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Ella staredas Vadim swooped low over the arena, alighted near a ruined templelike structure and promptly disappeared. Considering Adam had designed a series of structures that were all of pale stone or rock, Vadim was doing an amazing job of not standing out. The golds and silvers of his opponents blended in far better.

“Duh.”Ella muttered to herself.

“What, my dear?”

The queen mother, who was seated on Ella’s left, looked up.

“It’s okay, I was just marveling at Adam’s ability to manipulate the odds in his favor.”

“He has good reason.”

“Because he’s afraid that if he doesn’t, Morosov will beat him in a heartbeat.”

“You care for my grandson, don’t you?”

“He’s okay.” Ella kept her gaze on the arena, where the three sect members were slowly advancing toward Vadim’s hiding place. “He’s my SBLE partner. We take care of our own.”

“He’s also your mate.”

“I know. That was your fault, wasn’t it?” She turned slowly to look at the old queen’s composed face. “Did you know all this would happen?”

“I had some inkling.”

“Do you think I can save him?”

“I have no idea, Soul Sucker. That is entirely up to you.”

“Great. Thanks for your input.” She strained to catch a glimpse of Vadim. “If I’m so important to him, why aren’t I already dead?”

“Because they need you. Don’t you know that?”

Ella thought about the unpleasant little dagger buried deep in her backpack. Should she get it out and put it in her pocket just in case? Would Vadim prefer to die at her hand or to be captured and killed slowly? She really should’ve asked him before all this began. It wasn’t the easiest topic to bring up. A flicker of movement below startled her. Another attack was building, and this time Vadim would be at the mercy of three of the sect members. She focused her empath powers on the minds of the attackers and started to relay her opinions to her mate.

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There werethree of them now. They were testing him. Did they sense he was reluctant to kill any of them—that for the first time in his long existence, he craved answers rather than destruction? Maybe Ella was right. She had changed him. Did he have the stomach for slaughter anymore? In the seats at the end of the arena, his father’s familiar laughter rang out. Yes, he would kill. That’s what he’d been trained to do. The reason he was in this precarious position today was because he’d executed his father’s favorite son.

He had a far better reason to kill now.

For his mate, and for himself.

The sound of beating wings had Vadim looking up as the blond Fae dived down at him, sword at the ready, and attempted to detach his head from his shoulders. He parried the killing blow, ignoring the shock of magic that shuddered up his arm, and sent power of his own back through the metal to attack his opponent. An arrow lodged itself in his already-injured shoulder, impeding his movements, allowing the blond Fae to land and continue the fight.

He snapped off most of the arrow shaft with his teeth and carried on fighting, one eye on the movements of the unseen redhead Ella was also relaying to him in his mind. A blur of motion and Red was beside his attacker, his sword also drawn. Concentrating on pulling down his magical powers, he almost missed the arrival of the bald man. Only Ella’s screech gave him that vital second to step back as the three sect members now advanced toward him.

Magic beat at him from all sides as he was slowly backed against a wall. The blond male in the center was smiling as he progressed, his blade jabbing at Vadim’s chest, while the other two sought to hack and disable his wings.

“You’ve got this.”

Damn, Ella sounded rather more confident than he felt. He risked a glance around the terrain and smiled. Baldy was wavering, Red was focused and Blondie was too angry with the other two to be effective.

She was right. He did have it.

Without disengaging his sword, he focused his magic on the wall behind the three males and blew it sky high. Rocks and chunks of mortar shot up in the air and rained down on his hapless attackers, leaving him unharmed and protected by a shield while they all staggered and fell to their knees.

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