I shove Creed out of the way, and just as she and her little posse are about to walk the opposite direction down the road, I drop the seal that was hiding us and reach for her hand. On impact, my palm ignites into flames, and she turns slowly, her eyes coming to mine.
“Knight?”
I ignore the idiots she surrounds herself with. “You’re coming with me.”
“But my friends.” She gestures to them, and before I can give her time to say no, I pull her in closer. She can’t see the portal, she’s not made of magic, but if she did, I’d be able to blame it on the Fae juice she’s been sucking on like a fucking calf does its mother’s tit.
“Knight—” Her voice is cut short when I cover her mouth with my hand and step us both through the murky water. She stops fighting when gravity gives way and our bodies turn upside down. An eruption of colors rains down around us as her little body goes limp. I hear the loud crack vibrate behind me as the portal closes and we continue to swim through time. Either Creed threw her crew in too—which knowing him he would—or he shut it down and is playing mind games with Ben.
A bright light mirrors back at us from deep in the tunnel, and as seconds fly past us, that same circle gets bigger and bigger. The landing is rough, especially if you don’t know how to do it, which London won’t. Aside from that too, she’s also human. It will kill her on impact. It should. I should just let her splatter and be done with it.
A sharp pain stabs at my chest at the thought and I grit my teeth, ignoring that bitch.
I intensify my grip around her mouth and flip us around, so I land first to stop the blow. Crack! The back of my skull cracks on collision and death crawls its long fingers over the sides of my cheek for a second before receding.
London doesn’t move in my grip, and when I see Creed jump through the portal and it slam shut behind him, I don’t know if I’m relieved he didn’t shove someone like Ben down with him, or panicked? Angry? I don’t care. Having her beneath my grip is everything I want. I want to tear through her mind to see what goes on inside there. Maybe she could tell me why I’m so fucking obsessed with her. Or maybe I should just punish her.
I shove her off me and she rolls to the side, sucking in a deep breath.
The Weeknd sounds through the dark room, with little bubbles of light floating above our heads, giving just enough to show what you want to see.
Creed stares blankly at her before coming back to me. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Yeah, fuck. Me too.
He makes his way to the floating bar in the corner of the room, where cobblestones unfold onto the back wall, displaying every poison you’d ever want. Fae dust, Cupid’s capsules, dragon ash, and pixie plants grown from earth pixies. That shit will knock you right out, and all of this isn’t allowed earthbound. If humans get their hands on this shit, it risks exposure. Not that the government doesn’t already know. Pretty sure there’s a whole file for us in the Pentagon—not that they would ever admit it. Humans like to hide behind their narcissism. There can’t possibly be any other beings except for them. In our defense, and others that are living out there, it works. We love that they’re fucking stupid. Makes it easy for us to hide.
“Jesus fuck!” London pushes herself up from the ground, her blonde hair falling over her slender back. “I feel sick.”
“Hey!” Kaia, an earth Pixie, kneels down to her level, looking between London and me. “I’m Kaia. Smoke this. It’ll help.”
London takes the rolled up blunt from her and brings it to her lips. “I think I’m tripping majorly. I have no idea what’s happening.”
Kaia’s eyes narrow on her before she gives her a hand to help her to her feet. “Smoke. It’ll level you out from all the…err…coke?”
I step backward and away from London, needing space. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking bringing her through the portal. The fucking chick has me doing shit I would never do. The longer I think about it, the angrier I get. Something is off about this.
Wrong.
“Knight.” London’s voice stops me just as I’m about to step away from them both.
I swear, if she says my name one more time, I’m gonna strangle her.
Kaia looks between her and me, wide-eyed. I imagine she can’t figure out why I just threw a human down a portal, or why said human is even allowed to address me with the tone London is using when not even the Gifted get away with that.
“Shut up, London. Follow Kaia.” Her mouth opens, but before she can say anything, I walk away from them both, moving to where Silver is perched on one of the leather sofas. The Dragon’s Lair is just that—a dragon’s lair. Run and owned by Stygian, this place isn’t for the weak. Alex pretends like she can handle it on the best of times, but we all know she can’t. She’s the spawn of a Stygian and a fucking Argent, and while she hopes and pretends otherwise, I’m pretty fucking sure she’ll test Argent when the trials begin. A strong one, but an Argent, nonetheless. Not that they’re weak, because they’re not. They have their strengths just like we do, but their weakness is always their weakness, and that’s their heart. They care too much about everything. It’s pathetic.
It’s like my mother says, ‘If you find something you can’t cut at the throat at a moment’s notice and take pleasure in the picture their blood paints at your feet, take some Devil’s Drop and end yourself, ’cause you’re fucked either way.’
“What are you doing with that?” Silver asks, toking on the rolled blunt.
I trace the black smoke as it leaves his mouth in rings as I take it from him, leaning back in the chair and spreading my legs wide.
“I don’t know. Kind of making it up as I go along.”
“Fucking idiot.” He bangs on his chest to help his cough.
I hand the joint back to Silver and watch as London lowers herself down onto one of the stools near the bar. She isn’t questioning the shit she’s seeing, or maybe she is. It’s hard not to in Dragon’s Lair, especially when she’s staring at the being behind the bar, his face nothing but a black mask, pupils as red as the scales of the beast who lurks in this lair.
“You bored?” I ask Silver, swiping my lower lip with my thumb. “Because I’ve got an idea.”
“An idea, huh? ” He raises a brow, too aware of what that line from me might mean.
I say nothing, and we stare her way for several silent seconds.
“What’s your beef with this girl?” Silver asks quietly, almost like he’s got a read on her he’s yet to share. I fucking doubt he has shit. Silver is good, but he ain’t that good. Just because he was raised with us doesn’t make him one of us—not any more than the superficial shit anyway.
He does come from a powerful family, a loyal one—we wouldn’t have pulled him into our group if he wasn’t—and I’m not talking about the pureness of his bloodline. I’m talking about the loyalty they’ve shown the kings of darkness.
He shifts forward to lean his elbows on his knees, both our attention locked on London and Kaia. They’re talking, and Kaia is doing that thing she does when she’s interested in someone. This doesn’t happen often. Kaia hates everyone. Always the recluse of the class, she distances herself just enough away so she never has to deal with anyone’s bullshit, but her plants? Nothing like I’ve smoked before.