Текст книги "Chains of Darkness"

Автор книги: Caris Roane

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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

He caught Daniel around the neck and dragged him to the ground, but his father flipped Lucian onto his back and pinned him with his millennia-old abilities. He slapped Lucian several times in a row.

Lucian bucked, but filled that movement with his new Ancestral power. Suddenly Daniel flew into the air.

Lucian gained his feet and launched once more, meeting his father mid-flight. He grabbed him and called on his power, pulling it into him as he pinned Daniel’s arms to his sides.

You’ve learned some things, haven’t you?

Lucian heard Daniel’s voice in his mind, but he operated now on instinct and said nothing in response. He gave himself to the feeling of harnessing what he’d gained by putting on the double-chains.

Daniel drew back and punched him, a hard left to his nose. The force thrust Lucian into a spin so that he landed hard on his back on the floor.

Lucian! Claire called to him.

He trembled now, but he didn’t care. He’d finish this with his father right now. He rose up, slower than before as Daniel drifted down toward him. Daniel’s cheek bled, and his left eye was swollen. Lucian had gotten in a couple of good hits.

He intended to get in a few more. Despite the tremors in his hands, he bolted toward his father.

Then he saw something glint.

“Lucian!” Claire shouted. “He has a blade.”

He felt the slice deep into his gut. He grunted and gasped for air. He couldn’t breathe and now he couldn’t see.

Daniel twisted the blade. “I made the mistake of trusting others to kill Adrien and I failed. Now that you’ve reached Ancestral status, you’re a danger to all that I’m building. You need to die, and the great thing is that because you share the blood-chains with Claire, she dies with you.”

Daniel pulled the blade out as once more Lucian landed on the floor. He saw Daniel, blade in his fist, smiling at him. He felt his intention: His father would come for him again, probably to sever his head.

The next moment he couldn’t see Daniel, but Claire was beside him, her hands on either side of his face.

She forced him to look at her, then sent her words piercing his skull. Lucian, I’ve created a disguise, strong enough to hold Daniel off for a few more seconds. Which means you’ve got to fly us the hell out of this cavern. Straight up will do. Just do it now.

Tremors racked his body.

Daniel’s voice broke through the disguise. “You think you can hide from me, Lucian?”

How many times had he heard that in his childhood?

“Lucian! Now!”

Lucian let Claire’s orders reach through to his rational mind. The blood-madness had him trapped again, but despite the intense pain in his gut, he flew straight up. He heard Claire cry out in pain at the same time, though he had no idea why, but he had hold of her and he kept flying.

He focused as best he could on The Erotic Passage. He dropped straight into Rumy’s office, which set the alarms shrieking.

He heard Rumy say two things: “Put him in restraints,” and “Oh, shit, Claire’s been sliced deep.”

CHAPTER 12

Claire’s back burned.

Lucian.

Where was Lucian?

He had to be nearby and alive, because she wasn’t dead.

Something sharp pierced her arm first near her shoulder, a shot of some kind, then another needle into the vein inside her elbow.

Eve’s voice. “We’ve got him, Claire. He just needs some of your blood to get him through again. Focus on healing. Sleep now.”

Focus on healing.

Her back hurt and stung and burned.

Her mind grew dull, and she dropped off.

She awoke sometime later and felt a hand caressing her face. “Claire, I’m so sorry.”

She turned, but the turning caused a mountain of pain up and down her back. “What happened?”

“Daniel cut you deep but you’re healing fine.”

“We made it? We’re alive?”

“Yes, we’re alive. I have to take you to a safe place, though, and it’s going to hurt.”

She nodded. He gathered her up in his arms. Searing pain sliced through her. She started to cry.

Then she was flying and the pain sharpened so badly that she passed out.

She awoke again on a soft mattress, on her side. She heard sucking noises and felt pulls on her arm. Lucian. She smiled. You’re feeding. Good.

The madness came back so feeding was necessary, but the serum I’m releasing will rebuild your supply.

I know.

Focus on healing. Try siphoning more of my power straight to your wound.

Okay. She glanced around. But where are we?

My home in Uruguay.

She turned her mind toward Lucian’s power. With what was left of her pain-and-drug-riddled thought process she funneled Lucian’s power. The sensation of a warm wave rolling down her back eased her, and she floated away once more.

When she woke up, she rolled onto her back and stretched. She tensed up, expecting pain to grip her all over again, but nothing happened. Working herself slowly to a sitting position, she reached around as far as she could and she felt as much of her back as she could.

