Page 382 of Primal Bonds

He blew out a breath, took a cautious step forward. It was darker in here—too dark—the weak sunlight barely penetrating the forest canopy. Something rustled behind him. He spun around, but nothing was there. Then it was in front of him, although he still couldn’t see anything.

Until he realized the shadows themselves had come alive.

They blotted out the sky, slithered over the vine-covered buildings, morphed into nightmarish creatures that grew larger until they loomed over him and Luc before dissolving, only to reappear somewhere else. The worst were the faces, their eyes wide, their mouths stretched into predatory howls—or worse, smiles.

It was the Darktime amped up ten times over.

Breathe. Stay calm. Think of something good, something that makes you happy. Making love to Rosana, or playing soccer with the cubs.

Then it got worse. Magic shivered over Adric’s skin…black, cold magic.

His nape tightened. Memories pricked his skin like sharp, painful darts.

Luc hadn’t been the only one tortured to feed the night fae’s craving for negative emotions. After he and Marjani had sprung Luc, Leron had finally captured them. They’d been lucky, though. His uncle had only let the beatings and torture go on for a few days, because he still had a use for them.

Marjani, he hadn’t touched at all. No, she’d been chained to the wall, forced to watch as Adric took the beatings for them both.

When he’d deemed them sufficiently broken, he’d had them brought to him. Adric had been told he was leaving the country to fight as a mercenary for the fae, and Marjani had been ordered to whore herself to Jumar.

It was Leron Savonett’s final mistake.

Adric’s knees locked. Caught in the dark memories, he couldn’t make himself continue moving forward.

Beside him, Luc seemed unaffected, probably because unlike Adric, he had permission to be here. He continued forward alone until he realized Adric was no longer following. Turning his head, he yipped a question.

“Right behind you.” Adric steeled himself to walk into the nightmarish shadows. For Rosana, he’d enter Hades itself.

Luc sniffed the air and then aimed for Langdon’s lair.

The shadows sucked at Adric, but the darkness lessened. His whole body slumped in relief.

Time to hide.

Adric removed Luc’s boots and hid them under a bush. Then he touched his quartz, drawing energy from the tiny crystals to cloak himself. But he’d have to be careful—the energy drain was tremendous. He had fifteen minutes, maybe less, before the crystals ran out of power.

Luc swung his head from side to side, nostrils flared, clearly wondering where Adric had gone. Then he must’ve picked up Adric’s scent because he gave a wolfy shrug and turned down a path of smooth white pebbles.

This time, when the darkness sucked at him, Adric twisted his fingers through Luc’s ruff, and as he’d hoped, whatever protected the wolf spread to him as well. Together, they followed the path through the trees and around the still black pond.

The entrance to Langdon’s lair was down a short flight of granite steps. Ivy spilled down either side of the tall door, a dark, polished wood with a triple moon carved into the top.

He stilled, inhaled. Lady Blaer had come this way.

And even though he couldn’t scent Rosana, she was also nearby. He knew it with the same certainty that he knew the location of each of his clan members at any given moment.

“You go first,” he told Luc in an undertone. “Distract the prince so I can get Rosana out. And Luc? If someone asks, you’ll say you never saw me. That’s an order.”

The wolf’s head swung up and down.

Adric tried the door handle. He wasn’t surprised when it moved—Langdon had little to fear in his own compound. But as the door swung open on silent hinges, uneasiness crept up his spine.

This had been too damn easy.

Rosana’s warning played in his head. Was he walking into a trap?

He can’t see you. He doesn’t know you’re here.

The foyer stretched two stories up, and was completely empty except for an extravagant arrangement of white flowers in a large black bowl.

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