by T. F. Walsh
Gaige didn’t twitch or react to the touch, though the broker’s arm trembled. The physical shakes engulfed his body, even his teeth chattered. And not a smidgen of deception fluttered through me.
In a sudden jolt, an invisible wave slammed into me, shoving me back into the couch. “Whoa.”
Axel’s eyes narrowed in my direction. Seemed no one else had been affected. What the hell was that?
The broker studied me. “You felt it, didn’t you? We’re connected to Princess Kutia’s energy. She must have blessed you, too.”
Someone cleared their throat, and I turned my head toward Axel, who smirked. Whatever… but then again, a week ago, I would have laughed if anyone told me vulsines existed in our world. Or that the council had lied to everyone about when they would awaken the princess. So stranger things were possible.
The broker fisted Gaige’s shirt and lifted him to his feet. “Welcome home, binding partner.”
Gaige head-butted the broker who stumbled into a wall, releasing his hold. But in a flash, a guard crash tackled Gaige, both hitting the ground with a thud.
I cringed… bad move for the hit man. He wasn’t getting out of here. And the chill that crept down my spine reminded me we weren’t free yet, either. Why hadn’t we discussed our plans before waltzing in here, especially with one of my arms out of action?
“Take him to his room,” the broker boomed and wiped his bloody lip.
Two men dragged the thrashing assassin by one leg across the wooden floor, his mumbles lost in the mouth gag. They vanished down the corridor, and the urgency to get out of the house and fast, played on my mind.
I exchanged a quick glance with Axel, and the hardness in his gaze told me he shared my view.
A loud clap had me snapping around to find the broker plonking himself down on the coffee table, facing Axel. “You’re first up, boy.”
Axel didn’t respond when the broker leaned closer and laid a hand on his brow. If this was real, we had to lock up the broker. Bad enough he was a gang lord, but shit, he held enormous power. More than anyone ought to as he could undo everything the leaders had instilled with the introduction of the binding.
A thrust of energy ripped into me once again, this time swarming my flesh. I gasped for air, pressed into my seat, hugged by the leather sofa.
“You son of a bitch,” the broker howled. And that alone had me scrambling to my feet, grasping my knife.
“Sit down, girl. Now!” he said. When three guards approached, I listened.
“Axel. I can’t tell you how often I’ve wondered if I would ever cross paths with someone like you. A person linked to a fae council member. This is miraculous.” The broker’s wide-mouthed smile left me curious that he found this amusing. “And shit… They’re located north of Saint Petersburg in Orekhovo.” His eyes lit up, and he lowered his hand from Axel’s head.
Hell, he didn’t even require blood to track down the location. But that didn’t compare to the lack of my deception radar going off. Was this fucking real? He gawked at Axel as if he were an opened treasure chest.
The urgency to discover the truth about my own match left me bouncing my knees. I inched to the corner of the sofa, my insides jittering.
“Are you certain?” Axel’s cheeks had whitened several shades. Sure, being linked to one of the figureheads of Kutia Hollow sucked balls because, with the news out in the open, his normal life ended. Every man and his vlko would want to ransom his ass. Except, we were in the house of the broker. I somehow doubted the bastard would allow us to leave… not when he’d just discovered a way to influence the leaders of our world, get a foot in the door, and expand his reach and power.
“It’s what you wanted to hear, no?” The broker kept staring at Axel with a hungry appetite in his gaze.
“Okay. Well then, we better leave, Axel.” I shot him a long glance, and he was on board because he’d already scooted to the edge of his seat.
“Good idea. Thanks for the reading,” Axel said.
The broker seized his arm, squeezing, but Axel didn’t react. “You’re being rude. I promised to reveal blondie’s partner, too. And I’m damn curious to see hers.”
Guards surrounded us, and even if I hadn’t been injured, the odds were stacked against us. A worrisome dread crept over my skin, and I spied our exit points. Front entrance to our left, breaking the window or sprinting to the rear entry. The latter was a risky move. Might encounter additional patrols, or locked doors. The blades on my belt were my defenses, along with my innate charge. They offered us a head start, but I’d grow weak fast. The answer lay in negotiating our way out, not using brute strength.