Nothing. No pain. Nothing.

“Lucian?” She glanced around. So this was his South American home. Opposite the bed was the most beautiful modern mural composed of red, yellow, and blue crystals with splashes of green. She stared at it for a long time, marveling all over again at the world she’d entered.

Lucian appeared in the doorway, sipping a mug of coffee. He leaned against the polished stone wall. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, and you’re not dead. How the hell did that happen? Your father, the sweet man that he is, gutted you.”

She glanced at his abdomen. The vampire wore the bottoms only to a pajama set and looked sexy as hell, but there wasn’t even a scar on him. “Wow.”

“Thank you.” His lips curved.

“I meant only that you should have a scar and don’t.” Her amusement bubbled.

“Ah, I see.” He moved into the room, smiling fully now, a nice look for him. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

She shook her head, arching her back once more, which made her suddenly aware of her bare breasts beneath the sheet so she let go of the provocative position. “I don’t hurt at all. I take it Daniel cut me pretty bad.”

“He could have killed you but didn’t. Instead, he flayed you open, one of his specialties.”

Claire had seen the thin scar that ran the entire length of Lucian’s spine. Only a repetitive injury in the exact same location could leave a scar on a vampire.

He sat down on the side of the bed. Without asking permission, she took the mug from him and sipped. He smiled again. “You’re not afraid of me, are you, not even a little?”

“No, never, Lucian. Not even with my ankles and wrists shackled.”

He shifted toward her and met her gaze. His gray eyes glimmered. He stroked the back of his finger down her arm but didn’t say anything. Not that he had to: The chains vibrated, letting her know what he felt.

Desire sparked, but she didn’t want to fall down that rabbit hole, not yet. She had some processing to do.

After taking another sip of his coffee, she handed the mug back, but he held up his hand.

“Is it to your taste?”

“Black is perfect.”

“I’ll get another mug for myself, then. Be right back.”

She watched him leave, enjoying the sight of his muscled back and tight butt as he moved. She wondered if she had more chores she could give him that would bring him in and out of the room, just like that, another hundred times or so. Watching could be fun.

She chuckled, but just as swiftly her amusement dimmed. She scooted back up to what turned out to be a leather-upholstered headboard, then bunched her pillows up behind her.

She drew the sheet up and settled in to think about the trip to the River of Lights. She could have started at the end of the trek, but for just a moment she contemplated the beginning and all those extraordinary sculptures, the music, the moving lights.

For some reason, her mind got stuck there and she couldn’t let go, but she wasn’t sure why.

When Lucian returned, however, her mind connected the dots. It was because of him, because she’d once thought of him only as a vampire and the world he lived in as monstrous. But that ride, including the level of organization, the Tunnel of Love nature of the experience, the absolute beauty, spoke of something she could relate to implicitly as a human.

Which meant that her views had been so wrong about Lucian’s world. Initially, because of Daniel, she’d landed in the filth-end of a culture that had the same spectrum as her human world, ranging from scum to saints, and she’d judged his world by her extremely limited experience.

“You look so serious, Claire. What’s going on?”

She shook her head and sipped once more. She felt absurdly vulnerable right now and took comfort in hiding behind the small black mug with a four-diamond pattern on the side.

“Just thinking about last night. It was last night, right? Or have I been out longer than that?”

“Just last night.”

“And we’re both healed.”

“Welcome to my world.” He fingered the double-chain at his neck.

He sat on his side of the bed this time, angled away from her slightly. She turned in his direction, finally allowing her thoughts to travel farther, to leave the ride itself and move into the separate, hidden cavern, what had happened there, what she’d learned.

“My friend is dead.”

He didn’t look at her. This time he sipped his coffee. Maybe they both needed to hide a little. So much had happened, so much grief.

Her throat constricted, but she didn’t want to cry, not now, not yet.

“I’m sorry about Zoey.”

“And I’m sorry about Marius.” She drew a deep breath. She’d been grieving Zoey’s absence from her life for two years, but her death would change things. The loss of all hope was a terrible thing.

“Hey.”

She shifted her gaze to Lucian.

“Would you like to go home now?”

Claire at first didn’t understand what he was saying to her. She shook her head. “Sorry?”

He looked away from her and licked his lips. “Your journey is over, isn’t it? Daniel finished things with you last night when he told you about your friend. You have closure now.”

