Page 387 of Primal Bonds

“Now what?” Adric asked Rosana with a lopsided smile.

“We get the hell out of here.”

“Sounds…like a…plan.” He walked several unsteady feet and sat down hard next to the wolf. He stroked his friend’s fur. “Luc?” When the other shifter didn’t move, Adric looked up at Rosana, a perplexed line between his eyes. “He’s hurt.”

“So are you.”

“Oh.” He touched his head and then stared at the blood on his fingers.

From across the hall, Olivier was shouting for help.

She gripped Adric’s shoulder. “We have to get out of here. The window.”

“’Kay.” He came onto his hands and knees and then just stayed there, staring at the floor as if he’d never seen marble before.

Outside the door, she heard Olivier explaining the situation to Langdon’s guards. There was short silence, and then a loud explosion shook the library.

Hellfire. They were using fae balls.

The door shuddered on its hinges, but the thick wood held. For now.

Rosana crouched next to Adric, trying to lift him up. But he was heavy, with a fada’s extra solid bones. She stifled a sob.

“Adric.” She tugged on his arm. “Get up, damn it. If they find us here, we’re dead.”

“Yeah.” He nodded sagely—and collapsed. She barely managed to catch him before his head hit the marble. She eased him the rest of the way down onto his stomach. He lay still, head turned to the side, blood seeping out of the wound.

“No.” She pressed a fist to her mouth. What was she going to do now?

Next to him, Luc’s eyes fluttered open. He whined and nuzzled Adric’s shoulder.

The door shuddered with a second explosion, and then another.

Bang. Bang.

The hinges shrieked as they started to give.

She lurched into action, grabbing Adric’s wrists and dragged him toward the nearest window. Jerking the blind open, she ran her hands around the sash, frantically searching for a way to open it. But the window was one long oblong of glass with no latch that she could detect.

Giving up, she snatched up the poor, abused raven one last time and swung it as hard as she could at the center of the window. The glass didn’t even crack. Instead, she watched, incredulous, as the statue broke instead, its stone head careening sideways and almost landing on Adric.

The door broke from the wall and crashed to the floor. She tossed the raven’s body aside and whipped out Adric’s dagger. Five night fae stormed into the library. One set a foot on Luc’s neck, stilling his weak, half-conscious movements, while the others surrounded her and the still-unconscious Adric.

She moved in front of him, dagger out. “Stay where you are.”

The man who’d led the charge regarded her with icy eyes. “Where’s the prince?”

“He ’ported out of here. Or whatever you call that disappearing-into-the shadows thing he does.”

The warrior jerked his head at one of his men. “Find Prince Langdon. The rest of you, take these two.”

“Yes, Captain.” The three remaining men closed in on her and Adric.

She bared her teeth. “Come any closer, and I’ll rip your goddamned hearts out.” She knew she wasn’t being rational—she was surrounded, with no way out—but her animal wouldn’t let them get any closer to Adric. Not while he was injured.

The captain swirled his hand, magician-like, and held it, palm up, fingers spread wide. A purple spark appeared in his palm, expanding into an orb of dark, pulsating light.

A fae ball, night-fae style.

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