"Don't make me do this," I pleaded in a small voice.
But the shouts grew closer, enough for me to recognise other keepers. Their numbers were endless. I'd never escape them.
But I looked at the hole Vann blasted in the wall, and heard his words again.
"I won't forget you," I promised him. "And I'll keep this locket safe. I swear."
I bent over him, kissing his cheek and tasting blood, and pushed my shaky body to my feet. I could get out. I had time.
But Vann was dead.
I regained consciousness with a groan,trying to curl into the foetal position and stopped by a weight pressing my legs into the floor.
When I dragged my sore eyelids apart, I caught my breath at the thick layer of dust that settled over the sub-sub-basement. The entire back wall had been blown out, a gaping hole leading into whatever room was behind the armoury, and through it … oh god, through it poured keepers and weapons alike. So many of them, it looked like an army.
I strained my body off the floor again, and sucked in a sharp breath when I realised a giant chunk of masonry pinned my legs in place.
"Please no," I rasped, struggling harder. Icouldn'tbe trapped here, vulnerable, an easy target when so fucking many keepers flooded the basement with metal prods in their hands, no doubt set to the maximum charge.
Where were Mav, Sang, and Void? Had they … had the explosion caught them too? Mav had been right behind me. Hemusthave been struck as badly as I had.
Was he gone, like Vann?
My bottom lip wobbled, and heat and tears spilled from my eyes. I twisted as much as I could to see the lift, but the space in front of it where both Sang and Void had been was empty, covered in dust and debris. How the building was still standing, I didn't know.
"Find the rogue weapon," a woman commanded, a familiar voice I'd heard barking orders all my life. My blood ran cold. Any courage I'd had before shrivelled up and I froze. "Don't bother bringing her to us; she's been corrupted by these monsters. She's not one of you anymore; she's betrayed us. Kill her."
I shook so hard my teeth chattered,kill herechoing over and over in my ears. I couldn't move, couldn't run. I pressed a shaking hand over my pocket where Vann's necklace sat. At least I'd get to see him soon.
The wall shook behind me and I caught my breath. They'd found me. They were going to bring the whole building down on top of me.
But a deafening roar sounded above me instead of a smug laugh, and darkness covered my vision a moment later. No, not darkness.
I couldn't draw a full breath as I stared up at the house-sized monster towering over me, blocking out the rest of the room. A giant hand reached for the chunk of masonry on my legs and plucked it off like it was a bit of lint. In the same movement, Void hurled it and took out four weapons with the jagged piece of wall.
He was so big he had to stoop or else brush the ceiling; big enough that even when the weapons unleashed soaring arcs of magic, he didn't flinch or look affected in the slightest.
My bottom lip wobbled when he scooped me up in his massive hand, holding me close to his heart.
"Where are Sang and Mav?" I shouted over the yells of more keeper commands, hunching in Void's hand as bright bursts of destructive power flew at us.
Void made a rumbling growl in reply. Couldn't he speak in this supersized form? I didn’t remember hearing him speak at the inn, now that I thought about it.
"Vinda!" a keeper shouted. "Now."
"Oh, no," I gasped, wrapping my arms around Void's finger and clinging to him, wishing I could throw myself on him to protect him. IknewVinda's power, knew what he was capable of, and pain crashed into my heart when Void flinched back a step, shaking the whole room. Maybe the whole building.
Star-white ropes lashed around Void's legs, coiling tight, and the sizzle of burnt skin met my nose again as the magic burned like a hot poker. Void's roar of pain hurt as badly as his stumble, but on the heels of that aching sympathy came rage. My fury burned hotter than a blue flame, strong enough to melt glass, and magic charged through my body, lighting my palms fuschia and tingling on my tongue.
"Void, put me down."
My stubborn, protective mate rumbled a sound of complaint, but bound as his legs were, and burning deep as Vinda’s magic was, he was weaker than he'd been a minute ago. He needed me to keep him safe, and the purpose seethed and bubbled in my chest. I didn't know where Sang and Mav were, but I could saveVoid. I didn't have to lose him, too.
When Vinda wrenched hard on the rope he wound around Void's huge legs, I turned my head and speared the man with a threatening glare.
"You're dead," I hissed, and looked at everyone else closing in around us, like some twisted scene out ofGulliver's Travels. They were waiting for Void to fall so they could swarm him. "Every one of you—you're fuckingdead."
None of these keepers had been in the room the day Vann was murdered, but I marked every face. Even if they turned and fled, I would hunt them down for harming my mate.