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He surged forward; Arkan and I both pushed him behind us and strode into the room like total badasses protecting our damsel.
"This is ridiculous," Taj muttered, stalking behind us.
"Yeah, well so was seeing your insides from the outside," I muttered.
At the same time, Arkan drawled, "You'll cope."
We all went still when that same low, moaning came from deeper in the room. It wasn't sexy moaning; it was the pitiful sound of someone who'd been left to rot in an attic. And oh, look at that, we were in an attic.
"If there's someone's secret wife left to rot here, I'm gonna be so pissed," I muttered, spotting the teddy bear demons gathered around a tall window at the end of the room.
I swear, if we were expected to jump out a window…
Ark asked the Thenawists something, a furrow between his pale brows.
"What are they saying?"
"Nothing," he replied too quickly.
Taj and I fixed him with penetrating glares. It was satisfying as hell to watch Arkan sigh and cave to us. Less satisfying when he said, "This attic is haunted by their queen."
"The seer?" Taj blurted, his big shoulders hunched as he squinted suspiciously at the corners of the room.
I laughed, a little nervous, a little psycho, and spun to the archway we’d come through. Arkan caught me, that bastard, and hauled me back, kissing my head to soothe me.
"I'm not staying in a room with an all-seeing ghost!"
I kicked my legs in the air as Ark spun me back to face the room and—
"What the Hell isthat?"I demanded, staring at the window the Thenawist demons had gathered around. It was tall and arched, and looked out on a vast, stone metropolis that was most definitelynotthe scary grassy cliff outside. "What kind of window is that?"
Taj jerked forward, staring intently. "That's not the cliff around Thena Castle."
"No shit," I muttered, giving Arkan a salty look as he strode across the room, carrying me through the sea of teddy bear demons, thoroughly against my will.
It was annoying that I felt safer in his arms, evenwithan all-knowing, all-seeing ghost queen watching us.
"That," Taj said, with dramatic emphasis, "is Herallan City."
I heaved a great sigh. "So, we really have to jump out the window?"
13
"Iwant it on record that I hate this," I groused when Arkan set me on my feet and I begrudgingly walked past the Thenawists. The teddy bear crowd parted like the red sea.
"Noted," Taj drawled, his hot hand on my lower back to guide me closer to the window. "Just think of X."
"I never stop thinking of him," I replied, trying to ignore the tight pinch of pain in my soul. It was like a bruise, spreading further with every day without him, with every damn hour he spent at Eidolon's mercy. That dream, the pain, and the sudden silence in our bond…
Was there a point in coming to this castle and jumping through the window to the city where Dev hid his sceptre? X was already gone and I knew it, no matter how I lied thatno body was good news.
Taj's hand hooked around my hip and smashed me into his side in a strange hug. If his big, sad eyes were anything to go by, he could sense my utter lack of hope.
"Don't give up," he growled in pure command.
"You don't know what Eidolon's like, the things he can do to a person…"
"You don't know how stubborn and batshit insane X is," he countered, his sad eyes narrowing into a glare. "You're underestimating him; if you survived, so can he."
