I turn the last corner without running into any guards. Another few seconds and I reach the end of the hall where the security room is located. “I’m here.”
The mechanical door slides open, and I quickly step inside. The guard on duty is still slumped on the floor from the tranq dart we shot him with when we arrived.
Dmitri, who’s also in all black, is wearing an entire weapons cache on his body. His armored vest is lined with throwing knives, his belt holds daggers, his broadsword is sheathed at his hip, and he has a total of six handguns—two in the shoulder holster, two at his lower back, and one strapped to each thigh. I showed up with two guns and felt like a severely underdressed prom date.
He allows himself a brief glance at Taryn lying unconscious in my arms. A host of emotions flicker across his face—relief, love, sadness, and rage—before he refocuses on our mission. “Set her down here.” He indicates a place on the floor tucked behind the command console next to an oxygen tank and mask. “This will help rid her of the gas in her system.”
I ease her down, then he places the mask over her nose and mouth and turns the valve on the tank. There’s a low hissing sound as the oxygen flows through the hose. We stay crouched in front of her and stare, anxious for her to wake up. “How long will it take, you think?”
Dmitri doesn’t take his eyes off her, probably for fear she’ll vanish if he does. “Not very. She did not get much of the gas, and the pure oxygen will help her fae blood to process the poison much faster.”
A beep sounds in the room before a disembodied voice comes through the intercom system. “Command, we’re at the prisoner’s quarters, but none of our passkeys are working.”
We look up and meet Garvey’s gaze, an expression on his face that can only be described as mental constipation. I arch a brow in warning. If I choose to utter the words that he’s broken our deal, he’ll be in excruciating pain until he complies again. Turning back to the console, Garvey pushes a button and says, “This is command. Must be a technical glitch. Give me a second to check it out.”
When he releases the button, I give him a feral grin. “Good boy.”
“Fuck you,” he snarls.
“Pass. You’re not my type.”
“Finnian,” Dmitri says earnestly.
I turn my attention to Taryn to see her lavender eyes flutter open and lock onto mine. My next breath is arrested, and an eternity seems to pass in the span of a single heartbeat as a sense of recognition I don’t understand sparks inside me. From the look she’s giving me, I’m not alone, either.
“Moy sever, thank the gods,” Dmitri rasps, his deep voice thick with emotion. The moment is broken as she notices her brother a second before he envelopes her in his embrace.
The intercom beep sounds again. “Command, what the hell’s going on? Any slower and she’ll wake up before we get in there.”
Garvey curses, then responds. “I have to reboot the system. It’ll take a few minutes, so sit tight.”
“For Light’s sake,” the guard grumbles, then sighs. “Whatever, man. Just let us know when it’s up again.”
“Come, sestra,” Dmitri says. “It is time to leave. Are you strong enough to stand?”
“I think so.” Taryn pushes herself to her feet with Dmitri’s help. Once she’s steady, she gives him a reassured nod. “I already feel better just being outside that room. I’m good to go.”
I point one of my guns at Garvey and gesture to the surveillance equipment. “Erase the security footage.”
The captain narrows his green eyes in protest but turns to the console and pushes a single button. “There,” he says. “It’s erased.”
“Good. Now get us out of here.” I keep my eye on him as he moves to the back wall and places his hand on an access panel. It lights up green and a hidden door opens into a tunnel. “After you,” I tell him.
We head into the tunnel, first Garvey, then me, Taryn, and D bringing up the rear. He slams the door shut behind us so we can’t be followed, then we walk briskly down the passageway drilled through the mountain. Our path is lit by dim strip lighting along the rock walls. About a hundred yards out on a slight incline, we finally reach the end. A metal ladder will take us to the surface where we parked my Range Rover.
Dmitri nods at me. “You go first. Let us know when it is clear to follow.”
We discussed this as part of the plan to ensure our reluctant helper doesn’t sabotage us as soon as we get free of the facility. Technically, once Taryn is out, she’s been rescued, and Garvey will be free from the compulsion of the debt contract.
I push past Garvey then climb up the ladder and shove open the trap door you’d have to be right on top of to even notice. Thankfully, it’s only a couple days past the full moon, so there’s plenty of light to see by. Once I’m out, I jog over to my truck and duck into the front seat to retrieve another tranq gun I stashed in the glove box.
I pull my balaclava off and toss it in the back before walking back to the hole. I call out that it’s clear. As Taryn emerges, I reach down to give her a hand up. Seeing my face for the first time, her lavender eyes flare with what appears to be apprehension. She yanks her hand back and takes several steps away like I’m a rattlesnake poised to strike. I want to reassure her, but there’s no time.
