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Chapter fifteen

Rae was afraid. Of him. She’d only let it slip for a fraction of a second, but Aidan had felt it, and though he was no stranger to the feel of another’s fear, Rae’s was unwelcome. Unpleasant, though he had no reason for it to be otherwise.

He held her hand as he led the way back into the restaurant, because he suspected that was as much contact from him as she was willing to endure. Torrin and his soldiers were on their way, and Aidan needed to get her out of there.

Rae sucked in a breath as he called out to Baelin in his thoughts.

No response. Aidan ignored the twist of apprehension for his Ascendant as he stepped around Lorsan’s lifeless body.

The old Provident had been working with Sysmus—Aidan had been certain the moment they’d arrived—and there was still no sign of Gades, Sysmus’s Ascendant, Lorsan, and Kuron flanking him like dogs.

They were fools for thinking they’d have enough protection in numbers. Protection from him .

He’d allowed Lorsan’s wife to flee with the rest of the council, though Sysmus was nowhere to be seen.

Most of the Ascendants had been Gerentis.

One, a water wielder, and she’d used the ice sculptures to attack the other council members, to attack him, shattering the sculptures and honing them into weapons.

Aidan had admired her creativity, but he hadn’t allowed any of her ice picks to hit their marks.

Though he’d taken no pleasure in killing her, she lay dead at their feet now too.

He knew what Rae would see and what she would assume.

The quiet female who had barely uttered a word throughout the meal, dead by his hand, without reason.

It would do him no favours in earning her trust, but he’d stopped a far greater fight from breaking out with that one death.

Perhaps it was better to have her fear than her trust anyway.

She tried to pull her hand away the moment they passed the Gerentis, but Aidan held firm. “Don’t,” he warned her. “The alternative is that I carry you to my car.”

Sysmus had warded Cosia. Aidan had felt it the moment they’d pulled up out front, but he had been so focused on protecting Rae from the council’s probing attacks that he hadn’t been paying close enough attention to the other Provident. Until Rae left the table, that is.

And he’d heard the bastard’s intentions at the same moment he’d felt Baelin’s alarm, the same moment his Ascendant had left Rae alone on the balcony.

Rae yanked her hand from his and glared up at him, but Aidan didn’t have time to argue with her, not with everything going on outside.

He threw her over his shoulder, ignoring her protests and the abuse she hurled at him.

“Shut up, Farren,” he murmured as he turned down the corridor towards the kitchen, focusing on the bodies moving around the building. The Vampires moving away, the Fae and the humans moving closer, the few tangled together in the middle.

“Unstrap my shoes, asshole,” Rae whispered, squirming to reach for them.

Gunshots sounded outside, and Rae stilled. Aidan reached into his jacket pocket and handed her his gun. One clip, but it would have to do.

“I’ve zero reservations about shooting you in the ass right now,” she mumbled as he unfastened her shoes, her skin soft beneath his touch, and set her back down on the carpeted floor.

“Do that again and I’ll shoot you in the dick.

” With swift precision, she slid a bangle from her wrist, looped the hem of her dress through it, and knotted it above her knees against her left thigh, the gun aimed at his crotch the entire time.

“Noted.”

“How many?” she asked, flicking her chin at the gun.

How many surrounding the building. “More than thirty.” Far more closing in on them, but he couldn’t reach them with his Provident abilities like he should have been able to.

“Can’t you do your thing?”

“The wards…” He hated to admit it, but something about them, they were making it difficult to track what was going on outside.

Rae sighed. “Second time this week I’m going to save your sorry ass, Vale. You owe me.” She pressed a hand to the wall beside her and winked. “Keep them busy for me.” Her eyes closed, one hand still holding the gun, and she began to murmur one of her spells.

Two humans entered the wards via the balcony they’d been standing on moments before, and Aidan made swift work of both of them.

They were dead by the time both sets of feet hit the wooden floorboards.

Three more came through the glass roof above the dining area, and the foundations of the building began to shake as Rae’s murmuring quickened, her eyes flicking open as a group of Horns smashed through the front doors.

Aidan had them open fire on each other, taking a step closer to Rae as plates and glasses smashed beyond the doors to the kitchen.

They were sitting ducks in their current location, but at least there were no windows on either side of the corridor. The only door behind them led to the kitchen, within the wards, and Aidan could safely deal with anyone who entered them.

The building groaned, and Rae began to shake.

Outside, Aidan knew they were surrounded, but the wards were still blocking him, their minds shielded by whatever magic had been laced into the wards.

The building groaned again—no, Rae groaned, her head pressing against the wall, her chest heaving with her laboured breaths, and at the same moment the wards shattered, the shield protecting everyone outside the building dissolved to nothing.

Aidan reached for every Fae and human mind in possession of a gun and pulled , crushing the very essence of all of them with a single thought.

