“King Grath sent a negotiation party about thirty minutes ago,” Sinister said.
“To Lord Terwyl’s hideout?” I asked, brows furrowed.
“To the King of Felroth,” Sinister amended.
I scoffed, “Their king has nothing to do with Isay’s kidnapping. He is wasting his time and efforts.”
“We’ll take the Alfa Romeo.” Hiko ushered us all in, slipping into the driver seat, saying that if he’ll drive he’ll be taking the blame.
I didn’t complain. I was a bit pissed when Regar claimed the shotgun, but arguing with him would be wasting our time which is why I loaded myself in the back seat, grumbling. Sinister joined me at the back, which cheered me up if only slightly. Invading enemy territory with just the three of us was going to be risky, and having another warrior with us wouldn’t hurt our chances.
As we passed through the portal and headed towards Los Angeles, I tried to connect to Isay again. I also tried to run through the rest of Ferro’s ecos, but if he had the location of the warehouse somewhere memorised, it hadn’t carried over to me.
“Where to, Romeo?” Regar asked, playing with the inbuilt GPS.
“Is there a Butterfield anywhere close by?” I wondered, going back to the street sign I’d gotten a glimpse of.
He nodded. “Gotcha. Twenty minutes from here.”
It was the longest twenty minutes of my life, but the closer we got the stronger my mate bond grew. I knew she was near.
The streets started to look familiar, though I hadn’t been here before. They hadn’t blindfolded Isay, which was a stupid move on their part. Soon, we discarded the navigation and I was giving the directions. A few minutes later, we pulled off by the warehouse I’d gotten a glimpse of.
From outside, it looked abandoned, although several parked SUVs crowded the entrance. The windows from this side were all dark, and a side door was properly barred up with wooden boards. My mate bond told me Isay was inside.
I was burning to get to her. Without waiting for the motor to still, I jumped out of the car and made my way to where the SUVs were parked. A main entrance was likely close by.
The rest of the warriors followed suit, cursing my tight ass. Regar’s words, not mine. I wished he’d stayed in the closet, because I was in no mood to humour him.
Not giving any of them a warning I barged through the door I’d found, leaving them either to hurry the fuck up or lose sight of me.
Three heads perked up from what looked like an office area. They carried no swords. Oh no, their hands went straight for their guns. The first bullet went stray, but the second barely missed my chin. My knife, however, was point on when I sent it flying, and one of the shooters dropped dead.
My backup arrived after I’d stormed the second one and confiscated his gun. Sinister’s throwing star ended the third fae’s very short run for escape.
“Let’s make one thing very straight, Kar,” Hiko growled. “From here on out, we’ll stick together. You will not run off without us. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” I grunted out, not entirely pleased with the verdict.
He nodded, pulled a gun off one of the dead men while I pulled my knife out of the other.
When we entered the hallway outside of the office, I immediately felt the fae in the other rooms. Their life prickling at my senses, their emotions wild after they’d heard the shots. A proof of that was a door at the end of the hallway slamming open with five fae storming out, guns pointed at us.
I didn’t think, just acted, and before anyone could shoot, their life forces were at my fingertips.
I pulled, and all five of them disintegrated. I kept moving, my warriors flanking me. Nobody questioned what I’d just done; we had no time for that, not now.
Down several hallways, I stopped in my tracks. There was a dead end in front of us, but Isay was somewhere to the left of me. We backtracked to another hallway, and I followed my instincts.
She was so close I could feel my heart warming up at her nearness. It also thumped rapidly in my chest trying to break through my flesh to lead the way faster than my feet could carry us. After the initial surge of pain, my ankle was now only throbbing slightly. It was easy to ignore through the anger of finding another dead end. I hated this godforsaken building. I needed to reach her.
“Kar, relax, she’s here somewhere.”
I couldn’t relax no matter what Regar said. He didn’t understand what it was like to be this close to someone you loved, yet so far away.
I rushed back down the hallway we’d come from, running head first into another dispatched fae troop. This group was faster to shoot at us than my newfound ability could kick in, and Hiko sent bullets flying at them until his borrowed gun ran empty, at which point we all resumed with hand-to-hand combat.
I was repeatedly stabbing my knife into one of the bastards, sending blood splattering over my clothes and the floor, when a familiar voice spoke up down the hall.
“If it isn’t the Quaffer.”
I let go of my victim, who was dead seven times over, to face my number one enemy now that Ferro was gloriously dead.
“Lord Terwyl, I can’t say it’s been a pleasure,” I spat with more than an inkling of venom.
He’d taken the potion. I knew it because he looked just as cocky as Ferro had just before I’d drained him anyway. We had guns, we had swords and throwing stars.
He had to be completely bonkers if he thought none of it could hurt him. Or he had to think he was invincible.
The potion didn’t give superpowers. It didn’t hold off bullets. It most certainly didn’t hold off a life fae’s ability to detect ecos without restraint, and once I had my hold on it, it wasn’t difficult to switch to my death touch without actually touching him and draw out a good portion of it. His hair turned silver as his face crumpled up.
Crazed eyes couldn’t comprehend what was happening, but I wanted him to know. I needed him to know before he died what a terrible, terrible mistake he had made.
“I told you not to take what was mine,” I growled just before I drew the rest of his ecos from him.
Chapter 38
SIYA
