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“Vail!” I shot forward, then jerked myself back as the kùsu-shaped wraith recovered and dove at Vail. Just as the wraith solidified and snapped its pinchers, Vail dove underneath it and shoved his sword through the beast’s skull.

For a second, I felt relief at knowing Vail had survived his stupid fucking attack—but then the second wraith pounced.

The shadow form of the feline wraith lunged towards Vail with his taloned paws extended.

It felt like time froze as the outstretched claws swept towards Vail and turned solid for an instant.

That was all it took for blood to spray as three jagged wounds opened across Vail’s stomach.

“No!” I screamed.

Vail clamped one hand over his abdomen but stayed on his feet. The two wraiths momentarily forgot about me as they found something to vent their rage on.

Just as I was about to dash after Vail—because there was no way I was obeying his order to run and leave him to die—Draven grabbed me and hauled me back.

“Let me go!” I struggled to break out of his iron grip.

“Close your eyes!” Draven ordered.

“Wha—”

Before I could get the word out, a flash of white bounded past us.

Rynn. She had a glowing orb in her mouth as she sprinted towards Vail and the wraiths.

She tossed her head back, and the orb flew, arcing upward, impossibly bright.

The last thing I saw before one of Draven’s hands left my waist to cover my eyes was Rynn shifting to her human form, grabbing the orb out of the air, and throwing it down—directly beneath the wraiths.

Through the cracks of Draven’s fingers, I caught the blinding light. If I thought the wraiths had screamed before, it had been nothing compared to now. They were still shrieking when Draven’s hand fell from my face, grabbed my hand, and yanked me forward.

“Wait!” I tried to pull free. “Vail?—”

“I got him!” Rynn yelled as she half dragged Vail. He was conscious but barely, based on the way he struggled to put one foot in front of the other, a trail of blood leaking behind him.

“We’ll fix him inside!” Draven scooped me up in his arms. “We’re out of both luck and time!”

The four of us raced towards the temple as the last of the light from the orb faded.

Cali and Kieran darted out, helping Rynn carry the now-unconscious Vail the rest of the way.

Dark shapes rippled across the ground and walls as the wraiths gave chase through the temple, only to slam into an invisible wall as we darted down the secret stairs and across the ward.

We’d survived.

I sucked in a shaky breath as Draven carefully set me onto my feet.

Rynn glanced at me. “Did that wraith turn into a fucking dragon?”

“What’s a dragon?” Cali perked up. “And can I kill it?”

I sighed.

An hour later, Vail limped into the room we’d all set up in after leaving him passed out but mostly healed on a bed.

This space under the temple was massive.

It was far larger than the secret room I’d discovered near House Harker or the one under Lake Malov.

It reminded me a little of the tunnel system the Devereux clan had found.

There were multiple levels beneath this one with living quarters, and beneath that was another level that had some rooms for storage and—much to Kieran’s delight—a cavern full of hot springs.

We’d only explored enough to get our bearings and make sure everything was secure.

The wraiths were still prowling the temple above us, but Rynn had been right—they couldn’t get in here, which was something they were extremely enraged about, based on the way they had screamed and trashed some of the marble structures.

I was a little worried they were going to bring the whole temple down in their temper tantrum, but it was still standing for now.

I’d gone back to the entrance a couple of times, but there was no sign of Serril yet. He’d get here eventually, I had no doubt.

Alaric, Roth, and Rynn were pouring through some texts that had been locked away in a chest. Rynn had also been right about me being able to unlock the more secured items. It was a simple locking glyph, but it’d been keyed to my blood.

I’d opened everything I could find, and we were sorting through the items now.

Most of them were books and scrolls, but there were also some weapons and other artifacts.

Normally, I would have been positively giddy about finding lost Fae treasures and my nose would have been in those books immediately, but I was too fucking pissed to concentrate.

The source of my ire was currently slumped in a chair at one of the tables where we’d piled up the weapons and artifacts, which Draven and Kieran were going through.

Cali was passed out and snoring in one of the rooms downstairs.

We were under orders to wake her up when “it was time to kill something.”

“Find anything good?” Vail asked in a gravelly tone as he idly scanned the weapons laid out before him. He still looked like shit. His normally tan skin was pale, and he’d had none of his lethal grace when he’d walked across the room.

Draven grunted in response, but Kieran just shook his head with an oh, you poor idiot look on his face.

Kieran had been watching me stew in my rage for the past hour.

He knew exactly how explosive my temper could be because he’d witnessed it more than once.

Back then, it had been Alaric pissing me off. Now, Vail decided to take that spot.