But even as he spoke these words, Claire sensed a small ripple of his doubt vibrate through the chains. “What is it, Lucian? What are you not saying?”

He shot his gaze back to her. “You could feel that?”

She chuckled and touched the chain at her throat. “Of course. What’s going on?”

He looked away again. Glancing upward, his brow creased once more, he said, “I don’t know. I guess I’m questioning what Daniel said about Zoey. I don’t trust him on any level, especially not to tell you the truth.”

“You think she’s alive?”

He shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know. Probably not. Forget I said anything. What would Daniel have to gain to tell you that Zoey died? Nothing. Sorry, this is just me never trusting my father. I want you to have closure.”

“Closure.” The word had no meaning—or maybe it was more apt than she wanted to admit: The door had closed, so it was, therefore, “closure.” She wished she could reach for a small piece of hope through Lucian’s doubt about his father’s statements, but Lucian was right: Daniel would have nothing to gain by killing off her hopes.

No, she needed to face the hard truth that Zoey was dead. “When you’re ready, Claire, I’ll take you home. Just say the word.”

She frowned as she met his gaze. “I won’t leave yet, Lucian, not until we’ve found the weapon.”

He seemed genuinely surprised. “No, you only needed to stay long enough to find out what happened to Zoey, and now that you have, you can go home, which is where I know you want to be. I can keep hunting for the weapon, or I can find some other means of trapping Daniel and ending his reign of terror.” He rose to his feet, mug in hand. “But you don’t need to stay. In fact, I wish you wouldn’t. I’m living with enough guilt as it is that you were hurt last night.”

Claire leaned back against the pillows once more. Lucian looked worried, and she could feel the level of his distress through the chains. “I survived just fine.”

“Yes. You did. But there’s no reason why you have to keep being thrown in harm’s way. You’ve helped me so much, but you’ve done enough. I think we should get your chain off and get you home.”

She could feel that he’d made his decision, and the truth was that without Zoey alive, she didn’t have a reason to stay. Not a real one. Just a powerful, absurd desire to stick close to a vampire.

She nodded. “You’re right. I should be going.” But her throat constricted all over again.

She looked anywhere but at Lucian. She didn’t want him to know exactly why she was feeling this way.

Her gaze fell on her iPhone. She picked it up. Setting her mug on the end table, she opened up the video from the hidden cavern and let it play.

The distraction helped the tightness in her throat to ease up, then the video caught her attention. “Lucian, look at this pattern on the stone floor in the cavern.”

He approached her side of the bed. She handed her phone to him while keeping the sheet pressed against her chest. She wished she at least had a shirt to put on.

As Lucian watched the video, he moved to a nearby chair, turned, and handed her a black T-shirt. One of his. He must have felt her need; the chains were amazing. And Lucian was thoughtful. The man really didn’t understand who he was.

She held the shirt in her hands, and since he’d once more turned away from her, maybe to give her a little privacy, she pressed it to her nose. The fabric held his smell, a deep, rich scent that she’d come to associate with him and especially with sex.

Her body trembled head-to-foot with a sudden, overwhelming wash of pure desire.

He whirled toward her and stared at her. “You sure you want to go there?” But he smiled.

She shook her head and held the shirt up. “You have a scent that gets to me every time, and it’s in your shirt. But thank you for this.”

“Okay, but as you told me during the photo shoot, if you could dial it down a little, it would help.”

She remembered. “I will.” She unfurled the T-shirt, then slid it over her head, not caring that the sheet dropped to her waist first and she’d therefore just flashed him. The chains at her throat vibrated once more, this time as his desire prickled her skin. But he said nothing as he continued to watch the video.

She swam in the T-shirt, but she loved it. She even thought that if she was very smart, she’d take it home with her to Santa Fe.

Glancing at the iPhone still in his hand, she dipped her chin. “What do you make of that? The pattern on the floor.”

He slid his finger over the front of the phone, backing up the video, and played the floor portion once more. “It’s a very old pattern.”

She glanced at her cup, at the four diamonds. “All except one, which has the same pattern but turned sideways so that it looks like four diamonds, like this.” She gestured to the mug on the bedside table, turning it slightly in his direction so he could see the pattern better.

He narrowed his gaze and focused on the video once more. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

“What is it?” She picked up her cup. “Did this mug come from someplace in particular?”

“A collection of four volcanic islands in the Pacific, owned by a consortium and protected by an intricate Ancestral disguise. On one of the islands is the Four Diamond Casino Resort.”

