Wicked Waves: Solsti Prophecy #2 (19 page)

“Sheena,” he said, taking her hand. “I need to tell you something.”

She held his hand in both of hers and looked at him expectantly.

His stomach felt like a lead weight. Would she tell him to leave?
 
He swallowed hard. “I…”

“You can tell me, love.”
 
Her skilled fingers rubbed tender circles on his palm.

“I’m a killer.”
 
The words fell from his mouth, opening the floodgates for more. “I’ve been working for your father all these years. I’m his personal mercenary. He’s more powerful now than he was before.”

Her eyes widened in confusion. “My father’s…mercenary?”

His blood ran cold with hatred for his lifestyle. But he couldn’t stop the torrent of words. “He told me he’d kill us both if I didn’t serve him. I didn’t care about myself, Sheena. But I’d be damned if I let him touch you again. I looked for you from the start. Everywhere I went. But I couldn’t find you.”

No longer able to meet her eyes, he went on. “After a while, I started to lose hope. I still searched, but it was half-hearted. I stopped expecting to find you.”
 
He stared at the wooden planks of her floor. “I’m sorry, Sheena.”

Her hands left his and moved to his face. She gently tilted his chin. “Look at me.”
 
When he complied, she said, “I’m sorry, too.”

Her words sliced his heart in two. He closed his eyes to hide the pain that had to be radiating from them. She had every right to be disgusted with him.
Mercenary
. He tensed, his body fighting his heart, readying to leave her life of healing and goodness.

But instead he felt the soft press of her lips on his.
A goodbye kiss?
 
He opened his eyes, muscles trembling. He couldn’t be this close to her if she was about to reject him. He tried to shift her off his lap, but she stopped him.

“Raniero.”
 
She took his hands, which had settled at her waist, and moved them to her hips. “I have to tell you something, too.”

He met her haunted gaze, unease welling in his gut.

“The night we spent together was the best one of my life.”
 
A sad smile tilted her sweet lips. “Until the night our daughter was born.”

Raniero’s jaw dropped and his throat went dry. He stared at her, uncomprehending. “
Daughter?”
he whispered.

She pressed a swift kiss to his mouth. “Yes, warrior. You gave me a daughter. She had my eyes and your gorgeous hair.”

“A daughter.”
 
He blinked, his mind and heart racing to keep up with her words. “But you were alone…how…holy gods, Ashina. I had no idea.”

She nodded. “Neither did my father.”

“Where is she?” Gods above, he had a child. What the hell did he know about being a father?
 
All he knew was killing.

Ashina paused, sadness etching her delicate features. “She died twenty-two years ago.”

Twenty-two years?
 
He’d missed her by twenty-two years?
 
That was barely a heartbeat for immortals. He let out a string of soft curses. “What happened?”

“She died in a car crash on Earth. The car…it burned up.”
 
One tear slid down her cheek.

“
Earth?
 
What—?”
 
Everything faded from his conscious mind except for the woman in his arms and the pained words falling from her lips. Fire was one sure way to kill immortal creatures. His lungs felt too tight in his chest, constricting at the loss she’d endured. A loss he was struggling to take in, as well. “Didn’t she live here with you?”

“No. I had hardly any time with her. When my father dumped me here, he threatened that if I was carrying your child he would kill it.”
 
Ashina’s face hardened and a tiny growl rose in her chest. “I hid the pregnancy. He made surprise visits here in the beginning, but then he came by less and less. I wore baggy clothes all the time, just in case.”

He rubbed his hands up and down her back, his heart aching that she had gone through this alone.

“There was a witch here. She was kind to me and helped with the birth. She told me she had a vision about the baby.”

“A vision?”

“Yeah, that the child would be the vessel that would bring light and balance to the realms.”

A chill shot down his spine. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. That’s all she could say. But she knew about my father, knew how real his threat was. She insisted that I give up the baby and let her hide it.”

“What?” Now it was Raniero’s turn to growl. “Give away our baby?
 
Who is this witch?”

Sorrow swirled in Ashina’s eyes. “Her name is Rosa.”