“How are you feeling?” I fixed my features into one of concern as I walked towards the table. Draven and Kieran scooted aside so I could stand directly opposite from Vail and lean forward, placing my hands on the smooth wood surface.

Right next to so many wonderfully sharp, pointy items.

“Fine,” Vail said slowly. His instincts were likely warning him about danger, but he didn’t know what to make of my worried demeanor. “Thank you for saving me, but you shouldn’t have. I don’t want you to ever risk your life for me, Sam.”

My smile gained a sharp edge.

“Did you mean what you said?” I leaned forward a little more. The table wasn’t that wide. Vail could easily close the distance and kiss me. Based on the way his gaze dropped to my lips, I knew he was thinking about it. “That you’re sorry . . . and that you love me?”

His eyes snapped back to mine. “Every word.”

“That’s what I thought.” I nodded. My fingers closed around the two daggers my hands had been drifting towards.

Normally, Vail’s reaction time was better than mine, but he was tired and still hurting—and I was really fucking motivated.

Faster than he could react, I slammed them through the backs of his hands—pinning them to the table.

“Fuck!” he swore. “What in the fuck, Sam?”

I hammered a punch to his jaw, and pain ricocheted up my arm. Why did he have to have such a strong jawline? That fucking hurt. Worth it though. My arm shot back to punch him again, but then Kieran had his arms around my waist, laughing as he pulled me back.

“How fucking dare you apologize, tell me you love me, and then sacrifice yourself!” I screamed and flailed in Kieran’s hold, who just laughed harder at my antics. “If you fucking die before I forgive you, I will drag you back from whatever hells exist just so I can kill you myself, Vail Ferenc!”

“I was trying to save your damn life!” Vail bellowed as he jerked his hands upward.

They hit the flat handle of the daggers, and the blades pulled free from the table, drawing another pained grunt from him.

“You should be thanking me!” Blood poured from his hands as he rose and glared at me from the other side of the table. Good. I hoped it fucking hurt.

“Gods, he’s dumb,” Roth muttered.

“Impressively so,” Alaric agreed.

“Can this lover’s spat be taken somewhere else?” Rynn growled. “Some of us are trying to read and find solutions to our many problems.”

I stopped fighting Kieran, but he didn’t release me—because again, he knew better.

Instead, he kept his arms wrapped around my waist and started kissing my neck, which did admittedly feel nice, but I excelled at multitasking, so I was perfectly capable of being turned on by Kieran and enraged at Vail.

“Samara, love,” Draven purred as he sauntered over to stand in front of me and Kieran.

He gently gripped my chin and forced me to look at him and end my stare off with Vail.

Amusement danced in his eyes as he brushed a thumb across my bottom lip.

“I spotted some clothes in one of the bedrooms downstairs. Why don’t you get cleaned up and rest a bit? ”

Beneath the desire that Kieran and Draven were drumming up—and the anger towards Vail—exhaustion was tugging at me.

Even if I wanted to help with the research, I suspected I’d have to read everything three times before it sank in.

We were safe enough here for now. I could afford an hour or two of sleep to better get my wits about me.

“You all should take breaks too,” I said begrudgingly.

“We will,” Draven assured me.

I managed to turn my head enough to glance at the others, who were all buried in books. “Make sure Roth and Rynn eat something.”

“We’re not children,” Roth said wryly as they flicked their eyes away from the text they were reading long enough to scowl at me before immediately dropping them again. Rynn didn’t even bother looking at me, just made a rude gesture with her fingers as she kept reading.

“We will,” Kieran echoed Draven’s response, and I could feel him grin against my skin. “You going to behave if I let you go?”

“Yes,” I promised.

Kieran chuckled and pulled me tighter against his body while Draven leaned forward to whisper in my ear, “Be a good girl, and we’ll reward you later.”

“I mean, you could reward me now?” I fluttered my eyelashes at him when he pulled back, but he grinned at me before giving me an all-too-quick kiss.

“Go get some sleep, Sam.” Kieran released me and gently pushed me forward.

I made it halfway to the door before my anger cut through the dirty thoughts Kieran and Draven had planted in my mind, and I spun back around to face Vail. “Our discussion isn’t over, and I’m still mad at you.”

“You being mad at me is nothing new, Sam.” Dark grey eyes looked at me in challenge. “How about you do what you’re told and go get some sleep . . . my queen.” He bared his teeth at me.

“Fuck you!” I spat before stomping towards the door—only because I knew Kieran and Draven wouldn’t let me beat the shit out of Vail again.

“Fuck you too!” Vail growled.

I was halfway down the hall when I heard Draven say, “Maybe I need to explain how apologies are supposed to work . . .”