Page 186

Story: Blood Rains Down

“Rilius and Sashi?” Landers asked, the edge in his tone giving away his own fear.

Yenne shook her head. “Gone. We dinna know if zey escaped or were taken.”

I met Landers’s gaze, the same realization reflected in his eyes as Nithra’s voice boomed down the fastening.

Run, child. Something is coming.

Chapter fifty-two

ATALIIA

Therewasnotasingle sign of Pri or Wren inside this house.

It was like they had evaporated, like they had never been here. Not even the scent of them lingered in the air. I turned my gaze to Andrues, his face hardening as he gazed into the room.

I was too late.

I was too fucking late.

A sob clawed at the back of my throat, and I swallowed it back.

“What exactly did you see?” Andrues’s question cut through the air as he turned toward me, fear flooding his eyes as they locked on mine.

“I’m sorry,” I choked out, the words scraping my throat as I stared up at him.

His hand found my face with a gentle but urgent touch, his palm cupping my cheek as my heart thundered violently against my chest.

“I just need to know what you saw, Ataliia. Anything that can help me find her.”

“I couldn’t make out the room. It was Cin again, burning on Landers’s throne and it seemed like Pri was in the middle of the room, but I couldn’t tell. It didn’t look like Locdragoon. Pri was wrapped in chains. I think she could see me,actually see me. She tried to scream, tried to say something, but a voice cut me off.” The words spilled from my lips frantically as I tried to pull every detail to the forefront of my memory.

Andrues pulled my chin toward him. “There is someone communicating with you through these visions now?”

I nodded. “This was the first time, but I couldn’t see her.”

Something flashed in Andrues’s features, his hand falling to my shoulder as his eyes flickered around the room one more time before returning to mine.

“Do you think you could do it again, communicate with her?” he asked, his voice softening as he looked down at me.

“I don’t know. I don’t know how I did it, it felt like she was inside the—” I paused, my eyes darting to the door.

I could feel her.

See her, just like I had with Dukovich only hours before.

Relief shocked my system as I turned back to Andrues. “She’s here.”

He bolted to the door, pulling it open just as Pri reached for the handle. She stilled, her eyes wide and bloodshot. Wren’s blood still stained her clothing, the rain pooling red at her feet as she stared back at us, but that did not stop Andrues. He pulled her against his body, his hands gripping the back of her head as a sob ripped from her throat.

A tear finally freed itself as I watched him hold her, watched as the muscles on his back uncoiled under his tunic.

I had never been so fucking happy to be wrong.

He stood there with her body wrapped in his arms for a long moment before pulling her in from the rain and shutting the door at their back.

Pri sniffed back the tears, wiping them from her chin as her eyes darted between us. “Why are you here?” she croaked, grief saturating her voice.

“I had a vision and I-I saw you . . .” My words trailed off as I drifted back to the memory. I had seen her.

Table of Contents