Rae swayed beside him, and with a curse, Aidan lifted her into his arms. “You can shoot me later, Farren.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” She patted the gun where she’d angled it ahead of them, though he had no idea how she was still holding onto it. Whatever she’d just done, she’d almost knocked herself out cold in the process.

“What are you?” he asked for the second time since meeting her, shouldering the kitchen doors open and pausing once to cast his Provident abilities a little wider.

Rae choked on a laugh. “The biggest fucking headache you’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing.”

He glanced down at her in his arms. “I can see that.” Strands of hair clung to her face where sweat coated her skin, and without thinking, he brushed it away for her.

“I guess I owed you one for Kuron,” she murmured, eyelashes fluttering as she fought to keep her eyes open.

“We both know you had it covered.” And if they’d had more time, he’d have done far more to Kuron than the state they’d left the fucker in. For what the bastard had intended to do to Rae.

Her quiet laugh vibrated against his chest as he made his way through the kitchens, calling out to his Ascendant.

Baelin.

I’m fine. Rae?

She’s alright. We’re on our way home. Alright was an overstatement. She was barely conscious in his arms, and he tried to convince himself the concern he felt was only for her knowledge of his missing magic.

I’ll have Orion move out. See you there.

A vehicle spun out of the parking area as he carried Rae towards his car, though the Vampires within it were of no concern to him.

His car unlocked from its proximity to his PAD as he approached, another modification of Baelin’s and one he would have been stuck without since he’d handed the key to a steward soon after they’d arrived.

“How does it work?” Rae all but whispered as he lowered her into the passenger seat, pulling the seatbelt over her to fasten her in.

“What?” She’d barely moved, and he took his jacket off and laid it over her as she looked up at him and shivered, one hand still firmly around his gun, close enough she could shoot him clean through the chest if she wanted to.

She tried to swipe more hair away with the other, but he caught her hand, easing the strands away for her and testing the temperature of her skin. Feverish.

“The whole letting you in my head thing. I don’t have Provident abilities. You can just pop into my thoughts, but I can’t pop into yours,” she said through a yawn, eyes closed.

He shut the passenger door and slid into the driver's seat, a quick glance in her direction as the engine started. “You’ll do the exact opposite to me.”

“And that is?”

“I can hear every thought of every human and Order within eight blocks from here if I let my shields down. You included, if you’ll let me in.” Aidan didn’t let his guard down the entire drive home, maintaining his speed as much as possible without rattling Rae around in her seat.

“So you’re saying I don’t need Provident abilities because you’ll just have permanent access to my thoughts if I allow it?” A huff of air. “I think we both know that’s never going to happen.”

“Opposites, remember? I’m opening up a space in something that usually keeps others out, you’re opening up a space to let me in.”

“That sounds like exactly the same thing.”

“So you understand then? It’s a space only we can occupy, and no one else. You don’t need Provident abilities because I’ll always be able to hear you when you want me to.”

She was quiet for a moment and then, “Does the eight block rule apply?”

Aidan chuckled. “No. One on one, I can speak mind to mind much further distances.”

“How far?”

“Further than you’re ever going to be from me.”

She was silent after that, but he remained close to the perimeter of her thoughts the entire drive home, and if she felt him, she didn’t argue. Her mind seemed intact, and he still couldn’t get in, but he’d never seen anyone bring down a ward, let alone multiple, and of that magnitude.

Rae waved him off when he tried to help her from the car outside the manor, but she clung to his jacket as Shaw opened the door for them.

Not a word, Shaw, Aidan told him.

Of course not, my lord.

Rae paused at the foot of the stairs leading to the bedrooms, one hand clutching the rail, her exhaustion so thick he didn’t know how she was still standing.

“Are we going to have to break the no carrying rule again?” he asked quietly, his hand brushing hers on the rail as he took a step closer. Rae tilted her head up to look at him, and he tracked the way her tongue darted across her bottom lip.

“I’m still holding the gun,” she said with a small smile, though he knew she’d turned on the safety when they got in the car.

Aidan took it from her gently, and she let him, before turning away and heading up the stairs to her room, his jacket still around her shoulders. “Goodnight, Vale,” she murmured without looking back.

“Goodnight, Farren.” Aidan waited at the foot of the stairs until he heard her bedroom door click shut, until her shower turned on and the door closed as she stepped inside.

He moved down the hall to his study, pouring himself a glass of visk and knocking it back in one before rolling up his shirt sleeves. He’d known the night would likely end this way, but it hadn’t been without its surprises.

Sysmus was a given, but Lorsan and Kuron…

and Rae. He heard the shower shut off. The door closing as she stepped out.

He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d told her he could feel every space she occupied.

He knew the moment she climbed into her bed, still wrapped in her towels, and he let out a breath as she settled into the pillows, sleepy but fine.

Aidan reached for the decanter, pouring himself another glass.

You looked good tonight, by the way, Rae’s voice said in the small space he’d made just for her.

Aidan smiled despite himself. So did you.