Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
An explosion rocks the building so hard the entire room shakes.
There’s a microsecond of disbelief, a frozen moment in time where I look to Talon, Ajax, and Zachariah, a silent connection of brotherhood on how to proceed. The moment passes in an instant, and the room is a flurry of movement as alarms blare through the space.
“Where’s Saint?” Talon barks.
“Annika,” I breathe her name, unable to focus on anything else.
“Get the females to the war room!” Alek’s voice is a deafening command as he fires other orders at the assassins.
Olivia gathers Selene in her arms, not making any arguments as Ransom hurries her out of the dining hall and toward the war room.
I follow them out, instinct flashing my eyes to thermal in a blink.
“I know you can fight,” Benedict snaps as he pleads with Jocelyn ahead of me. “But I need you here. You have to protect that baby. All of them. Please.”
“With everything I have,” Jocelyn says, her lavender hair floating above her shoulders as her magic crackles in the chaotic hallway.
“Annika,” I say her name again, this time sending my panic down the bond.
“Where is your mate?” Lachlan asks as he skids to a stop next to me, Hawke shoving past him with Avi over his shoulder as he races toward the war room.
“I don’t know! Aurora is missing too.” And Saint. Where the fuck is he?
“Valor too,” Lachlan says, an edge of panic to his tone. He breathes through it. “Find her quickly,” he says to me, the king’s second-in-command giving orders as the king gets Lyric to safety.
“Have the palace grounds ever been breached before?” I manage to ask, my hunter instincts overtaking my mate impulses for a brief moment.
Lachlan meets my gaze, gives one shake of his head, then speeds out of sight.
“Fucking brilliant.” I take off, following the line of connection in my soul and around the corner—
“Dagon!” Annika’s voice sends a wave of relief crashing over me a second before she’s in my arms. “What happened?” she asks.
“We’ve been compromised,” I say, gently tugging her hand to guide her down the hallway. “You have to go to the war room with the other females.”
“What?” She yanks out of my grasp. “I can fight.”
I blow out a breath. “I know you can fight—”
“Where’s Aurora?” Saint’s voice is a lethal slice as he stops before us.
Annika glances over her shoulder, her brow furrowed. “She was right behind me,” she says, looking at the set of stone stairs she’d just come from. “We ran into each other heading to repast when the explosion happened.”
Saint spares me one look before he disappears.
Fuck. We need to regroup. We need to ascertain the threat.
I need to keep my mate safe. Nothing else matters.
The two priorities in my soul wage war on each other.
“Annika,” I plea. “Please. I can’t do what I do if you’re not safe.”
“But I—”
“Please,” I beg.
She must read something in my eyes because she relents, giving me a nod. “Go,” she says, looking down the hallway where I can see the war room, see Avianna beckoning the others inside. “Saint needs you. They all do.”
“I’ll take you,” I say, stepping that direction.
“I’m going,” she says, stopping me. “Go do what you do best.” She throws her arms around me, crushing her lips to mine in a quick, punishing kiss. “Come back to me in one piece,” she demands before rushing down the hall.
I take one breath, then another, feeling the mate instinct settle now that I know my heart is safe.
My hunter mind takes over, sharpening my primal instincts to a hewn edge as I race off in the direction Saint disappeared.
CHAPTER 18
Annika
Irush toward the end of the hall, where I can see Avi at the war room entrance, ushering people inside to safety, but come to a screeching halt halfway there.
“Bloodmads,” I whisper as a slew of bloodmad vampires pour into the halls. They’re recognizable by the rim of red around their eyes and their chaotic behavior. Zachariah and Talia are fighting them off together, along with Talon. Ajax and Grace must be protecting Lyric in the war room.
“What the hell?” Valor’s voice knocks me out of my shock, and I immediately race to her side. She’s stumbling out of the library, eyes wide at the array of vampires storming our way. “Kyle!” The name rips from her lips as she bolts the opposite direction.
I spare a glance toward Avi, watching as she seals the doors to the war room, unable to wait any longer.
“Okay, that avenue is closed,” I mutter to myself, knowing I wouldn’t choose that path anyway. Not when Valor, a human, is racing after her brother and a pack of bloodmads. “Dagon is going to kill me.” I slip into my natural speed, catching up with Valor quickly in the residence’s elegant foray.