The broker swung to face me, wearing a grin as if he’d struck it rich. He reached out a hand to touch me. I tensed.
But glass shattering from the window rocked me on the spot.
He spun and everyone jolted to their feet. A tear gas bomb rolled across the floor, the clattering of metal against metal filling the silent room.
The moment the gas hissed and spewed fumes into the air, people scrambled in every direction.
“Get Axel,” the broker bellowed and bolted from the room.
I threw myself at Axel. He seized my wrist and hauled me toward the entrance, but several guards blocked us, hands pressed to their mouths and noses. With our escape route barricaded, waiting was futile. My eyes and throat stung. Axel lifted the coffee table and tossed it through the broken glass, shards bursting in every direction.
Someone tackled me from behind, their arms snaked around my waist. I landed on my side. The air from my lungs gushed out.
The weight flew off me in an instant, the man landing three feet away. Axel wrenched me off the floor by my shirt and nudged me out the open window. I gulped the fresh air as we crossed the veranda where several guards spilled out behind us, gasping for breath.
I coughed. But a blaring honk from the front lawn drew my attention to a patrol car gunning it right for the house. My heart banged against my sternum.
Axel flung me backward by the arm with such speed, we both crashed into the wooden railing. The wood splintered and broke beneath us. We stumbled and crashed to the ground.
A massive explosion detonated, metal warping and groaning from the car crash. With Axel beneath me, he took the brunt of the fall, and hell, I couldn’t thank him enough. Fire enflamed my injured shoulder, but it could have been a hundred times worse.
We scrambled away from the house. A quick look back at the vehicle half wedged into the veranda, and I saw Eduard climb out. I gasped. He darted onto the veranda and into the building without a glance my way. What was he doing here?
But when the second person got out of the car, I stopped dead in my tracks, unable to think straight.
“Talan?” My voice squeaked. I lurched closer, but Axel had his arm on my shoulder, holding me.
“We need to leave,” Axel said. “He’s a vulsine, can’t you see his glazed eyes?”
My legs refused to work. Talan was dead because I had paid him a visit. Guilt strangled my lungs and sucker-punched me in the gut. I couldn’t see past my blurred vision.
His death was my fault.
“Run!” Axel tugged on my hand, but I pulled free.
I ripped away and stretched out an arm for my ex, remembering the last time I saw him at his townhouse, the cockroach I’d stepped on outside his place, the creak upstairs, his confused expression. He was too far gone, and nothing could save him now. Nothing.
“I’ve been looking for you.” The moment Talan’s words reached me, I shuddered, and the world shifted. That wasn’t the man I once knew.
Now, the vulsine who’d killed Talan was running for us, and I couldn’t move. My soul splintered.
“What are you doing?” Axel brushed me aside and attacked Talan, both of them crashing to the ground.
Go. The word screamed in my mind. Save Axel. I pushed past the fog in my head, the thickness promising to swallow me. But it reminded me I’d failed not only to save my sister
but Talan.
A fiery tornado raged inside me. I couldn’t lose Axel as well. I grabbed a knife from my belt and charged forward. Talan straddled Axel, laying fist after fist into his face. No hesitation, I rammed the blade into the back of Talan’s neck, the sound sickening me. I kicked him in the side, sending him off Axel.
“You could’ve died just standing there.” Axel was on his feet and had retrieved my weapon. He wiped it clean on Talan’s work uniform before handing it to me. The vulsine morphed into its natural form with white flowing hair, ashen skin and yellow irises. Was Talan lying dead in his home, forgotten? My heart ached too hard.
Blood dribbled down Axel’s chin. A new cut adorned his brow because of me.
“Can we leave?” he growled.
I nodded. Movement caught my attention. Eduard emerged from the veranda, his gaze on us. Without a word, Axel and I sprinted away from the madness that had become our lives, away from the vulsine that had murdered my ex-boyfriend. I drowned in the same screwed up emotions that kept me company after Nyx died, telling me life wasn’t worth the hassle.
