Page 109 of Heartsong
The man, a burly guy with an earpiece who could’ve passed for Secret Service, handed over the phone ripped away from Anna in the scuffle. She was more than a little proud to see the bite mark she’d left behind not just in his glove but the meat of his thumb, too.
Hemmed in like this, captured and held prisoner, she felt more than a little feral. Biting wasn’t off the table.
Her head throbbed with a headache and fear, eyes straining to take in every detail—the characteristics of all the men, what Glendower said and did, where they drove to.
Glendower’s signet ring glinted in the late-afternoon light as he poked at her phone screen. After a moment of trying, he sighed and asked, “The passcode?”
Anna said nothing.
Unimpressed, he said, “I applaud your bravery, but save it for now, Miss Anna. Let’s get off to the right start.”
Anna still said nothing.
The man on her right, slightly smaller than the other, huffed and in two quick movements drew and cocked a gun. The cold barrel dug into her temple. “Tell him what he wants,” growled the guard.
She went very still, body gone stiff at the sight of the weapon. Her stomach churned, and the air in the SUV grew thick. The desire to tell him the passcode teased at her lips, but Anna bit her cheek and remained silent.
The guard pressed the gun harder to her head, making her eyes water. Her breaths came in panicked bursts, but she told herself they wouldn’t do it.If they wanted to kill you, they would’ve already. They need you for something.
When menacing her didn’t work, Glendower simply waved off the guard. “Enough of that.” His gaze turned to her again, all veneer of pleasantry gone; a cold man stared at her, and she knew right then that her life meant nothing to him. Whatever he wanted, whatever his game was, Anna was a means to an end.
But she didn’t intend to make it easy for him. Yeah, she was scared as fuck, but she was also so,so angry.
Her mouth stayed shut, though she hoped her murderous gaze was enough of afuck you.
“I suppose it’s time to show you a little of what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
One finger of his free hand flicked up, and Anna’s whole body shuddered when a cold sensation slithered up her chest. A phantom touch, it wound around her neck in silky coils, squeezing her throat.
She clawed and grasped with her bound hands at her own neck, but there was nothing to grab. Her fingers met only empty space as that cold sensation applied increasing pressure to her neck.
Through bulging eyes, she watched as Glendower’s finger made slow circles. Circles that grew ever smaller.
“I’m interested in how much the creature has told you of his kind—and the ones who made them.”
The invisible binds cut the air off from her lungs completely, and Anna gasped uselessly. She flailed in the seat, the men on either side watching on.
“Everyone sought to destroy us and our power. They thought they could slaughter us and take what was ours. But the old ways aren’t dead, Miss Anna.Fe godwn ni eto.”
The pressure suddenly vanished, leaving Anna gasping and coughing. She sucked in air, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her throat burned, her vision wobbled, and it took everything in her not to buckle under the terror. That righteous anger faltered, and for one horrible moment, Anna teetered on the edge of bursting into tears.
“Magick cannot be killed, you see. Only forgotten. Not all of us have forgotten.” His thin lips pulled back in an eerie, empty smile. “Passcode, please.”
Stay alive,instinct told her.Live to fight another battle.
Glaring at him from under her lashes, Anna croaked the four-digit passcode.
“Excellent. Thank you.”
Glendower focused on her phone, tapping at the screen and ignoring her as she wheezed and struggled to fill her lungs. Harder was wrapping her brain around just getting choked with fuckingmagick.
The magick-wielding professor who apparently had his own little unit of shady mob-types spent a few minutes scrolling through her text messages, particularly those with Frey’s phone. She’d named the thread inconspicuously asBFF(boyfriend Frey), but that didn’t seem to fool Glendower.
His fair brows rose into a saucy arch as he read the thread, which was in large part steamy sexts mostly from her, but Anna refused to blush.
“Racy stuff,” was his comment, throwing Anna a grin. He lowered the phone to look her over, his gaze assessing. “I had my doubts at first, but you are most certainly his heartsong. You woke him from the stone sleep.”
Anna’s heart thumped so loudly in her chest, everyone in the SUV had to have heard.