“And you think the weapon is there?”

He ran the video again. “Not at the casino, exactly. I think whoever chose to put the weapon in this location chose extremely well.” He brought the phone close. “Do you see how the diamond in the upper-right quadrant is larger?”

“Sure?”

“That’s the largest island in the northeast. It has a very active volcano as well as a cavern system that was used at one time as a penal colony for our kind, designed for torture.”

“Let me guess. Your father ran it.”

Lucian drew in a deep breath. “Worse. My grandfather.”

She sank back against the pillows. “Oh, Lucian, no. Please don’t tell me there are two of them, father and son.”

He shook his head. “No, not anymore. Grandpa suffered a terrible accident at the penal colony, going headfirst into the volcano.”

“Let me guess. Your father happened to be visiting.”

“Bingo. However, I would have to say on that particular day, my father did a service to our world.”

“That would only be true if he’d jumped in after.”

Lucian chuckled. “Way too much to have hoped for.”

She slid from bed to stand next to him. From her bare feet, he was even taller. She took the phone and looked at the picture of the diamonds again. “Okay, so when do we go?”

“You’re not going, remember?”

She put her hands on her hips. “Do you want to get this weapon, or not?”

“I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that if we just figured it out, there’s a good chance Daniel will, too, if he hasn’t already, and we ought to move fast.”

His jaw tightened. “I’m going to take you home first.”

“But didn’t you just say this whole section of your world exists under a heavy disguise? Then you’ll probably need me. Whoever it was that created the layered disguises in the Siberian cavern must have done the same here, at the Four Diamonds system, right?”

Lucian ground his teeth. “Oh, shit, you’re probably right.”

“Then you’ll need me. Besides, together we have a magnified tracking ability. Even if it’s not really strong, it might be enough to get a fix on the weapon. I’m sure a facility like this would have been huge in its day.”

“It was. I was only there once, but it covered several miles of caverns underground.”

She turned into him and grabbed the front of his pajama bottoms, at the waist, and gave a tug. “Then you do need me.”

His lips parted as he stared down at her. She felt the chain at her neck vibrate again. Once more, she felt his desire for her, which sharpened her own. Between the T-shirt she wore and his really thin PJ bottoms, too little fabric separated them.

“You should get dressed.” His voice was hoarse.

She nodded then sighed. “What I’d really like is a shower, but my guess is that I don’t have anything to wear. My clothes must have been a mess.”

“They were, but I had Rumy send over your things from The Erotic Passage. I’ll get them.” She still hadn’t let go of his bottoms, and he hadn’t even blinked or moved. “Damn, Claire, I was so worried.”

She tossed the phone on the bed, and he caught her up in his arms, kissing her hard, his tongue deep in her mouth.

Lucian.

She kissed him back.

You feel so good in my arms.

Back atcha. She loved telepathy while kissing. But when his hands slid down to cup her bare ass, she drew back and huffed a breath. Maybe we’d better set this aside for now.

The left side of his mouth curved, and he looked so adorable. Imagine a monster-of-a-vampire looking adorable? She put a big smacking kiss on his lips.

“I’m getting in the shower now, and you can go find my clothes.”

He nodded and left the room.

Within twenty minutes, Claire was dressed, and though her hair was half damp she pronounced herself ready to head to the Four Diamonds.

* * *

Lucian held Claire next to him, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist, but not because he needed to anymore. She shared enough power with him right now that linking pinkie fingers would have sufficed. But it felt damn good to hold her close, and the knowledge that his time with her was about up made him take the trip to Four Diamonds slower than maybe he should have.

She didn’t seem to mind. She must have been on the same page, because she nuzzled his throat and sighed heavily about half a dozen times.

Soon enough he arrived at their destination high above the four islands. The smoky disguise came into view so he slowed to a crawl to get a good look. Though he had no problem seeing the disguise, he couldn’t see through it. Claire’s comment told him all he needed to know about her powers.

The islands are beautiful, and they form what looks like a lake between them.

You can see through the disguise then.

And you can’t?

No, but then the consortium that owns the casino designed it this way, to have control over who entered and left their system, timing, everything. But they definitely had Ancestral help to set this up. Anyone arriving to enjoy the casino would have to contact their communication center. Okay, guide us in.

Just stay on this trajectory. You’re about a thousand feet out, but the disguise isn’t deep—maybe fifty feet, no more.

