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“You monster!” the man screamed. “You—”
“You shouldn’t have come here. That was your mistake.”
There was a squelch, a punch, another slam—too many sounds that didn’t clue her in on who was taking the lead, even while she prayed fervently for Klaus’s safety. When the sounds died, she forced herself to her feet, fist trembling as she prepared for the next punch and tried to ignore the pain radiating everywhere.
A figure jumped out of the fog straight toward her. She punched and sent it flying, then raced forward when she realized it was bigger than the bear. Klaus landed on his back already in human form, eyes closed and unmoving.
“Klaus!”
She flew to his side, patting him awake. There was excruciating silence as she glimpsed the dead, crumpled enemy at the corner of her eye before a cough came and—
“That was a great punch,” Klaus croaked out in approval. “But it needs a bit more force. You should be able to render me unconscious with more practice.”
Sapphire was pretty sure she was gasping for breath when she wrapped him in a tight hug.
Chapter 10
“It was just him and his lover. There’s no one else. She had magic, as I said, and it resembled Gunther’s a lot. I suspect there’s some blood relation there if not just a strong bond.”
Klaus’s words had Sapphire wrinkling her nose as she kept up with his walk. At her insistence, she had accompanied him on his aerial sweep, stubbornly determined to be his second set of eyes and ensure there were no more intruders.
“Great. Two theories: either she was also a daughter, and the son was sleeping with his sister, or Gunther and the son shared a lover. The son had a significant amount of magic too.”
“Hers match better.”
“So, he’s not a legitimate son?”
“I don’t know.”
It was starting to give him a headache, especially knowing how far into the island those two had gotten. The woman had also injured his men before he could stop them, and it chilled him knowing how close she had been to finding the entrance to the underground space. Klaus’s mind swirled with ideas to double the security and install magic-proof locks before Bernard came rushing forward. The man was wet from the rain, sweaty, and dirty from the blood-splotches on his shirt.
“We took the injured men downstairs, and our healers are taking care of them,” Bernard reported. “They all had sprained ankles and lacerations on their legs, but there’s minimal damage to the upper torso. Everyone’s conscious except one.”
“Jacques?”
“Jacques is the one unconscious,” Bernard confirmed. “But they’re stitching him up and his pulse is stable.”
Klaus waved Bernard off and watched the man hurry back underground. The look on Sapphire’s face told him she didn’t like the news, but she didn’t panic. Instead, she was visibly thinking hard.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Gunther’s son said he made you pay,” she said after a while. “Past tense.”
Troubled, he looked down, then noted the shards still in her skin. He growled low in his throat and reached over to remove one, but she abruptly stepped back and shook her head.
“I’ll remove it. I’m still gathering my magic to make it less painful.”
He didn’t like that at all but could tell that she would argue with him endlessly over it. Wanting her to save her energy, he forced himself to redirect his worries.
“I need to check on my men—the ones who were spying on his turf. I need to fly…”
His ears perked. A second later, he was off to the skies without warning, hovering until he spotted the group of people who had just arrived at the shore. He turned to Sapphire.
“The men are here. Call Bernard.”
She didn’t argue, already moving. He flew as swiftly as he could toward the shoreline, making sure to flap and announce his presence. Miko stumbled forward, soot all over his body and arm at a peculiar angle. His other arm carried an unconscious woman. His voice was hoarse.
“I got there last night to assist them and found the island burning. Olga managed to free some of the slaves trapped in a cage, but the rest…”
