My heart slammed against my ribs as Yuito and Paul dragged me up from the dungeon and towards Callan’s study. I tried to walk on my own but their hands were like iron bands around my arms, and they were holding me so that my toes only skimmed the floor. Snapping my gaze between the two of them, I imagined myself shoving glittering green tendrils of poison down their throats. But with my magic still bound, and my hands shackled behind my back, imagining it was all I could do.
As the door to Callan’s study became visible down the hall, my stomach lurched and my lungs squeezed tight. I knew exactly what was going to happen once they deposited me in that room and closed the door behind me. I was going to die. My assassination attempt had failed and now Callan was going to make good on the promise he first made me five years ago. He was going to subject me to a very painful and humiliating death.
But hell knew I at least wasn’t going to make it easy for him.
Regardless of my bravado, my pulse was thrumming in my ears when we at last reached the door. I drew in a soft breath as Yuito released my arm so that Paul could haul me through it. My feet finally reached the floor fully as I was pulled to a halt a couple of steps inside.
Raising my chin, I met my executioner’s dark brown eyes.
Callan was half-sitting on his desk with his arms crossed, just like he had done the first time he had brought me here from the dungeons. That time, power and authority had rolled off his body like dark waves. But now, there was something… muted about him.
“Wait outside,” he said, and jerked his chin at his two guards.
“Yes, boss,” they replied in soft voices.
I remained where I was, my spine straight and my chin raised, while they disappeared out into the hall again. When the door had clicked shut behind me, Callan slid his gaze to my face. I stared back at him.
“If you expect me to plead for my life, you’ll be very disappointed,” I informed him.
He pushed off the desk and stood up straight. While uncrossing his arms, he started towards me. I had to suppress the survival instincts that had made it past my pride and my stubbornness as they screamed at me to back away. Instead, I remained rooted on the floor.
Without a word, Callan grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around so that my back was to him.
“Really?” I scoffed. “You can’t even look me in the eye when you kill me?”
A faint click sounded, and the handcuffs disappeared from my wrists.
Shock pulsed through me. For a moment, all I did was stand there and stare at the door a few steps away. Then I bolted.
Darting forward, I yanked open the door and got ready to slip through the gap.
It banged shut again as Callan slammed his palm into the wood. I sucked in a sharp breath between my teeth as I whirled to the side. Callan was standing there with his arm lifted over my shoulder and his hand still pressed against the door, keeping it firmly shut.
“Boss?” Yuito called from outside.
“It’s fine,” he answered. “Stay out of it.”
I rammed a hand towards his stomach to force him back. Instead of dodging it, he let the strike go through. Dull pain spread through my knuckles as my hand made contact with his hard abs.
While hissing out a curse, I leaped backwards and tried to get hold of some kind of weapon. My fingers closed around a paperweight on one of the shelves. Snatching it up, I threw it at Callan with all my strength.
He sidestepped it easily, letting it sail over his shoulder and crash into the armchair by the other wall. My heart pounded in my chest. Fuck. I was useless without my magic. I relied so much on it that my skills with a blade were only mediocre at best, and my skills in hand-to-hand combat were practically nonexistent.
“You done?” Callan demanded while he continued advancing on me.
I whipped my gaze from side to side, looking for something that would give me an advantage. If he wanted to kill me, he was going to have to work for it.
My eyes snagged on a pen sitting on the smooth wooden tabletop. I dove towards it. Taking it in a firm grip, I yanked it up and held it out in front of me as if it was a blade.
Callan paused, and for a moment, amusement tugged at his lips. “Really?” He huffed out a laugh and then shook his head at me. “You gonna stab me with that, are you?”
While I opened my mouth to retort, he slammed his palms together and threw a small blast of magic at my hand. It shoved my whole arm to the side and knocked the pen out of my grip. Before I could recover, Callan closed the distance between us and placed a vibrating force blade against the side of my neck.
Pushing the half-translucent sword against my skin, he moved me away from the desk and back out onto the floor again. He stopped once I was safely away from anything that could be used as a weapon, but he kept the blade against my neck. I ran my eyes up and down his body.
He was wearing that dark leather armor he usually donned when he left his mansion, and his black hair was swept back in the way it usually was. But the more I looked at him, the more I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something frazzled about his whole appearance. Though I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was.
“Now, you’re going to stand there and you’re going to listen.” Callan leveled a stare rippling with authority on me. “Is that clear?”
“Why?” I sniped back. “You’re going to kill me anyway.”
“Audrey.” My name tore from his chest with a force I hadn’t expected. “Just listen.”