Rosa
. He let out a low whistle. “Shit.”
 
He’d met her once, and the tremendous power rolling off her diminutive frame was enough to make him glad she’d been on the Watchers’ side. She wasn’t known for making alliances.

“Rosa kept saying the babe was the vessel. Said we had to do everything in our power to protect her. Keep her safe at all costs. I believed her, Raniero. I kept the baby for a few months, then the witch hid her on Earth.”

“Hid her with who?”

“Rosa’s sister.”

He pulled her close. “Sheena, I’m so sorry.”

“Me, too. She was a living link to you. Giving her up was as hard as being parted from you.”
 
She trailed her fingers through his hair, her voice cracking. “And now she’s gone.”

He twisted his fingers around a lock of Ashina’s dark hair, his heart feeling curiously full and broken at the same time. “I never got to meet her.”

Another tear trickled down her face. “It’s so unfair. You would’ve loved her. She would’ve loved you.”
 
She squeezed her arms around his shoulders. “I’m never letting you go. You don’t know how good it feels to tell you all this.”

His mind stumbled, thoughts tangled around the sudden knowledge and loss of his child. “How…how can she be this vessel, if she died?”

Ashina’s shoulders drooped. “I’ve asked myself that a million times. I’m hanging on to the hope that whatever role she was meant to play, she did it before her death. That I didn’t give her up for nothing.”

“Sheena, I wish I had been here for you. I could have protected our baby.”
 
He kissed away the tear that made its way down to her chin.

“My father is a monster. I’m sure he wouldn’t hesitate to kill us both. Or Samara.”

“Samara?”

“That’s what I named her.”

“It’s beautiful.”
 
He smiled at his strong, courageous female.

She kissed his forehead. “I wish you’d been here too, but I understand. You did what you had to do to survive. I’m not mad.”

He felt like an idiot, only capable of repeating her words as they hammered around his stunned ears. “You’re not?”

“No.”
 
She ran her hands through the length of his hair. “I haven’t led a perfect life, either. But you’re here now. That’s all that matters. I love you.”
 
The kitchen chair creaked as she leaned forward to kiss him again.

He pulled her close, sliding one hand under the hem of her T-shirt and the other into her soft black hair. Her skin felt like velvet under his fingertips, her mouth a lush oasis he could drown in. “I love you, too, Ashina. You’ll never be alone again. Be my mate.”

With one word, her essence imprinted upon his soul forever. “Yes.”

C
HAPTER
14

K
AI
JOLTED
AWAKE
TO
THE
sound of scraping at the door. He hoped that if it was Draven, he would take him out of the cell this time and not beat him in front of Brooke. Seeing the aftermath of Draven’s abuse was bad enough. She didn’t need to witness each blow as it happened.

She sat across from him, eyes wide with concern as she studied him. She opened her mouth, but he shook his head and jerked a chained hand toward the door.

A metallic jangle echoed in the small space as the key clicked in the lock. The door opened, allowing a thin slice of torchlight to sidle across the stone floor.

A petite figure in a black hooded robe crept in. Glancing back and forth between him and Brooke, the figure made its way over to him. A tiny hand pushed back the hood.

Kai peered up at a delicate, feminine face. Porcelain skin made her wide dark eyes even more striking as they assessed his bonds. Something about her tugged at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t place where he had seen her.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Garnet,” she replied. “My name is Garnet.”
 
She crouched swiftly next to him, metal flashing in her hand.

Shit
. What was her game?
 
He tensed and studied her face, wondering if she was some kind of mage, wondering if her weapon was doused in magic. The metal rattled and clinked.
 
His eyes snapped to her hand.
Not a blade
. She clutched a ring of keys.

With swift precision she flipped through them, testing one key and then another until she unlocked the manacles on his wrists.

“Do I know you, Garnet?” he asked, as she moved to free his ankles.

She looked up and held his gaze. “You helped me, Kai. The night you killed Drant.”

Kai felt his jaw go slack and his brows knit together.
The night he killed Drant
…Understanding slashed through his muddled thoughts. “You were his thrall,” he said softly.