Garvey’s head appears above the hole. I pull one of my Berettas loaded with iron-tipped bullets from the back of my waistband and hold that and the tranq gun on him as he gets to his feet. Dmitri follows a second later, then closes the hatch.
“Sorry, but you know we can’t leave you conscious,” I tell him, lowering the Beretta. “We appreciate the help, though, even if you didn’t have much of a choice.”
He narrows his eyes suspiciously. “You’re not going to kill me?”
My upper lip curls. “Unlike you and your king, I don’t kill indiscriminately. But this is your only warning.” Stepping in close, I jam the barrel of my Beretta beneath his chin. “You or your bag-of-dicks boss ever come for her again, and the hell I rain down will make the kind of torture the Dark King was known for feel like a day at the fucking spa. Got it?”
Garvey sneers but holds his hands up in supplication. “Got it.”
“Good.” I take several steps back and point the tranq gun at him again. “I’d say it was a pleasure, but you know how it is with us and lying.” Then I pull the trigger, hitting him in the neck with the dart, and he crumples to the ground in a heap.
Dmitri gives me a wry look of disapproval—he voted for decapitating the general—but nods in acknowledgment that we did what we came here to do. We did it. She’s safe. It’s over. He gathers his sister into his arms and hugs her fiercely before resting his forehead on hers. “It has been so long,” Dmitri says, his voice thick. “Mne ochen’ zhal’, sestra.”
“You don’t need to be sorry. None of this was your fault, and I knew you’d find me.” Turning her head, she sends a sharp glare in my direction. “Though I didn’t expect you to do so while keeping company with the enemy.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Sorry, the what now? Could’ve sworn I just helped save you from the enemy.”
“You’re both my enemies. Dmitri knows I’ve steered clear of both Celestial Courts because neither can be trusted when it’s my mother who issued the worst punishments imaginable for your people. I’m an easy revenge scheme waiting to happen, as evidenced by the last year of my life.”
“I have no intentions on exacting revenge on Queen Aine, no matter how much I wish she hadn’t exiled us.”
She doesn’t seem moved by my statement, but Dmitri throws his support behind me. “I would have aligned with the devil himself if it meant getting you back, sestra, but I trust him. I never would have found you without his help.” He releases her and faces me solemnly. “Thank you, comrade. I will be eternally grateful for all you did to bring Taryn home. I owe you the greatest of debts.”
Dmitri unsheathes one of his daggers and scores a horizontal line across his right wrist, drawing blood, then offers the knife to me. Taryn’s lips part on a gasp. She says his name in clear protest, but Dmitri stops her with a look. I know about the Blood Oath. I also know how rare it is given. It isn’t something that’s offered lightly among their kind, and, to my knowledge, it’s never been offered to anyone outside their kind.
To refuse would be the worst kind of insult, so I take the blade and mimic the cut on my own wrist. He sheathes the dagger and places my left hand over his unbeating heart before placing his in the same spot on my chest. Then we clasp each other’s forearms, lining up wrist to wrist, blood to blood.
“I will help you raze the earth, if you wish it so. This is my Blood Oath to you, Prince Finnian Verran of the Dark Fae,” Dmitri vows. “Kogda ugodno, gde ugodno, chto ugodno.”
Whenever, wherever, whatever.
I grip his arm tightly and nod my understanding, accepting the honor he’s given me. But the faint sounds of echoing shouts from the other side of the mountain tell me our short reprieve is up. They’ve discovered her disappearance. “Time to go, come on.”
As I head to the truck, I can hear Taryn whispering to her brother despite knowing I’d be able to hear their conversation even from a hundred feet away. “Prince Finnian? Fucking hell, Dmitri. It’s not bad enough you involved a Dark, you had to choose one of the godsdamned Kings of Vegas?”
“Do not worry,” he replies. “He is harmless. Kak malen’kiy rebyonok.”
I open the driver’s side door and stop, eyeing him over the roof as he and Taryn round the hood. “Watch who you’re calling a little baby, Romanov. I like you, but my right hook can still knock you into next week.”
He chuckles and opens the passenger door for Taryn. “See? All bark, no bite.”
The sounds of the guards searching for us are getting louder. “Shut up and let’s go.”
I get behind the wheel and start it up, ready to get the hell out of these mountains and put distance between us and the Light Fae.
