I stared at Esme, who returned the look of fear flowing through us. It took work to push down my emotions and offer her a reassuring grin.
“Who wants to live forever, anyway?” I asked.
“Us? Remember that, Aria. You don’t want to be captured or die. In fact, since you’re pregnant, you need to promise me you’ll be smart and stay safe,” she said through alligator tears, as her lips quivered and her face scrunched into something akin to the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
“Damn, you’re not a pretty crier. How have I never noticed that before?” I asked, which had her stopping mid-sob. Affronted, she wiped her tears away. “I will not die today. Nor am I going to be killed by her. That’s not how my story goes. Let’s go bag us a beast, hmm?”
Chapter Thirty
Aria
The wind raged around the valley, violently hammering against the trees surrounding the location of the grid. Powerful gusts flowed from the mountains, then brutally advanced into the Valley of the Dead. Angry, dark clouds rumbled as the threat of rain clung heavily in the air. Clouds encased the world in an eerie darkness, forcing the land to seem foreboding even as the sensation of malevolence slithered over my uncovered flesh.
The ominous feeling swirling through my stomach caused goosebumps to spread over my flesh. I felt the sensation of being watched, forcing the hair to raise on the back of my nape. If the tension and anticipation of an attack were anything to go on, the others felt it, too. A clap of thunder caused me to jerk before exhaling a shuddered puff of air from my lungs to steady myself.
A savage bolt of lightning shot across the sky above us, bathing us in indigo light as the scent of ozone and dead vegetation burned my nose. Following behind it, a deafening boom of thunder echoed through the valley, rolling down the mountain. Forcing those around me to search the dark corners of the forest for any hint of Knox hiding within them.
“Something feels off,” I muttered. “Do you feel that?” Beyond the storm, there was no sound other than the storm at all. Almost as if something had spooked the wildlife into silence. Turning, I stared at Zyion, whose words were being swallowed by the wind. “Ember? Can you see him or feel him close by? I can sense him staring right at me. But I can’t, for the life of me, discern where he is.”
“He’s hunting us, Aria. Knox is deciding the best way to isolate us from the others. I can taste the threat thickening in the air, drifting with a heavy intent of predatorial violence. I don’t think we should be here. He wants us dead. Our mate wants us destroyed.”
“Not our mate, Ember. He isn’t our mate right now. He’s being controlled by Hecate. There’s no Knox or Lennox inside his mind right now. Nothing he does will be his choice. I need you to understand that he’s not in control any longer. I also need you to promise me something.”
“Anything,” she replied with a heaviness I’d never heard from her before.
“No matter what happens, you get us out of here. Be ready to run if shit goes south. He’s not in control, but she’ll use all his heightened speed and senses to catch us. I need you to ensure he doesn’t.”
“I will do my best, Aria. But Knox is much faster than we are.”
“I know he is.”
“They are stronger this time. This time, they’re not only yours and Knox’s babes, they’re ours. All of ours. Do not fear for them, for they are indestructible. Lennox and I planted the seeds, but you and Knox will grow them. He needs to come back to us. We need him too. No one else will kiss me, Aria.” Ember’s fear of never being kissed again registered low on the list, but it still made tears swim in my eyes. I knew explicitly how she felt. I wanted him back, too.
The shadows bathed the forest in a chilling cover of darkness. Knitting my eyebrows together as I peered into the shadows, I felt them rounding as the bolt of lightning sliced through the sky, revealing the form standing directly across from me. Under the cover of darkness within the obscurity of the trees sheltering him, Knox stood. The dim silhouette outlined only by the blinding, white light of the bolts zipping through the clouds above us.
My heartbeat stalled and then began beating against my ribcage at a dangerous pace. His eyes slid down my frame, and where I’d once felt only desirable heat from the action, now there was only iciness that scraped down every single inch of my frame. No words escaped my lips in warning. A chill shot down my spine, even as Knox stepped out from beneath the forest.
Knox’s movements weren’t hurried, as if he had not a worry in the world. Each powerful stride brought him closer to us. My fingers curled into my palms as they formed a tight, nervous fist at my sides. The closer he got, the more I felt the need to run away. His sightless, black eyes remained anchored on my face the entire trek across the clearing.
“Are you planning to fight me, Little Monster?” he purred, the sound like silk against my mind.
“No,” I uttered while scanning his eyes for the sliver of blue, needing to know he was in there. The idea of someone else having control over this man was inconceivable. He was one of the most powerful beings within the Nine Realms, but yet she’d got to him.
Knox’s mouth tugged up on one side farther than the other. The wickedly dark smile softened his entire face, as impossible as it seemed. My heart wrenched as his head tilted. The familiarness of the look threatened to destroy what remained of my heart, without him there to hold it together.
“Well, I know you’re not planning to fuck me. So, what have you planned for us to do out here?” His eyes drifted to my clenched fists and then drove back to the anguish apparent in my face. “Oh, my sweet, gorgeous girl. Are you intending to murder me? Even if you take my life, she’ll continue using my worthless corpse.”
“Not if you fight her,” I begged, not caring how pathetic or desperate I sounded or if Hecate heard my words. “Help me fight her and rid you of her influence, Knox. I can save you if you’ll let me.”
“I don’t want to be saved. I prefer Hecate’s bed to yours. Her skill’s unmatched for pleasure.”
“Like when you kissed her on your way out of the citadel? I get it, Hecate, that you got him, but that oily slime you forced into him doesn’t compel him to do what you really want. from him. Does it? He wouldn’t even kiss your poisonous lips back.”
The sound of a sword sliding through a scabbard ripped through the air. My eyes widened as the flash of steel aimed for my neck. Unable to move, I watched as Knox’s blade rushed toward my throat. The thundering echo of the blade against the hard steel of another sword vibrated in my bones, rattling my teeth.
Killian’s fingers wrapped around my upper biceps, biting into the flesh as he jerked me backward in time as the sparks from the colliding blades, barely missing me. With frightening strength, Knox slashed his sword toward Zyion’s blade as he deflected and blocked each angry, aggressive blow.
Realizing he couldn’t get to me without going through Zyion first, Knox squared up to him, then swung with alarming speed and accuracy. Zyion blocked, his arms shaking with every blow. Together, the men danced with agile, sleek moves that looking more like a dance than a battle. In perfectly balanced steps, they both moved forward, then back, striking blades as sparks began adding a pulsating glow from the echo of steel colliding against steel.