Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (57 page)

“S
he taught ye magic?” Declan accuses
, like Red betrayed him personally.

“You’
r
e
surprised?” I ask
him. “She’s my soul mate.”

“And our
queen,” Faolan counters
grimly.

“And my
aspire
,” Reed replies
.

Reed, standin’ next to me, looks like he walked through a meat grinder. Pie
ces of flesh and blood cling
to his dark armor, but I can’t see his face ‘cuz it’s co
vered by a
black,
assassin’s hood.

“Da
a
ingeal
,” Declan calls
. “H
ow is it dat ye haven’t killed da o
ther yet?”

“He grows on one,” Reed replies
smoothly.

“Like a callus
?” Declan asks
with a sneer.

“Someth
ing like that,” Reed replies
as
he
starts
stridin’ in an invisible stream of speed at Declan.

W
ith his sword drawn, Reed hefts
it to strike the Gancanagh
in
the hallway, choppin’ through everyone in his path to Red’s former bodyguards. D
eclan, seein’ him comin’, pulls
out a small, jeweled compact from his pocket.

“Ye’ll give her
our regards, won’t ye?” he asks
, before flippin’ open the lid of the compact.

Instantly, Declan
and Faolan distort
, shiftin’ into the mirror
,
li
ke someone flushed them down a
toilet.
The mirror drops
to the floor whe
re th
eir feet had been, and stan
d
s
wide open.

Reed comes to a halt
in front of it, before throwin’ his powerful sword in an uncharacteristic display of anger.
Zee flies
past
me, followin’ Reed
,
and I watch in disbelief as Reed explodes
into a swarm of angry, buzzin’ honeybees.

The swarm hovers
over the mirro
r, circlin’ it in preparation of
follow
in’
the dead guys to their lair. Zep
hyr, reachin’ the mirror, picks it up and snaps it closed before the bees have
a chance to enter it.

“You a
re going to let them taunt you into follow
ing them?” Zephyr angrily asks
the swarm hoverin’ in the air.

The bees morph
in
to the shape of
Reed’s outline,
before
implodin’ into his angel
ic
form again.
Grimly, Reed pulls
the
assassin’s
hood back from his face, revealin’ his
clenched
jaw
while he glares
at Zephyr and
the mirror in his hand. Zee sees
him look at the mirror, so
he crushes
the metal under his fingers
without blinkin’ an eye.

“ZEE!” Reed explodes
with frustration in every line of his demeanor. “That was a direct l
ine to Brennu
s!
” he shouts
, pointin’ his finger at the now useless metal pebble in Zee’s palm.

“And now,
it’s a paperweight,” he replies
. “Since when do we do an
ything on their terms?” he asks
Reed
rationally
.

Reed tenses
.
“I could’ve killed him
—
killed them all
on my terms
!” he shouts
at Ze
e. I haven’t seen Reed this out of
control since Brennus took Evie.

“NO!” Zephyr yells
back
, pointin’ right back at Reed
. “You don’t know what was waiting for you at the other end of this
portal
.”

“The perfect opportunity,” Re
ed replies
heatedly.

“Or your p
erfect demise,” Zephyr counters
coolly.

“What am I
supposed to do now?” Reed asks
Zee
roughly
. “He’s a coward that won’t
face me
.”

“
For now, r
ejoice in this delivera
nce from evil,
”
Zephyr replies in a calm tone
. “Sorin,
Tycho,
El
an—
l
et us
find the re
st of the newly turned Gancanagh
and dispose of them. Evie will be upset if
she sees them.” To Reed he says
, “Stay with Russell and help him protect Anya.”

As Zee walks
away to hunt Gancanagh, Reed reache
s down and picks
up his sword.
Then, he leans
it against
the wall and reluctantly pulls
the blood-smeared, black armor off of him.

“You
okay?”
I ask
Anya, whom I’ve pressed tight
to my side.

She nods
her head solem
nly, not sayin’ a word. I lean down and kiss
her temple lightly, wantin’ to d
o more but not knowin’ how she’ll
react to me kissin’ her lips.

“It is fortunate for me that they were not as interested in me
as they were in Evie,” Anya says
in a soft, shaky voice.

“Huh?”
I mutter
, rattled by the v
ery scent of her skin. It makes
my heart pound h
arder in my chest as my hand runs lightly over the
contours of her soft wings.
The c
rickets in my stomach are
reactin’
wildly
to holdin’ her.
I w
ant to crush her to me now, as
I think
of what could’ve happened to her only minutes ago.

