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Cursing myself, I jumped into action. Just like in the dream, currents shot through my body when my skin touched hers. Leaning over, I clasped her, palm to palm. As gently as I could manage, I pinned Raven’s hands to either side of her head.
A groundswell of power coursed under my hold. Torrid and violent, it built rapidly. The air grew thick and hot, making it hard to breathe. At first I thought it was Kree’s magic, but she was no longer touching Raven. Fire sizzled into the palm of my right hand, searing my flesh. My soul shuddered, sliding against Raven’s.
“Phalen, get Kree out of here,” Hugo ordered. “Cas back away.”
“What?” I looked up. “You said—”
“Get the fuck back!” he yelled.
I didn’t have time. A blinding cluster of heat and light exploded below me. I was thrown across the room, my skull crashing into the magically reinforced stone wall.
Mate.
Our souls had touched. There was no questioning it now. The female was mine. It was the last thought I had before my brain shorted out.
Chapter 8
Raven
Gasping, I panned all directions, looking for the threat. I was standing on a sizable stainless-steel table. A large, olive-skinned male was rising to his feet down to my right, dressed in the kind of medical garb one would see in the human world. I readied to attack and his hands lifted in surrender. No, not surrender. He was trying to pacify and appear unthreatening.
Where in the Underworld am I?
My mind fired up, memories came back. Ansley Keep. Sersha. Malcolm. Had my father actually come for me?
The male cleared his throat. I threw up a shield, the spell forming a transparent barrier between us. Wait, where were the shackles? Magic flowed freely inside my veins. Oh, how I’d missed it!
“You’re safe,” the male told me.
“Safe’s a relative word, don’t you think?”
“I promise no one here means you any harm.”
“And where, exactly, ishere?”
“Embour. Your father and brother brought you. The Shadow Lord has granted you sanctuary.”
Holy Hecate. I was in the Shadowlands? I searched his dark silver eyes, brushed him with my power, seeking signs of falsehood. I found none.
“Where is my father?”
“Ramming the doors behind you. I assume the others who were assisting me went to notify him you were waking up. The room is soundproof from the outside and I’ve locked us in. He won’t enter until I allow it—or until he blows the roof off.”
“I am done with being locked up. Open the doors.” I let my power pulse, pushing him back a step. “Now!”
“Not until you calm down. You’ve already harmed one of us.”
His head indicated something over my shoulder. Quickly, I glanced back. Another male of similar coloring was crumpled on the ground, face down. Blood was seeping from his ear. My power instinctively brushed his.
My skin heated as my soul pushed towards the felled Shadow. Tiny hairs upon my flesh quilled.
I couldn’t be sure if these males were threats or not, no matter what my body and soul were communicating. My thoughts were still cloudy and I was having trouble reconciling the situation. Still, I hadn’t knowingly harmed the stranger.
“I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
“I know it wasn’t on purpose. You’ve had quite the shock and aren’t completely with it yet. Give it a few minutes and you’ll be thinking more clearly. Plus, I imagine you won’t want your father looking upon you in such a state.”
His pointed look was unsettling. I glanced down at my body. My verynakedbody. Another remembrance stabbed behind my eyes. Bile bubbled up my esophagus. No, I most certainly did not want my father to see my torso. My eyes burned, trying to shake the memory that didn’t want to let go.
