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1
Barbie
Clamor and bustle engulfed me. The mage ringleader barked orders. This sorry lot was desperate to leave the scene.
I grinned viciously even though I was bleeding out. “In a hurry, bitches?”
Agony pounded in my veins, which might burst open if this kept going. I couldn’t tell where the pain started and where it ended. Having low tolerance to pain had always been my weakness. And now it became hard to concentrate on even a single thought. Sy was gone, banished or locked somewhere so far away that, for the first time, I could no longer feel her.
Sy! Sy! I screamed and begged for her to answer to no avail. I was utterly alone facing whatever terror waited for me.
The mage ringleader, who was the only magic user in this group, placed her fingers on my wrist and chanted to try to stop my bleeding, but no healing spells could work on me, even when my power was muted. The woman cursed warily. Someone else stepped up and wrapped a roll of bandages around my stump.
They didn’t want me dead, at least not yet.
I gasped at the pain, trying to come up with another exit plan, yet there was none. Wild, panicked thoughts ran amok in my head. Fear iced me over.
They were going to deliver me to my father. What the Shriekers had failed to do, these douchebags might just achieve.
Then I recalled what the ringleader had said maliciously against the iron mask that had swallowed my head. “This is the first trial of the Brides Selection, and you’ll beg for death, Barbie!”
They weren’t Ruin’s agents, yet my fear didn’t lessen a notch. That woman’s threat promised terrible pain. I kicked them. I fought with my one good hand like a caged animal. More hands grabbed me to subdue me, a cold blade slicing into my flesh. I screamed, the sound echoing back to me within the iron mask. My breath was cut short as claustrophobia kicked in. I didn’t do well in such a confined space.
I stopped struggling, realizing it was futile. It’d only hinder my logic and observation. I needed to get a good feel of the enemies’ operation, and then I’d be able to find a narrow window to escape.
I needed to find the crack among my abductors.
I shoved my fear and panic down to the pit of my stomach and locked them there, alone now without Sy.
“We gotta go before the chaos heir gets here!” the mage barked, her voice tense with fear. “Now!”
I wasn’t the only one afraid. I could smell the stench of my enemies’ fear at hearing Killian’s name. I smirked, even though agony bombarded me, even though I’d been locked in the cold darkness within the iron mask.
Killian would avenge me, no matter what, even though we hadn’t parted on good terms. There was no denying that there was a bond between us. I wasn’t a fool. I could see that, underneath his lust and possessiveness, he’d always tried to protect me. What he would do to them would make whatever my abductors did to me pale in comparison.
Of that, I had no doubt.
Find me, Killian! Find me! I shouted out to him silently, hoping somehow it could reach him through time and space.
A foul wind came, summoned by the mage, whipping my exposed skin. Nausea swept over me, icy lead sinking in my stomach as a force hurled me into a damp tunnel.
2
Killian, heir of the House of Chaos
“Where is she?” I roared. “Where is Barbie?”
Wild magic pranced frantically along the boundary of Underhill, responding to Hades’s power, which roared in my blood. The wild magic had once followed Barbie to my house, curious to learn where she lived. It hadn’t interacted with anyone else for centuries, but it’d taken a liking to Barbie. I’d watched, allowing it to survey and weigh the House of Chaos.
Underhill acting in such an antsy manner could only mean one thing—it couldn’t locate Barbie either. My girl was no longer on the academy grounds.
My heart sank under a glacier.
A storm rolled over the sky above the academy. Underhill was upset that Barbie had gone missing. Shadow beasts, its sentinels, howled and wailed from within the dark forest, sending chills racing along my forearms.
The beasts were driven by fear, rage, and Underhill’s command. If they lashed out and came out to hunt, I’d have to contain them, or even slay a few. It would upset Underhill further, but my men’s lives were my responsibility.
My team dashed toward me, flanking me. I could sense their uneasiness, but they held their ground, their weapons drawn.