Behind us, Eduard charged, his round belly bouncing. Didn’t stop his damn speed. And just like that, we ran for our lives again.
Except this time, we had gained new clues to our puzzle. All we had to do was make it to Saint Petersburg and find the council members to keep Axel safe from the vulsines.
That was… if we got out of this alive.
Chapter 26
Every inch of me screamed with agony, but I kept running with Axel away from the broker’s house. After what we had discovered, the safety of Kutia Hollow relied on keeping him safe. And only one such place existed—the council compound. The broker had insisted it was in Orekhovo. I prayed vulsines hadn’t infiltrated the location. Would the broker sell the information to the vulsines for his life? Either way, he would end up dead. Just like my ex, Talan.
Talan’s words about wanting to clear the air between us was a blade to my throat. I had thrown his request into his face, but I should have been the bigger person and moved on.
I glanced back, and the vulsine impersonating Eduard scowled as he ran, arms pumping, boots pounding the dusty ground.
Ahead of us lay the human tent town, spreading outward as a wild river, winding and twisting in on itself. Clothes swung in the breeze between the makeshift homes like cobwebs. Young ones darted around, but the moment they spotted us, they shouted with excitement and came toward us.
My heart clenched. No! Not with Eduard on our heels.
“Get out of here. Leave!” I called out, but they just waved. Crap.
Axel’s face paled. I widened my arms as if gathering baby animals and guided the youngsters back into town. “Run home.”
Axel was next to me, and he unleashed three sharp, short whistles. The kids stopped and stared at him with wide eyes.
I drew a young girl closer, gripping her hand and encouraging the others. “Come with me, everyone, I’ve got something to show you.”
They squealed, and I darted, the little ones in tow. We squeezed between two tents and ducked under a clothesline. I took a quick glimpse over my shoulder. Three other men had joined Axel, all of them charging the vulsine. I stiffened, ready to go out there to finish the beast, and hated that I left it to others. I was the PPD, even with an injured arm and at a disadvantage.
Someone tugged on my shirt, and I looked down at a little boy with a shaved head. “What were you going to show us?”
Stunned at first, trying to remember what he was talking about, my brain refocused. Yes, my earlier promise. I knelt so I was face level with the children, and I reached inside my pockets. Empty. If I still had the whip… I stared at the eight sets of eager gazes watching me, waiting. They were the future of Kutia Hollow, and I hoped they embraced a world of equality between faes and humans.
I brushed aside my hair and ran a finger down my neck. “Do any of you know what this is?”
A small blonde girl was jumping on her bare feet, her eyes widening. “A fae mark. My mom told me about them,” she squeaked.
“Right. And every fae has a different pattern. No two are the same. Just like your fingerprints.”
Most of them studied their small fingers, and I turned my head where I thought Axel had gone, catching no sight of him between the tents. Four against one. Surely, they would have kicked the vulsine’s butt by now.
“Can I touch it?” a soft voice asked me.
“For sure.” I smiled at the young boy.
He reached over and traced the circular pattern with a finger. He burst out laughing and retracted his hand fast. When shadows loomed to my right, I jerked around, and my heart froze for a moment.
Axel stood there, black blood smearing his knuckles. I released a long exhale. He held a soft smile, his eyes gleaming in the sunlight. Two cats slinked out from inside a tent and brushed against his legs, staring up at him. Their behavior reminded me of the strays I’d adopted with my neighbor and how they adored him at first sight. “You’re good with kids,” he said and patted the felines.
I got to my feet. “I brought up my sister on my own. What is it with you and cats?”
He shrugged. “They can sense what an awesome person I am.”
“Are we all clear?” I pointed my chin toward the broker’s house.
“We need to go before more turn up.”
The kids vanished deeper into the camp, one picking up both cats under each arm, but the ginger animal’s paw stretched for Axel.
“What happens to the families living here?” I asked. “We should stay, protect them.”
Axel sighed and took my elbow, directing me onto a walkway. “I spoke to the guards in charge of security here and told them what’s coming… to be prepared and increase their protection. That’s all we can do.”
