Page 39 of Bound
The last vestige of the daze in my mind vanishes like I torched it under my flames. My eyes spring wide, taking in the smoke swirling in the room, and the huddled figures in the doorway as they fight to get closer through a dome of my fire. The lack of a shadowy creature.
Gods.
I grind my teeth and snuff out my magick. The recoil is fierce, scalding my insides like lava. My neck cords, and I arch against the burn. But no sound slips past my lips.
Horan rushes toward me, his bulk reaching and dragging me to my feet as water rains from the ceiling.
The fire sprinkler system.
Wincing at the ache in my body, I let him lead me out of the room, Amoret’s petite frame tight to my chest.
Red light flashes on my sides. Caine throws his palms back out as we pass, forcing the smoke to remain trapped in the one room by his magick.
Horan shoves me down onto a chair the guard, Ivo, sets near the open kitchen. Vish reaches, as though to take Amoret.
I turn, shielding her. Though there is no reason for it now. Vish is as innocent as she is. And yet … I cannot let her go.
His dark eyes widen, but he nods, his jaw flexing before stepping back.
Amoret coughs again, her too small frame shaking against me.
“Water. Get her water,” I croak.
A clear glass appears moments later, the hand holding it tan and framed by a red sleeve. Wena.
I lift Amoret higher and Wena helps her to drink. Her coughing subsides as her lovely throat works desperately.
“What the fuck was that?” Horan demands.
I peer up at him, fatigue weighing on me. “I don’t know,” I tell him, voice still rough from the smoke. “I heard her call out. When I got to the door, something had her pinned down. Like a dark creature or … something.”
His amber eyes widen. “How? We’ve been guarding the suite. No one could get past all of us.”
“No one did,” Caine calls. From inside the room, the sprinklers still whir. But as he looks at us from over his shoulder, I can see the disgust in his face. The anger. “There is a spell laid into the room. One that triggered the release of a hallucinogen.”
My rage obliterates the fatigue deadening my limbs. “What?”
“It’s subtle. Meant to target Fae and was probably in place before we got here.”
“How do you know that?” I ask, eyes narrowing.
His red eyes flash. “Do Horan or I seem to be freaking the fuck out?” he demands with a glare. I glower right back. “But with your impromptu firestorm inside a penthouse suite, any trace of the chemical used is gone.”
I growl.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” he murmurs, not giving an inch. “We can’t trace it without a sample.”
He’s right, and I know it.
I panicked. Let the insanity of whatever I feel for Amoret cloud my already addled thoughts.
Never before have I reached so fast for my fire. It’s always the last resort. The last thing to be used.
But it was like knowing she could withstand the flames was permission. Permission to give in to the baser instinct still screaming inside me. The one that wants to hide her away from all of this. To shield her with my body. My power.
I peer down at her closed eyes. Her little hands clench deep into my shirt, and there is a shaking in her frame that makes my fire roll through my gut again. I force it down.
Deep, deep down.
