This had rattled him to his bones, and he fought like a man with something to prove. Joining him, I kept silent as we helped Blaise and the wolves kill every last gobbelin who dared show their face.
“There will be more. This was likely only a scouting party,” Valanga warned everyone as we dragged the stinking bodies into a pile for burning. We couldn’t have contaminated blood running in the city streets, on top of everything else.
“There have to be at least a hundred here,” one of the wolves grumbled, kicking at a headless body.
“There could be thousands more,” Rush snapped, bending to close the lifeless eyes of an unlucky wolf. His golden and turquoise eyes were molten, and his glamor had begun to slip again.
“You’re tired. Let’s go back to my rooms,” I said under my breath. He looked away in frustration, but he followed me when I slipped away. Blaise had already begun working side-by-side with Valanga, cleaning up the mess and directing others to help the wounded. I didn’t have to be involved in every detail.
My fae needed me, and I needed to understand more about what had happened to Torrence.
“Ask your questions,” Rush said as I locked the door to my rooms behind us. The words were bitter, though I could feel that his anger wasn’t meant for me. “Tell me what I must do to clear my name again. That’s all that matters,” he added softly, meeting my eyes with an expression of deep worry.
He thought the gobbelin’s words would come between us, casting suspicion again that he’d had a role in their rising. Butthat didn’t feel right to me. There was a snarl in history here, something to unravel. But I felt in the thump of my heartbeat that Rush wasn’t the one to blame. He would have told me before. He wasn’t hiding things, surely.
I crossed the room quickly, taking his hands between mine. “I still trust you, Rush. Just tell me what you can.”
