Niiice.
“Thank you,” Sunshine silently replied.
Toppled candles ignited the backside of the tent in hungry flames. My escort posse barged in. I spun around in time to see Sunshine materialize, knock both arms back, and plant iron fists into each man’s face. Before they dropped to the ground, Sunshine vanished.
Stewart moaned, dragging himself up. I walked over to him, and he stared at me in wide-eyed bewilderment.
“Iain. Now.”
Smoke rapidly filled the space. Stewart coughed as he glared and stepped beyond me. I followed him out of the tent.
An entire clan of enemy warriors faced me when I stepped into daylight. Tension crackled into the air, but not one man flinched. They obeyed Stewart. And at the moment, Stewart obeyed me.
Two rows inside the outer perimeter of tents stood a tent with a man posted on every corner. Stewart went to the entrance and pulled the flap open, turning toward me. He leveled a hard stare at me, chest heaving, his irritation no secret.
Robert had prepared me as best he could. The knowledge of what to expect helped to a degree. I steeled myself, focusing on the mission: save him.
I stepped inside.
The tent was barren. It smelled horrific; blood, urine, and feces created such a stench, I had to breathe through my mouth instead of my nose, unable to do so any other way. Trampled patches of grass were dark with stains.
In the center of the makeshift prison, a wooden post had been sunk into the ground. Manacles bolted into the top of the square pillar held the wrists of a crumpled, naked form.
My breath caught. Iain lay mercifully unconscious face down in the dirt. Blood matted his hair onto his shoulders. Multicolored, dark bruises covered nearly every inch of visible skin. The backs of his thighs had been flayed. The bottoms of his feet . . . burned.
I swallowed hard, slowly walking over to him, unable to process the methods of torture those heathens inflicted on my poor, broken man. With gentleness born of fear, not wanting to inflict any further pain, I knelt beside him, resting trembling fingers over his back. I sighed in relief. The skin was warm. His chest rose in shallow, uneven breaths, but it rose. Robert had been right. Alive . . . barely.
A growl ripped from my chest as I spun around. Stewart had disappeared, likely planning our demise. I didn’t give a fuck.
“Skorpius. Show yourself.”
The angel appeared, and he looked more pissed than I, if that were even possible.
“Free him. Get him home.”
Sunshine flashed to Iain. The manacles holding his wrists popped open. The angel caught Iain’s arms before they fell, and he scooped up the injured body with care.
We walked out of the tent facing Stewart and his men. Every mouth fell open.
I glanced over my shoulder. Yeah, they didn’t see Iain floating in the air. They saw a dark, menacing creature with black wings opened to their full span and eyes that swirled iridescently.
The sea of men parted, uncertain of what to make of me or Sunshine. Quietly, he said, “Isobel. I can only take one of you back at a time.”
I turned toward them, kissing the tips of my fingers, placing them on Iain’s cracked lips . . . his warm lips.
I inhaled a deep breath. “Take him, Skorpius. Only him. Make him safe. Keep him alive.”
“But—” he started to protest.
I cut him off. “Take him. Stewart won’t harm me. He needs me. By the time I leave, he’ll be too busy dying to care.”
Sunshine nodded, and they vanished.
I only made it a few steps beyond Stewart’s crowd of angel-shocked men, before Robert and our clan charged down from the forest.
Robert approached with a pained expression on his face. “Iain . . . ?”
“Is alive. Our friend took him back to the castle.”
The Brodie clan descended with shouts of fury against those that dared challenge us . . . on an enemy that had committed crimes of war against a defenseless man.
Robert growled low. “M’Lady, doona worry. I will exact revenge.”
I glanced back as swords clashed. The glorious sight of an enemy falling at the hands of an outraged victim-turned-vengeance-dealer made me smile as flames devoured their encampment.
“Aye, Robert. Make them suffer. Kill them slowly. Destroy them all.”
CHAPTER Thirty-five
I rode Solus hard. The decision to send Iain to safety was never second-guessed, but the long minutes it took to reach the castle felt like unmoving hands on a stalled clock. We thundered over the drawbridge just as it settled into place. We charged up the rise, straight to the keep. Before she fully stopped, I slid off and ran into an already-open front door.
It seemed the entire clan milled about in the great hall. All their attention turned to me. Without a word, the sea of people parted, and I ran across the room and down the corridor. The strong power signature radiating from Sunshine told me exactly where they were.
The door to the study remained closed. I pressed down on the iron latch, carefully pushing the door into the room.
The place was a mess. Iain’s map desk had been shoved against the bookcases. Rolled parchments had fallen from their categorized homes, littering the ground like tan tubes of pick-up sticks.
Iain’s battered body stretched across the stone floor while Sunshine’s arm supported his head and shoulders. Those tremendous black wings were opened and curved protectively over Iain’s form.
Sunshine glanced up with a grave expression. “He’s badly injured. Every breath he takes is a struggle for life.”
“What can I do?”
He shook his head. “My expertise falls outside the realm of easing suffering.”
I growled, angry I’d been put in these circumstances over and over again, unable to be in control of anything, incapable to help those around me—the ones that needed me the most.
Energy still hummed hot and furious through my veins. I stared at the wall. Laser lights that had been beaming statically began pulsing rapidly. It powered up at my presence, responding to me like an excited dog wagging its tail.
The wall.
“Skorpius, move to the other side.”
The angel eyed me in surprise but followed my command.
I stepped between the two men and the wall. The surface pulsed as shimmering waves appeared, and the lights stopped beaming, incredible energy building beneath its sparkling exterior.
I glanced down at Iain. He’d gone so far under—away from the cruelty of the world—that his expression was relaxed . . . peaceful. Short, broken breaths were the only movements he made.
Shadows filled the room. A dark angel surrounded him. His body had been grimly painted by every shattered vessel, bruised muscle, and broken bone.
They’d stolen him. Forces still conspired to take him. Yet he clung to life by a thread . . . for me.
My gaze lifted to Sunshine as I slowly knelt. Everything in my programming made me fight for the man I loved with every weapon in my arsenal.
A whisper fell from my lips. “Will it work?” I raised my hand to a wall humming with power. It begged for my touch.
Those iridescent, blue-green eyes pierced into my soul. “For a price. Everything has a price.”
“If he lives, I will pay the price.”
Sunshine nodded once.
I pressed my palm onto the heated surface. Raw energy poured into my hand, running hot and furious through my body. I gritted my teeth and tensed my arm. The conduit fired so much power into me, I barely maintained the connection.