He trusted her and shot through the gray veil, using regular flight. Two seconds later there they were, all four islands.

The largest island, in the northwest, billowed volcanic smoke. He approached from the south. It was daylight in this part of the world. We may have to wait, if the weapon is where I think it is.

What do you mean?

A section of the penal colony that will be a bitch to navigate.

He slowed his flight to approach the large cavern entrance, then dropped them just outside, where the mountainside created a long patch of shade. Even then, the shade helped only a little bit; his skin felt like it was on fire.

“Lucian, doesn’t this hurt? The sun’s out.”

“Like hell, but I didn’t want to just fly straight in without checking it out first.”

“Good thinking, because who knows what’s inside.”

“Exactly.”

He drew her close. Claire stepped off his foot. He set all his senses on alert to the presence of any other vampires, but nothing came back.

He breathed a sigh of relief. “We’re alone.”

“Oh, thank God.” Claire nodded, but slipped her hand in his. “I’m not liking this place at all given its history.” She shuddered. “So which way do we go? Down?”

“My guess is that we’ll find the weapon in the worst possible place, but let’s give our combined tracking ability a try.”

She glanced up at him. “What do I do?”

“Just focus.”

“On what in particular?”

He waved an arm to encompass what would be the high, northeastern portion of the island, near the volcano. “There’s a series of caves up there, open at dozens of places to the sky above. Those openings were part of the torture process—the prisoners would be exposed to sunlight, pinned there to the point of death. They’d be hauled back to their cells, though often too late to be saved. Think being burned by a welding torch.”

Claire shivered. “Got it. You’d have to be a sadist to work here.”

“Pretty much. This same stretch, which goes on for half a mile and covers a portion of the base of the volcano, also draws near a lava flow so the heat can become unbearable. And as I recall, electrical grids could be tripped anywhere along the way to give a hefty jolt or two. It was said that as many vampires died by torture as by execution.”

“A few days ago, I would have said that made no sense, but then I met Daniel. He strikes me as the kind of man who never really needs a reason to kill. If he has to invent one, his imagination is fertile enough for that.”

“You’re exactly right.” He glanced at her. “Okay, try focusing on the weapon now, and think northeast.”

He felt the chains at his neck vibrate softly, the response weak. He supported her as best he could, but nothing much happened. However, Claire stayed with it, which might have just been what defined her best, and after about a minute, her voice moved through his mind. I’m getting an end point. It’s growing stronger. I can see it now. A large metal piece of equipment similar to the one Daniel showed us at The Erotic Passage. Can you picture it?

Yes. A jolt of adrenaline went through him, firing up the muscles of his thighs and arms, because right now he could see the same image within his own mind.

“We found it, didn’t we?”

“Well, you found it, but I’ve just seen a vision of it in my head because of you.”

“Seriously?”

He glanced at her, nodding.

“Just to make sure, describe it.”

“The same ventilation flaps, same color, but the whole thing has an additional black section on the bottom.”

She turned toward him, eyes wide. “That’s it. And there’s a welded loop on top.”

“Probably for hauling by crane.”

“That would make sense.”

He cupped her face with his hands, then leaned in to kiss her. But that was when a familiar voice called from across the space. “How precious. And look, you both survived. Neat trick with the disguise out in Siberia, Claire, but you won’t be lucky twice.”

Daniel. Again.

Best to just ignore him.

I agree.

Ready?

She squeezed his arm and he flew her straight through the rock, in a northeasterly direction.

Lucian, I caught a glimpse just before you took us out of there. Your father has brought a whole bunch of men with him, but they don’t look right. They look ill, underfed.

Slaves. He’s brought slaves, the bastard.

What does he intend to do with them?

You don’t want to know.

Fortunately, she didn’t ask, but she’d probably soon see for herself.

He brought her to the edge of the torture zone where a low gray metal wall separated what looked like a combined minefield and war zone. There were also several paths they could take, but each of them led beneath the openings through which sunlight streamed.

“Can’t you just fly us to the destination?”

“Do you see the webbing that hangs all through the space from the cave ceilings, even the shorter tunnels?”

“Yes.”

“Electricity. If I’d flown you in, we could have been zapped and lost consciousness. Part of what’s along here are fire pits that lead to lava flow.”

“We would’ve fallen in and been burned up completely unaware.”

“Exactly.”

“So what do we do?”

