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I forced myself to breathe in through my nose, hold it a couple of counts, and breathe out through my mouth.
The room was drenched in darkness, and I couldn’t see anything at all. I shivered. I was still naked, with dry blood caked on my hands and legs. It was itchy and uncomfortable on my skin.
At least I wasn’t bound—that counted for something, right?
I crawled across the cold stone floor, feeling with my hands in front of me until I reached a wall.
Magic coursed through the stone wall, and I jerked my hand back.
My captors had hexed the wall. I was being held in a prison of magic.
I curled into a ball and closed my eyes, since I couldn’t see anything, anyway. It was disconcerting to see the darkness; it was better when my eyes were shut.
I flashed on the images of last night. Was it last night? I didn’t think too much time had passed since the monsters had taken me.
The cabin had caught fire, the attack too severe to beat, and we’d made a run for it. Dagger had fought by my side in my room when he’d told me to get out, and he’d run deeper into the house to find Braxton and Uma, to get the hell out of dodge.
I’d gotten out without a problem. As a tiny rabbit, shifting and crawling through the window where the monsters couldn’t see me had worked just fine, and I’d shifted again when I’d gotten close to the perimeter of the property… only to slam up against the magic wall that had kept me inside as a prisoner from the moment I’d arrived at the cabin.
Except, the magic was different. It hadn’t felt like the magic I’d encountered before. It hadn’t been Uma’s magic—the moment I’d slammed up against it and the power had flowed through my body, I’d tasted the darkness. The spell around the property had been different, and I’d known instinctively that I was trapped.
Panic had taken over, and I’d tried and tried and tried to get out, to get to Braxton and Dagger, who I’d seen make it out alive and well.
I hadn’t been able to go to them, and then a monster had grabbed me from behind and dragged me away.
Something had stopped me from shifting. Dark magic had wrapped itself around me, and then everything had gone black.
Now, I was caught in this room, drenched in darkness, waiting to find out what my fate would be. A creak from the door opening intruded my thoughts, and I sat up, my eyes flying open. Light suddenly flooded in from the door, and I squinted, shielding my eyes with my hand for a moment.
Someone walked in, and when I lowered my hand, Cal stood in front of me, his arms folded over his chest, a smirk on his face.
What was he doing here? I’d thought he and Braxton were brothers, on the same side.
“Well, if it isn’t the little rabbit,” he said.
Fear clutched at my throat, and I flashed on the last time Cal and I had been together. If Braxton hadn’t arrived when he had… I shivered, not wanting to think about what the alternative would have been.
“What do you want?” I asked. My voice didn’t sound as small and scared as I felt.
Good.
Cal laughed. “Revenge.”
“What?” I asked.
Cal squatted down in front of me, his elbows on his knees.
“Braxton thinks he’s the gods’ gift to the world, and someone has to knock him down a peg. It’s pretty simple, really. I’m not going to stand here monologuing like a little bitch. I’m just telling you, you’re nothing more than a means to an end.”
I stared at him.
“Here are the facts,” he said, walking away from me.
The moment he turned his back, I shifted and made a run for the open door.
Instead of getting out through the door and on my way to freedom, I slammed up against a wall of dark magic, and it threw me back into the room.
I lay on the floor, dazed. Slowly, I shifted back into human form, and I tried to shake off the stars I saw.