It stunned me enough that I just replied, “Fine.”
Silence descended on the book-filled room as Callan and I only watched each other for a while. I frowned. There was something strange going on behind his eyes. Something that made him look… uncertain.
“I need your help.”
At first, the words didn’t register at all, so I just stood there and stared up at him without saying anything. Then that short sentence started trickling through my brain. When the meaning of the words finally became clear, shock clanged through my head like giant bells. For a few seconds, I only blinked at him while my mouth dropped open. Then I gave my head a few quick shakes.
“I’m sorry, what?” I said, snapping myself out of my stupor.
“I need your help.”
A disbelieving laugh ripped from my chest. “That’s rich coming from the guy holding a force blade to my throat.”
Callan’s gaze shot down to his hand as if he had forgotten about the vibrating sword in it. A second later, the blade dissipated. The confusion inside me grew even more.
Raking his fingers through his hair, he tilted his head back and heaved a deep sigh. It made him look incredibly vulnerable, for some reason. When he tipped his head back down again, his eyes had taken on a deflated and serious look that I had almost never seen from him before.
“I need your help,” he said for a third time, and now I could detect a sense of dread in his voice.
“Yeah, I heard that part. But what does it mean?”
“It means I’ll free you and give you your magic back.”
Shock pulsed through me. Mouth slightly open, I only stared at him for a few seconds. What the hell had happened while I had been locked in the dungeon?
“I tried to ram a kitchen knife through your heart just a few hours ago,” I said while my mind spun, trying to make sense of this and figure out if it was some kind of elaborate trap.
“I know.”
“But now you’ll free me and give me my magic back?”
“Yes.”
“In exchange for what?”
A hint of pain crept into his eyes. Then he shoved it out and cleared his throat. “Malcolm has Henry, and I need your help getting him back.”
“What? But Malcolm doesn’t take prisoners.”
“He wants to trade Henry for Lance.”
Understanding clicked in place. “Ah. But you want Henry without having to give up Lance.”
It made sense, I supposed. In a strange sort of way. I hadn’t pegged Callan as the sentimental type, but I was pretty sure that Henry was the most senior guard in his household, and that meant he possessed certain knowledge that Callan probably didn’t want Malcolm to get.
“Yeah,” he answered. “So, will you help?”
“You’ll give me my magic back?”
“Yes.”
“I want my lands too.”
“Done.”
I started slightly in surprise. That hadn’t even been a serious request on my part. Getting my magic and freedom back was the most important issue right now. I just threw that other comment out to bait him. But he had accepted it without question. A frown creased my brows. Why was he so desperate?
Part of me said to just take the deal before I pissed him off too much. The other part of me wanted to see how far I could push this.
“And I want you to grovel,” I said.
Callan blinked at me.
“After everything you’ve done to me, you owe me a lot more than what’s already mine.” I shot a pointed look at the floor. “You want my help? Then get down on your knees and beg me for it.”
There was not a chance in hell that he was going to do it, and I wasn’t going to push the matter because I just desperately wanted my magic back. But I wanted to make him sweat a little. After taking me captive this past week, he owed me that at least.
Raking a hand through his dark hair, he heaved a deep sigh.
Then he lowered himself to his knees.
My jaw dropped. Disbelief crackled through my whole body as I watched Callan kneel on the floor before me.
“Please, Audrey. I’m begging you to help me.”
For a moment, all I could do was stare. He would really grovel at my feet for Henry’s sake?
The final missing piece snapped in place.
Understanding, true understanding this time, flooded my brain. Callan cared about Henry. He didn’t want to rescue him from Malcolm to prevent a security leak. He was desperate to save him because he cared about him. Cared about him enough to beg me, his worst enemy who had just tried to stab him, for help to make it happen.
A pang of hurt hit me straight in the chest. I kind of wished that there was someone who would be prepared to do something like that for me too. Instead, practically everyone in my entire mansion had sold me out to Callan when they realized that I didn’t have my magic. When I watched the desperation and dread in Callan’s eyes as he looked up at me, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have something like that. Someone like that. I’d had it once, of course. With Paige. But she wasn’t part of this world, my world, so now I was just surrounded by cowards and traitors. And enemies.
I glanced down at Callan again.
Enemies who would kneel and beg for the life of a friend.
“Alright,” I said, trying to pull my mind back to the present. “You give me my magic and my lands back, and I’ll help you save Henry.”
Relief flooded his face.
And for some strange reason, the sight of it cracked something open deep inside my heart.