“I would’ve been at the mercy of any of the guards, with that awful collar Drant put on me.” She shuddered. “Hardly anyone here dares to show an ounce of decency. Now, I’m returning the favor.”
 
With a clatter, the last manacle fell open on the stone floor.

“You’re still here?” Kai asked, disbelief in his voice. “One hundred seventy years of this?
 
Are you still a…does Draven—”

“I work in the kitchen now. Draven wanted his own harem when he took over. All new females. I begged him not to kill me, to give me a chance to cook. Working in the kitchen also gives me access to certain herbs that may cause guards to become unusually sleepy.” Garnet inclined her head toward the door.

“You have to come with us.”
 
Kai’s muscles protested as he stood to his full height, unrestrained, for the first time in days.

“I cannot, demon. I have nowhere to go, and I have a son. He’s a slave here, too. Draven would kill him if I went missing.”
 
She moved across the cell to unlock Brooke’s ankle restraint.

“You risk much, Garnet,” Kai said.

“No one deserves to be here. You are fair and just, Kai. You showed kindness to me when you had no need to, and I will be forever grateful. I won’t sit idly by and allow Draven to carry out his depraved plans for you.”
 
She looked into Brooke’s face. “And you, child. I survived as a pleasure thrall, but not every female can withstand Draven’s abuse. If I can save even one woman from a similar fate, then that is enough.”

Garnet grasped Brooke’s bound hands and peered at them. “Oh no.”

“What do you mean, ‘oh no’?” Brooke asked in a low, tense voice.

“These manacles have no lock and no key. They are ensorcelled. They can only be removed by the one who cast the spell, or by a more powerful sorcerer.”

Kai let out a string of curses in Demonish. They were so close to escape, he could taste freedom.

“Well, I don’t feel like waiting around to see if a sorcerer decides to stop by,” Brooke said. “I can walk, at least. Kai, you’re completely free. Let’s go.”

“I’m sorry, child,” Garnet said.

Brooke bent down to grab the skin of water. “We’re in your debt, Garnet. I hate leaving you here. We won’t forget you or your child. We’ll come back for you.”

Garnet’s mouth turned upward in a sad smile and she handed him a disposable gem phone. “You may need this. All your things have been burned. These gems are the same ones the guards use when they go out looking for fresh slaves. You must go now.”
 
She turned and hastened to the door. “Go that way.” She pointed right. “The second passage on the right will lead to an old delivery tunnel that opens near the river. It’s never guarded. Hardly anyone remembers it. It was used when the river was much higher, before the drought.”

She raised her hood, obscuring her face. “Be safe, warrior,” she said, before melting into the shadows of the dark corridor.

Kai and Brooke stepped out into the hall, and his lungs rejoiced at the untainted air. His blood hummed as his cells whirred into action, knitting broken bones and torn tendons back together. Before them sprawled the two guards, sound asleep on the floor. Kai crouched next to them, eyes scanning their equipment, and plucked two daggers from the nearest guard’s waist.

He winked and handed one to Brooke. “Put this in your boot.”

They picked their way over the guards’ burly bodies and hurried in the direction Garnet had indicated.
 
His body ached, but the knowledge that he was away from the dampening spell helped him push through the splintering pain. Brooke slid her bound hands around one of his, but he needed her closer. He tugged his hand free and wrapped it around her waist, pulling her flush against his side.

Gods, her warmth felt incredible. Her skin effused her natural lilac fragrance and…something else. Excitement and energy. She looked up at him with a gleam of pure delight in her eyes as they reached the second tunnel.

“I can feel the river, Kai!” She ducked into the inky darkness, nearly sliding out of his grasp.

The buzz flowing from her body perked him up even more than the spell-free air. Grinning, he tightened his hold on her waist and entered the tunnel with her.

Power surged through Brooke’s body. She felt like she had springs in her feet. Her blood danced in her veins. Maybe it was just the change of going from that cell, with its dampening spell, to fresh air uncorrupted by magic. Or maybe it was the taste of freedom. She wasn’t sure, but she knew the closer they got to the river, the stronger she became. Only Kai’s still-healing body kept her from a full-blown sprint.