My mouth opened, but nothing came out. I hated to admit he was right. Would saving one town help everyone else in Kutia Hollow? The answer lay in getting Axel to the council.
By the time we reached the brown sedan, we were covered in scratches, and I had drowned in sweat. A sharp ache thrummed across my arm and shoulder.
I curled into the front seat and endured the agony riding me, burying me.
Axel handed me a bottle of water, the same one I’d drank from before.
“Thanks.” I swallowed several mouthfuls, including some gritty herbal bits.
“That didn’t go according to plan.” He roared the car awake and punched the gas pedal. Thrown into our seats, we sped down a dirt track, and dust billowed behind us. “But we’re alive.”
“I fuckin’ hate vulsines.” I sighed as my mind kept circling the memory of Talan. His loss paralyzed and taunted me.
I studied the dark vulsine blood dried on Axel’s knuckles. He’d lost too many loved ones. I sank in my seat, fear weighing on my mind for everyone in Kutia Hollow.
“It sucks you lost your friend. I’m sorry.” Axel gripped the steering wheel as we swayed across the bumpy terrain. Hell, I craved his touch. He had a way of helping me forget, and I could barely breathe.
My words fell free. “Talan was my ex. We broke up six months ago. And I hate him for cheating on me, for making me doubt myself, for freaking letting himself die.” Tears slid down my cheek, and I swiped them away with the back of my hand.
“Everyone makes mistakes. Fuck, my entire upbringing was one massive pile of problems I’d caused for myself and others around me.” Axel placed a hand on my thigh. A welcoming warmth seeped into me and made me forget how much I hated my life.
“Thing is,” Axel continued, “we get to live with those damn screw ups our whole life. I’m sure Talan regretted hurting you.”
With my legs pulled under me, I faced Axel. “That’s not helping.”
Axel’s eyes fixed on me, soft and caring. “Just saying, it’s better to forgive and live with that peace in your heart. Hatred will tear you apart. Trust me.”
I nodded, unsure how to respond. This wasn’t about keeping tally,
it was dealing with the loss of so many friends and family that it left me open and hollow. Axel had said he attempted to take his own life, and to get to that mental state was terrifying.
Talk about two people with fucked up pasts. Yep, we made the perfect pair trying to save the world.
I wiped my eyes again and sniffled. “We catching a train to Saint Petersburg?”
“Unless you prefer to drive for nine hours?”
“Bring on the locomotive.” I smiled. Most humans would’ve turned me over to anyone interested the second we escaped the PPD. And although Axel had run before, he never put me in danger. Couldn’t even say the same for my own kind. “Listen, Axel. Thank you for everything. We started off with a bang, and our problems only went downhill from there, but most of the time, you stuck by my side. Helped me.”
He glanced over a brow arching. “That’s right, I did always stick by your side.”
“Well, aside from when you tried to ditch me.”
Axel broke into a chuckle, and the laughter filled his eyes. “Only once at the church.”
“What about when we first left the city, and then outside Talan’s house?”
“Nope. That was you being paranoid. I came after you when the assassin shot you. I’ll be honest after your water trick got me electrocuted, I considered leaving your sorry ass.”
“That was your idea, remember?” I fake punched his arm and turned to the passenger window, watching the dried landscape blur past, stretching outward.
My eyelids grew heavy. Was it the concoction I drank, my exhaustion, or being overwhelmed by so much crap tearing me down? Regardless, tiredness settled in my bones.
“Luna.” The way Axel said my name slinked across my body and the deep tone of his voice carried me away to a place where everything was right. “If you hadn’t helped me escape the PPD detention room, I’d be dead.”
When I glanced his way, he kept his focus on the empty road. And at that moment, all I pictured was him and me having sex. His attentiveness, satisfying me, admiring my fae tattoos. As much as he acted aloof and pulled away from me the morning after, I couldn’t ignore the smile spreading across his lips. When he looked at me, his eyes filled with a tenderness that left me breathless. My stomach fluttered and my cheeks flushed hot. Over a week ago, we were strangers, and now, I was infatuated with him. So much so… it terrified me.
