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“Drazen, you fool!” a deeper voice shouted.

“I’d like to see you hold off a dozen men while balancing on a log,” the first yelled over the rumble of hungry flames.

Pounding footsteps thundered along our improvised bridge. “Move! It’s going up quick.”

As we neared the end, my legs wobbled and lurched beneath me. “Jump, Runa,” the angelic voice said.

We dove off the tree, hitting the ground, thank the goddess. Two bodies hit the dirt beside me.

Though I had leaped to the ground, something soft hadbroken my fall. The fog cleared, and I raised my head. Custodis rested below me with his eyes closed. Reality returned by slow degrees. He’d helped me?

I wiped a smudge from his cheek, smoothing back his silver-white hair. His chest inflated on an inhale, and he opened his eyes, scanning my face. But not with the harsh judgment I expected. No, this was something softer. Something that looked an awful lot like genuine concern.

“What did you do?”

He frowned. “Only what needed to be done.”

Instead of angelic, I now found his voice annoying. Realization dawned. Flarking vampires and their stupid powers. “You compelled me.” He took my choice away—my free will, my control.

“Yes,” he said simply.

“That’s not possible. Sorceresses are impervious to compulsion.”

“And yet you were susceptible to mine.”

No way. Except that would explain why I had trusted him. It was the only reason I’d taken the vampire’s hand. Warmth permeated my damp clothing where I pressed against him. Victor’s heated palm rested on my bare thigh. Instead of releasing me and jumping away as if he feared I would sully him, he stroked my flesh. My bones turned molten. It had been a long time since anyone had touched me this way.

I eyed his firm lips. What would it be like to kiss this male? Would he be icy and cold or wild and primal? I suspected the latter. Many who appeared controlled and contained were hiding something darker underneath. A tremor ran through me at the thought, and his pupils dilated, his breath quickening beneath me.

“Ahhem,” a voice cleared.

I peered up to find my brothers standing next to us. Smudgedwith soot, they stood with their arms folded, matching expressions of disgust on their faces.

I flinched, jerking free of the vampire’s embrace and snapping to my feet.

The vampire stood up as well, glancing at the burning tree. “It’s about to—”

Wood cracked. Embers exploded into the air. The flaming bridge tumbled from its banks into the ravine. Those who’d braved the fire, attempting to cross, tumbled into the void, screaming and cursing.

Drazen propped his hands on his hips. “Well, we crossed the ravine. Now what?”

I mimicked his stance. “Must you keep asking that? Every time someone says,now what, bad things happen.”

Dark laughter rumbled from above.

Chapter Eighteen

RUNA

Horns blew,and the roar of the cheering audience rose over the noise of the forest. Golden energy swept over me, threatening to push me over the ledge. Shit. Not again. The landscape wavered, shifting and changing.

I stumbled, falling against Custodis, and the ground dropped out from beneath us.

Together, the vampire and I plunged into a dark tunnel.

“Curse you, Idris,” Drazen’s voice echoed from a distance before fading away.

“What’s happening?” I shouted.