Page 37 of Reigning
Kain turns the knob and walks into the room slowly. The white light of the moon casts the space in a pale vision of ancient lavishness. A crimson rug runs the length of the brick flooring. A big four poster bed is painted white, breaking up the bleak darkness of the stone walls with a small amount of flat color.
It’s…oddly nice.
Or maybe I’ve just been in a dungeon for a bit too long.
Probably that second one.
“I think we really should rest as much as we can.” Sinister drifts through the room, running his fingertips along the arch of the fireplace near the door. He studies it for a moment, and with a small tic of his fingers, a fire roars to life from the old logs in the center of it.
Heat crawls through the chilled room and lights up his boyish good looks with a golden hue. The way his inky hair nearly touches his lowered lashes, the set of his shoulders, even the casual way he stands there makes me realize he’s not my laid-back, carefree friend right now.
He’s worried. And tired.
We all are.
But I don’t have time to just sit back and rest. I want to be alone with them and just relax and remember why I love them tonight. I want to feel their bodies against mine and hear the whisper of all the words we haven’t been able to say to each other over the past few days.
But I can’t right now.
“I have to get to the dungeon. I have let those mages in on our plan.”
“What isourplan, Tamer?” There’s no aggression to Rime’s words. There rarely is any more, and it causes me to pause and dissect the hard set of his jaw, the tension in his posture, the pull of his strong arms folded across his chest.
There’s never a thought in my mind to wonder if Rime is mad at me. I just don’t believe he ever is. Even when he hated me at the start. I think life made Rime see the world in dark colors of hate and anger, but there’s so much more than just hate and anger inside him. And he shows that side of himself to me time and time again.
That’s why, when I look at him, I look beneath the constant aggression he always keeps on standby. I look into his frost-kissed eyes and see so much more than what he shows everyone else.
His gaze is gentle. Searching. His gaze skims over my features, and I know he wants nothing more than to wrap me up and take care of this issue in the quickest, most violent way.
And that’s not an option for us.
“The plan is to get enough magic here that we stand a fighting chance against the most powerful mage in the world. I’m not a match for Ellise. No matter how many floppy cocks I conjure, she probably has a bit more impressive magic than I do.”
“I don’t know, that was a lot of flopping…roosters.” Sin passes me a smirk.
Chaos mirrors the humor. Rime and Kain both seem…completely fucking disappointed in this conversation.
“I have to keep expelling her power. Mage magic can literally dry up temporarily if used in abundance. I’ll exhaust her little by little, and then when the time is right, we’ll strike.”
“When the time is right? You have a little over twenty-four hours, Arlow.” Kain’s big hands spread wide, and the exasperated look he has just shoves more anxiety into my chest.
“I know!”
I know.
I have twenty-four hours, and the mages I need are either lost in a snow storm in the middle of Attika or buried in the darkness of the queen’s dungeon. None of whom have really practiced the full extent of their magic indecades.
I know. I know exactly how bad our situation is.
“I have three mages on the way. We have three more imprisoned downstairs. I have three incredibly strong but incredibly moody shifters and one sweet demon. And then we have me, a mage who’s actually considering attacking with roosters and mice instead of actual weapons just to piss Ellise off. All Ireallyneed right now is some fucking optimism. Okay?” My wild eyes match the shrill of my voice, and when I look from one man to the next, they each nod so damn quick I’m just now realizing how crazy I sound.
Damn. Maybe I should take a nap.
“I’m going to sneak downstairs. I’ll be back up soon.”
“You should wait,” the alpha shifter says.
The simple arch of my brow makes Kain take a step back, and he immediately explains.