“Daniel will be along any second, and it seems to me we’ve got a race on our hands. We need to start down one of these paths.”

“What about the sun?”

He gritted his teeth. “I can take it.”

“What if I piggybacked you, created sort of a physical shield, at least as much of you as my body can cover?”

He met her gaze, brows lifted. “That would definitely help.”

“You seem surprised.”

“I suppose so. I’ve just never gone on missions with humans before—and definitely not with women. It would never have occurred to me.” He shifted his back to her. “Hop on.”

She jumped up and he caught her below her buttocks and pulled her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and slung one arm over his shoulder and chest. The other she balanced on his other shoulder and hung on. “Let’s go.”

Because he’d seen the end point, his innate sense of direction kicked into high gear. Surveying the pathways, he chose one to the far right. Just as he levitated over the metal barrier, Daniel showed up and took the path all the way to the left.

Daniel sent three of his slaves in front, however, shouting directions. The moment one of them hit an electrical field and fell, Daniel leapfrogged then ordered more of his people forward. He’d brought a hundred, at least, and he’d use all of them if he had to just to keep testing the path in front of him. If they died, Daniel just didn’t give rat’s ass.

Lucian heard the first scream and set his vision forward. He’d trained for centuries in how to battle with single-minded purpose, and he let all that training serve him now.

Ignore those sounds, Claire. There’s nothing either of us can do for those lost souls.

I know. Patch of light coming up. She leaned over him, covering as much of his face as she could, but sunlight streamed, burning through his clothes; he hurt at every point that Claire didn’t cover him.

He took deep, heavy breaths as he pushed forward.

Behind him, more screams hit the air as Daniel’s slaves formed a shield for him through the distance of several feet of sunlight.

Am I smelling flesh burning?

Yes, you are.

I knew the sunlight-thing was true, but I had no idea.

It’s bad. We live out our lives at night.

In caves.

Yep.

In extraordinary caves.

It helped to have her in his head, making bland conversation when screams of the innocent filled the air and he had a huge pit to traverse with great care. The heat from the lava flow below would scorch Claire’s body, and if he hit the electricity above, they’d both be dead.

He stopped at the edge. Do you trust me?

Hell yeah.

Lucian smiled. She did that for him, made his heart light. Okay, I’m going to levitate like I did while you were on the platform, stretching out prone, remember?

She purred softly and tweaked his ear. You gonna take your clothes off? I wouldn’t advise it. I can feel the heat from here and I’d hate to think of your cock unable to function even a little.

You done, Claire? But he smiled a little more despite the fact that he could see Daniel gaining on him, using up his slaves, plowing through the obstacle course.

Do it.

He stretched out and her body slid out to lie the length of his. Still, he knew parts of her would be burned after this. Hang on. This will be brutal.

He felt her take a deep breath then he shot forward.

The heat was furnace hot but he got to the other side.

Claire whimpered. My arms.

Damn. I’m sorry.

Just go. I can take the pain.

His heart swelled as he moved forward, levitating past a patch of sunlight. His hands were blistered, probably like hers. He sent as much of his power as he could to her, to heal her. But he was damn proud of her.

Thank you. That’s better. She rose up to piggyback him again.

How much farther? Can you feel the distance?

I think it’s a quarter mile. Is that what you’re getting?

Yes. The word came out with a slight hiss. He ran now, having gained a better feel for the path, and the mind that had set up the horrendous obstacles in the first place.

He got zapped just a little by an electrical field, but it didn’t stop him; he’d only caught the edge.

The dirt gave way to sharp rock and he levitated now, summoning his Ancestral power, breathing hard. Claire held on tight, but she’d stopped joking. He knew why. He could feel she was in a mountain of pain, again.

When he reached the next pit of fire, he didn’t need to warn her. He could feel she was ready.

Lucian, it’s okay. Do it. I’m good. Holding steady.

And she was. God, he was proud of her.

He stretched out and as soon as he felt that she was balanced he shot forward, faster this time. She didn’t cry out or whimper, but her whole body had tensed.

She held him around his chest, with the pressure of her wrists. He didn’t want to look at her hands.

He moved faster now, especially since he could see Daniel and a handful of slaves racing along the far-left track. He carried ten of them with him over the pits, but lost at least two each time he had to pass beneath sunlight.

He kept pace with his father through the next eighth of a mile. He kept his head down and ignored the severe blisters on his hands and the deep burns through the parts of the clothing that Claire’s body couldn’t block.