Page 19 of Burdened Bonds
“Hand her over Barone,” one of them shouts. “And you’ll be rewarded.”
“How much?” I ask.
He mutters a figure. The number has my mind spinning. It’s big, a hell of a lot of zeros all bouncing around. I whistle.
Someone could disappear with that kind of money, sail across the ocean and live in luxury for the rest of their days. They could live like a prince.
“It’s all yours,” he says. “Just hand her over.”
“Nah,” I say, and then I shoot the three of us the hell out of there.
8
Stone
“There weremembers of the Wolves of Night at the academy tonight,” I say, “fighting against us. I found Marcus Lowsky’s dead body right by Rhi’s dorm.”
“Lowsky’s dead?” Azlan asks me.
“Yes,” I say. “And Barone had to be there too.”
Spencer shakes his head in response to my words and my eyes trail over his form. A werebeast? Him? How the fuck did I never spot that? Why the hell did York never tell me?
I look for signs of it now. A hunch to his posture, a wolfish gait to his movement, the hint of wolf about his face. I don’t see any of it. He looks like any normal man – just like the rest of us.
“The men that attacked the academyweren’t from the gangs. They were fighters from the West. I saw them come over the border with my own eyes.”
“And I saw the markings of the Wolves of Night on the bodies of the men I was fighting,” I tell him.
“They must have been fighting in allegiance, together,” Winnie says.
We all turn to look at her.
“You think the Wolves of Night have joined forces with our enemies in the west?” Azlan says. She hesitates, then nods. “Why?”
She shrugs. “Money?”
“Where do you think Barone will have taken her?” Tristan asks. The golden boy isn’t looking so golden anymore. His face is grief stricken, his clothes torn and drenched in blood, his crown of golden hair matted and black with soot.
“Back to the Wolves of Night compound,” Azlan says with more confidence than I feel.
“If they really are working together,” I say, “he may have handed her over to the West.”
Azlan grunts. “Possibly, but we start at the compound. If she’s not there, then …” He trails off.
If the West has her – a girl who can wield crimson magic – a girl fate has bound to four powerful mates – what the hell will they do with her?
“We can cross that bridge when we come to it,” Winnie says in agreement with my friend. “Do you know where the compound is?”
“Yes,” Azlan says. “Out in the wastelands. Not far from where Rhi was living.”
“That’s two days’ drive away!” I say in despair, starting to pace. Two days to reach her! Two days in the hands of that psychopath! “He’s probably torturing her as we speak!”
“We could take my car?” Winnie says.
“Your car?” I say. Has the girl lost the plot? We need to find a way to get there quickly–
“Where is it?” Azlan asks.
