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My stomach knotted as tears forced their way into the corners of my eyes. “You thought I was taken again,” I realized, hating myself more. “We thought Azia would have told you.”
“He’s not with you?”
“No.”
“Astor?”
Fear rippled through me. “He should be in the basement.”
Zach held Anna’s hand, and in the dark shadows of the room, loosed a heavy sigh. “They’re gone. Someone must have taken them, unless Azia…”
“He wouldn’t betray us,” I stated. I wasn’t claircognizant like my mother, who had the gift of strong intuition to guide her. But we all had intuition and I should have listened to mine. “He must’ve been kidnapped.” A sob quaked my lips, and I stepped back.
“Where did you go?”
I chewed on the inside of my lip, glancing at Anna, whose gaze screamed not to tell them. The whole reason we’d waited for them to be gone was so we could sneak away without them knowing.
Erianna said she’d heard Sebastian discussing my future the other night with Zach. He was planning to take me away instead of letting me fight Salenia. She worried he would go too far, out of fear, and force me out of the kingdom. As I looked at Sebastian’s darkening expression, and obsessive glare, I realized she might be right. “We were trying to find out more about Salenia,” I said, which was a half-truth, leaving out the part about using Malum Dominor to help us get to the castle. “On how to kill her.”
“Where?”
“The bookshop,” I lied. “The one we went to. I’ve been practicing from the book he gave me. It’s helped a lot and Azia said there might be more the owner might have left out.”
The muscle in his jaw feathered as I forced an air of calmness into our bond, hating how manipulative I could be.
Then my mind drifted back to Astor and Azia. “Are you sure Astor’s gone?” I asked.
“Yes,” Zach answered instead, snark leaking through his tone. “Unless we hallucinated an empty basement, he definitely isn’t there.”
“Shush!” I snapped, as a faint whimpering sounded from outside the window. Zach poised to fight, and Sebastian tugged me back to him, his possessive hold growing tighter. “I hear something.”
“Don’t,” Sebastian warned as I attempted to move away from him. “We’ll go.”
“It could be Astor, or Azia,” I said, but he wouldn’t let me free. Closing my eyes, I mustered my immortal strength, my magic pulsing under my fingertips as irritation fueled it.
“It’s too dangerous,” he said as I pushed against him.
“Stop!” I shouted, shoving him back as tears streamed down my face. His night blue eyes, the ones I had fallen in love with, filled with torment. I couldn’t stand it; I had to put an end to this.
Anna’s brows raised, and Zach looked from me to Sebastian, his mouth in a tight line as if he knew what was coming. My heart pounded so hard that I could feel it in my throat. I wanted to make him understand that although I understood his fear of losing me again, his need to control everything since we returned here was only pulling us apart. “I understand you to want to shield me from more pain, but if you keep treating me like I’m so easily breakable, then I will—break.”
Pain lanced through our bond, but I clamped down on the sensation, shutting it out. Swiveling my head around, I walked out into the dark hallway, listening as Zach questioned Anna about Erianna’s whereabouts. I reached the back window, peering out into the night, when I spotted a dark shadow.
I focused my attention on the figure inching along a tree at the edge of our garden, a man writhing against the ground, struggling against restraints wrapped around his wrists. Recognizing his tattoos, relief swept through me, and I rushed down the stairs.
“Azia.” I shouted into the darkness. I stumbled through the night, pushing away the cobwebs that brushed against my face from low-hanging branches. The air was thick with the smell of lavender, mixed with wet soil from Anna's flowerbeds.
As I reached Azia, I dropped to my knees, then removed the cloth gag stuffed in his mouth. His eyes widened when he saw me, and he shifted against the ground, trying to get free. On his wrist was a silver bracelet, which I recognized from when I had been held captive. It kept me from using my magic and was enough to keep me in chains—they stopped Azia from fighting back, too. I released him from the rope and touched the bracelet, feeling a searing heat run through my fingertips.
“Don’t bother,” Azia said, then stepped back, his bald head glowing in the moonlight, his intricate tattoos telling a story against his dark skin. “Only the owner can remove it, but I’ll find a way. I just need my herbs.” He raised his hands to his neck and ran his fingers over the raw and inflamed skin, the red welts throbbing under his touch. His jaw twitched as he attempted to suppress the growing rage I could feel as I lowered my barrier. “It was castle guards. They took Astor. They had three sorcerers with them.” He shook his head, as if he was contending with the shock of being overpowered, or that Salenia had recruited so many of our kind. “I tried to stop them…”
“It’s okay,” I muttered as my voice trailed off. I whipped my head around on hearing footsteps, noticing Zach and Anna appeared at the entrance of the garden. My eyes drifted upwards to the flickering light from the second-floor window, where Sebastian peered into the night. As soon as he noticed me safely within the garden, his silhouette faded away and he was gone. “How did they find us?”
“I don’t know,” he mumbled, his voice wavering as if he had rarely uttered those three words before. “But I will find out. Someone had to tell them. I’m just glad you weren’t here.”
I shuddered at the thought. Likely, they’d have killed us on sight, including Sebastian. “But…” My stomach dipped as the realization clawed into me, peaking my anxiety. “If they have Astor, then he will surely tell them I’m alive. Salenia will know I’m not dead.” I brought my hand up to my mouth, covering my mouth.
His silence was all the confirmation I needed.
