"Thank you," I rasped, blinking through a veil of tears at Mav's deep blue face as I clutched the locket in my fingers.
"Nothing to thank me for, firecracker," Mav replied, as gentle as I'd ever heard him.
When he dipped his head to kiss me, I braced my hands on his chest and rose onto my tiptoes, meeting him for a long, soothing kiss. With every slow brush of his lips and tongue, it felt like the soft waves of the ocean, cleansing me of the most poisonous parts of my grief.I forgive you,every kiss murmured.It wasn't your fault,his lips whispered.
We both jumped apart, me with a cry and Mav with a low growl, when a loud alarm siren shattered through the room. It was so deafening I covered my ears with my hands, the gold chain dangling through my fingers and tickling my neck. Wincing, I put it inside the pocket of my jeans to keep it safe and immediately flattened my hand back to my ear.
"What's happening?" I shouted, or mouthed—I couldn't hear anything.
But Mav's expression had frozen, something beyond calm and rage, and my blood chilled.
"They've found me," I realised, my earlier panic returning strong enough to suffocate me.
22
Mav said something I couldn't hear over the screaming siren, his lips moving and his brows low over his eyes. He grasped my shoulders, peering intently into my eyes, and it reminded me so much of Void clasping my throat and staring into my soul earlier that my panic skipped a beat.
The alarm cut out as fast as it began and Mav gently tugged my hands from my ears with velvety tentacles.
"It's alright, Hala," he said in an iron-hard voice. "We're gonna be fine, I promise you."
I shook my head, flinging tears off my face. "But they're here—"
"So they've broken through the building’s shields—so what? If they're here, we can kill the fuckers and you can live safely, without having to worry ever again."
Mav kissed my cheek, tasting my tears as they continued to flow. I ran all these months, stayed ahead of them, found a place to hide and a job that helped me blend in. And now all that was ruined. They knew exactly where I was, and they werehere.
I didn't know if it was weapons or keepers, but both possibilities made my blood run cold.
"You survived all those years in the hutch," Mav said in that unyielding iron voice as he began guiding me towards the door—and the lift in the hallway outside. "And you werealonefor most of them. Now you've got family. You've got us. And we're big, dangerous, mean fuckers. We're not gonna let any of these bastards lay a single finger on you."
"You sound like Sang," I joked weakly, my feet numb as I let him steer me to the lift. "Are you gonna offer to skin them alive?"
"If that's what it takes to make you safe, you bet your cute ass I am." He jabbed the lift's call button, and I jumped when the doors opened immediately, Mav sweeping me inside.
"Where are we going?" I asked when he pressed a button not marked with a number and we began to move. It wasn't even the sub-basement; it was below that.
"Armoury," he replied fiercely, pulling me to his side. "The others'll be there already."
At the thought of seeing Sang and Void, a knot eased in my chest. It unravelled further when the lift doors opened with a no-longer-pleasant ding, showing both of my mates in a big, concrete space, grabbing guns, knives, and swords off tables pushed against the walls.
Ammunition covered every spare inch of the tables, and there were things I didn't even recognise hung on the furthest wall.1
"Void weapons," God of the Void answered my unspoken thought, scanning me from head to toe, checking I was in one piece.
Sang lifted his head when Mav and I stepped out of the lift, and the second he spotted me, he sprinted across the cold, grey space and caught me in his arms, squeezing tight enough that I yelped.
"Are you okay?" I asked him. He was shaking, little tremors moving through his hands into my body.
"Of course, sweet human," he replied, stealing a fast, scorching kiss from my lips. "I'm excited!"
Oh. He was vibrating because he was eager to fight?
"It's been too long since I got to kill someone," he went on. I knew exactly how that felt; it was part of what had driven me to hunt Mav down that alley near the shadowkind bar. "I'll kill all of them. Anyone who thinks they can hurt our girl. No one," he growled, his voice sinking deeper, "hurts my mate."
"Or mine," I agreed, squeezing him tightly before he put me down.
"I want you to have my favourite knife," he said in a rush, guiding me over to one of the tables along the sides of the room, his energy the same as an eager puppy. Not that I'd ever had a puppy, but I knew if I asked, these monsters would get me one in an instant.