Page 123 of Ashes and Lilies
But I couldn’t even ask. An instant later, he’d been dragged back.
“Get the fuck off me!” Finn lashed out, aiming for one of the witches who’d grabbed him, but before he could hit his target, he suddenly stopped.
After a second, I knew why.
“Okay, I get it. Now sit down and shut up,” Daniel said as he kept his gun pointed at me. “Or I’ll shoot her again.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Finn replied. “She’s already bleeding, and you need her for your stupid spell.”
The ground near my knee exploded into splinters, and I screamed, covering my head.
“Don’t test me,” Daniel replied. “I only need her breathing for a little while longer. She’s not going to die from that wound immediately, nor would she from another few. I know exactly where to aim.”
A vice-like grip closed around my arm and pulled me to my feet, and I swayed as my head spun.
“Fine,” Finn said, lowering his chin as he watched Daniel. He didn’t move his gaze even as his hair fell over his eyes and the witches bound his hands behind him with cuffs made the same black material as mine.
“For now,” he told Daniel.
“We should kill him,” one of the lackeys suggested. “Maybe a bullet wouldn’t work, but there are other ways. He’s too much of a risk.”
“I’m not going to let you kill me,” Finn remarked.
Daniel frowned at him. “You would let me do it for her.”
Finn snapped his mouth shut.
“You’re probably right,” Daniel continued, touching his head as he turned his attention back to his crew. “Let’s get it done with and dump him.”
The man who’d made the initial remark nodded and pulled out a knife.
“No!” I struggled against the man holding me and tried to ignore the fire that continued to spread through my chest. “I won’t fight!”
The group froze and looked at me. There was something strange, and familiar, pulling at my ankles, and my wrists were burning as a low vibration radiated from the bindings.
That had been the one thing they’d been concerned about.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“You have to take off these cuffs eventually,” I said, trying to ignore the bile rising in my throat.
“That doesn’t matter. You’re no threat to me right now,” Daniel replied. “You can hardly function.”
My blood was on fire, and my fingers trembled as the pressure increased around my wrists. But with that was a rising sense of urgency. Indignation and possessiveness swelled in my chest. I was supposed to be stronger than this. I had to do something.
I couldn’t let them kill Finn.
That was my job.
“Are you sure about that?” I asked. I didn’t know where these words, this bravery, was coming from; internally, I was quaking, but I leaned into this confidence. The air pulsated in tandem with the flames licking along my shins, and the thin dress wafted around my knees. “You cannot win against me. But if you can promise that he won’t get hurt, I will not fight.”
Finn glowered at me. “Don’t do that. That’s so stupid,” he said. Yet there was curiosity in his expression.
Daniel ignored him and closed the short space between us. Sweat pooled at the back of my neck as the pain got worse, but I bit the inside of my cheek. I had to maintain my composure.
“Fine,” Daniel said finally. “But you have to keep your word,” he added.
“I will,” I told him. Plan C was coming along nicely; hopefully, Finn wouldn’t disappoint.