Her hand shakes
as she put
s
it
to
her forehead. “It would have solved two of your problems with o
ne, small solution,” she replies
, pullin’ away from my side. “Lucky
for
me,
they
were not interested in a trade.” She exhales like she has
been holdin’ her breath in dread.

Loo
kin’ at her pale face, there is
fear in her e
yes as she tries
hard to avoid mine
. My eyes narrow
when
what she just said
registers
.

“
You
think—
y
ou
believe
I’d give y
ou
to them if
they agreed to the trade? You
r life
for Evie
’s
?” I a
sk her, afraid that I’m right—
that that is what she believes.

She stumbles
a
way from me on shaky legs, goin’
to where she had dropped her golden bow
. Pickin’ it up, her fingers are stiff and she has
trouble adjustin’ an arrow on it.

“A
re you
gonna answer me?” I ask
her angrily, now completely offend
ed
by what she implied.

She stiffen
s
even more. “I did not know,” she repl
ies
with the numb
voice of someone who just experienced trauma. “I do not know to what lengths
you will
go to be
rid of me.
I am merely the other’s other.”

“AHHH, C’MON!” I say with exasperation while my stomach twists
into knots. “Y
ou
can’t listen to them—
y
ou
can’t
really
believe that I’d give you
to those monsters, Anya!”

Her bow trembles
in her hand as she stammer
s
in a haunted voice,
“I…I was next to you…
liste
ning. I hear what they say to
you…
that you
greedy to want two angels. I close my eyes and I hold my breath because they do not know that you do not want me
—
that I am
nothing to you
,” she breathes
, and a smal
l tear falls
from th
e corner of her eye. Her hand co
me
s swiftly up
to d
ash it away before she continues
. “And this fear—
fear like I do not know before is making me sick
—
ache
.” She holds
her fist against her heart before
finally
lookin’ at my face. “Not fear that they will kill me, but fear that you will betray me and I will welcome their death.”

“I would never
do that,” I say
grimly. “Y
ou
must kn
ow
that I’d never do that to you
.”

More tears fall
from her green eyes
as she looks ‘
round at the bloody walls, appearin’ more afraid than I’ve ever seen her look. “I want…
I need…” she swallows
hard against the obvious lump in her throat.

“Anya,” I say
her name softly, ‘cuz she looks so lost and I did that to her.
I made her afraid of me…and maybe afraid of her love for me.

Som
e
thin’ squeezes
tight in my chest.
But, when I step
closer to her to pull her into my arms,
she backs
away from me. With her
teeth clenched, she raises
her bow, pointin’
it
at me while she continues
to back away from me.

“Anya,” Reed says
her name gently.
“I know it’s very tempting to kill Russell,
but please don’t
. I need him to sniff out
the
portals that the Gancanagh
have stashed all over this
estate.”

Dressed now in just a t-shirt and black, athleti
c
pants, Reed approaches
Anya slowly. Holdin’ his han
d out to her, she weakly lowers her bow, like she ca
n’t hold it
up any longer.

“She has bat
tle-fatigue, Russell,” Reed says
to me
in a low tone. “She’s in shock—
this has to be the first tim
e she’s ever been witness to this
kind of
slaughter
.”

I glance ‘
round at the floor, seein’ body parts everywhere.
The last battle we were in was bad, but this is just plain gory.

My eyes narrow
, not only
‘cuz of what he just said, but ‘cuz Anya just walked into Reed’s open arms, lettin’ him comfort her against his
chest. A low, mean growl rumbles
in my throat, makin’ a smile immediately appear
on Reed’s lips. His hand slips
to Anya’
s back, holdin’ her against him.

“There is nothing like a Throne to
bring just the right amount of k
arma,” he says, when she leans
her
pale
cheek against his shoulder. “I’ve watched you comfort Evie just
like this and felt the same way—
like I could tear your heart out through your back.”

“I
was thinkin’ of just crushin’ you
rs and leavin’
it where I’d found it
,”
I reply
in a salty tone.

His grin widens
. “Yes…karma
,” Reed says
in a knowin’ voice.

He
speaks
softly in Angel to
Anya, but she does
n’t respond.
She looks numb.
Liftin’ her up into his arms
, he tries
not to smile again when
another growl co
me
s from me. Reed walks
the few feet to me. Shiftin’ An
ya into my arms, her head rests against my chest and I try
not to squeeze her too tight.