Sikthand’s face swam in her mind, and Sophia’s chest filled with warmth. Her mate. So handsome.
She walked closer to him, and his features warped, they pulled taut like he was being tortured. She reached out but she couldn’t get to him. A blood-curdling scream pulsed through the air, and he collapsed.
Sophia bolted upright, her heavy clothing dragging across her skin. Was she soaking wet?
Breathing labored and head pounding, she tried to get her eyes to focus, but they were waking up much slower than her limbs.
Hands grabbed at her arms, holding her in place, and voices called out muddled words. She tried to wrench free of the fingers gripping her shoulders, but they were too strong. She screamed and struggled, but then a figure came into focus before her, and she stilled.
Sophia squinted and blinked at the woman. Sound began to grow coherent in her ears. “Meg?”
Meg, her human friend, and one of the women who had been on the world tour with her, grinned wide. “Hey! I thought you were about to take Rhaego out.”
Sophia tipped her head up and up and up and peered behind her at the enormous, horned demon holding her shoulders down.
“Good eve to you, Sophia. I apologize for my force, but I could not allow you to injure yourself in your confusion,” Rhaego rumbled in his deep voice. She blinked at him.
Memories flooded back to her, and dread had her throat closing. Rhaego allowed her to shrug out of his hold. She tried to shoot to her feet but fell backward instantly.
“Ope!” Meg lunged forward to catch her, but Rhaego was already at her back, gently holding her until she could maintain her balance.
She glanced around the room, trying to figure out where in the tower she was. The walls weren’t made of metal or stone. They curved gracefully without any dour embellishments.
Her heart thundered. She caught sight of another figure in the corner and recognized the familiar form of Maxu, Meg’s mate and the one who’d aided her group in their escape from Vrulatica.
A sinking, awful worry had tears springing to her eyes. “Where am I? What am I doing here?” She glared at Meg, whose head snapped back in surprise.
“Wha… We rescued you,” she said, tipping her head down and furrowing her brows as if Sophia didn’t understand. “I told you I’d come back for you, and I did. It wasn’t easy—let me tell you. There was a lot of planning. But when we heard the announcement that you were getting married to that tyrant, we knew we had to get you out of there.”
Fury roared to life in her veins. She took a step toward Meg but stopped when the urgent scrape of a chair sounded, and Maxu stalked over.
Sikthand. Sophia’s gaze went out of focus. “No!” she shrieked to the room at large. She crushed her skull between her hands and breathed through the clenching of her heart. He’d be devastated. He’d come home and find her gone. Would he think she’d left?
Her palm curled into the wet fabric of her shirt. Sweat, she realized. She was sweating everywhere.
“I need to get back. Now.” Sophia spun in place, looking for…something, anything. She spotted a door and dashed to it, but Maxu stepped in front of it, blocking her path. “Move,” she growled.
“Do you know how much shit I had to go through to retrieve you for my mate? Thank. Her.” Sophia and Maxu glared at each other.
Meg stepped in front of her mate and rested a calming palm on his chest. “I don’t get it. You want to marry him?”
“He’s. My. Mate.” She seethed in Maxu’s direction and lifted her brows at him, hoping her sharp words would cut at his insides. Maxu knew what it felt like to be separated from his mate—he’d spent months chasing Meg down before finally getting to her.
The angry lines of his scowl went soft, and his face paled. He exchanged a wide-eyed look with Rhaego behind her shoulder.
“What?” Meg breathed.
Sophia’s glare shot toward Meg. “If you’d sent me even one goddamned letter before deciding to Ocean’s Eleven me out of there, you’d know that.”
“We…” Meg’s voice failed, and she tried again. “We’ve been in hiding. We couldn’t risk it. You have no idea what’s been going on. You aren’t the only human we’ve rescued. Rhaego has been running all over the planet setting up safe houses for when Vila FedExes us across the planet.”
“Does he know?” Maxu’s voice cut in, and an intense look of concern crossed over his face.
Fucking good. He should be concerned. Sikthand won’t rest till he finds him and… But fuck…
What if he thought she’d left with them? Sophia let out a strangled whimper and clutched a hand to her forehead.
“She must return,” Rhaego boomed behind her. “Mates must not be separated. It’s unthinkable.” He stepped forward and comically slid an unmoving Maxu away from the door. He struggled against it, but it was as if Maxu were trying to hold in place a slowly moving bus.
Sophia could kiss the demon. “Thank you!” She dashed through the door and scanned the room for an exit.
“Does he know?” Maxu bellowed, running after her.
Sophia sucked in a calming breath and scowled back at him. “No. His eyes changed, but knowing about his past, I decided not to tell him until his marks appeared. And now, thanks to you, he will never trust me again and they might never appear. He’ll just go crazier and crazier while in that awful in-between state. Thanks a lot. I need to get back ASAP and try to undo some of this damage. If I hurry, maybe I can get there before he gets back.”
“We took you three days ago,” Meg squeaked.
Sophia froze, horror swept through her stiff limbs, and she rotated on the spot. “What?”
Meg winced apologetically. “We had to use a pretty intense sleep spray that we invented. It’s strong enough to knock out most Clecanian races, which means it really, really knocks out humans. It’s safe, but you were out for about three days.”
Fuuuuuuuck.
