"Goodbye." I smiled and released the darkness.
It crawled its way out of my throat and the cloud formed into the shape of a large wolf with bright red glowing eyes.
It snarled and growled.
One look at it and Draydon spun around to run the other way, but he only made it a few steps before the dark hound pounced and ripped him to shreds. The second the energy touched him he screamed out, and his body slowly defected, turning to ash and disappearing into a pile of dust.
The hound of smoke spun around and its red eyes locked back on mine before it dissipated too and the cloud returned to me, inhaling it.
With the smoke cleared, I could see the guys at the end of the hallway, watching. Each with a mix of pleasure and horror on their faces.
I didn't care that they were looking at me like a fucking exhibit at the museum, all I cared was that they were safe.
I sprinted to them and smiled when I realized my mother was there too, still slumped sleepily in her wheelchair.
My eyes locked on to Finn's and my heart broke. I realized the entire time his bitching was him calling out for help. It was the only way he knew how to tell me that he needed me.
And I'd failed him.
Not again.
I pushed through the others and made my way to him, grabbing him by the collar.
"What the hell–"
I cut his words off sharply by pulling him into my body and pressing my lips against his.
He fought it at first but after a few seconds he melted back into the kiss and wrapped his arms around my waist.
"Colt says hi." I smiled.
Chapter 14
"Did he seem happy?" Finn's voice quivered as I worked on lifting my mother back into the hotel bed.
She groaned ever so slightly, which was a good sign for me.
"Not happy, of course. But he wasn't in pain?" Finn elaborated, his words slurring together a mile a minute.
He had a smile on his face, but tears in his eyes. I didn't care, though. I was just happy that he was even uttering words in my presence. Four days was too long to hang on to the cold shoulder.
Plus I knew that Colt would be happy knowing that I patched things up with Finn, and he didn't feel so alone.
"He was doing good. There's this coffee shop that's mixed with a library there, so you know that he has a happy place."
Finn smiled, and the look of relief that swept across his face was the most wholesome thing I'd seen in a long time.
"I'm going to get him back." I didn't mean for the words to fall out of my mouth, but they did.
It wasn't even really a concrete plan, more like a passing thought of something to look into. I didn't want to get Finn's hopes up before I was absolutely certain I could do it, but he was so happy, and I wanted him to stay that way.
His eyes snapped up to mine, holding a tight grip on my gaze.
"How are you going to do that?"
Asher appeared in a cloud of black smoke, startling everyone else.
"Yeah, how are you going to do that?" He raised a brow.
All the guys jumped to action, each leaping toward Asher to try to restrain him. He simply teleported out of the way and they all ran into one another, smashing heads and spiraling into a heap of handsome men on the ground.
I rolled my eyes and Asher reappeared beside me.
"These are the surface men you've chosen as your mates? Over the superior men of the underworld?"
I laughed and punched him in the arm.
"Guys, this is Asher. He's a demon. But he's a good guy."
"Well, as good as a demon can get I'm afraid." He chimed in and I sent an elbow into his rib cage.
"But, as for Colt, I have a theory. My father is the King of the Underworld, if anyone can let someone out, it would be him. But I think he's trapped inside my mother's mind, so we need to get them both out."
They all stared at me in disbelief from the floor.
Shit. I forgot they didn't know any of that. I really have to work on easing people into the chaos that is my family tree.
I smiled blankly, waiting for someone to say something.
They all got to their feet, the looks on their faces telling me that they were still trying to process the mind fuck I'd just laid on them.
It was fair enough. I was still trying to process it myself.
"Max, do you have any spells to get inside someone's head?"
Max didn't even think, he just shook his head immediately.
Shit. There goes my only plan.
If we couldn't get inside of my mother's head, we couldn't release her and my father. If we couldn't release her and my father, we couldn't stop the governors. If we couldn't stop the governors, not only were we dead, but also everyone in the country was too.
Well, fuck me.
I sunk my teeth into my bottom lip and thought long and hard.
We were backed into a corner, one that I didn't know how to get us out of.
Suddenly, as if to make matters worse, a deafening boom sounded from outside the building.
"Holy shit! What was that?" I screamed as the building shook.
Asher disappeared momentarily before teleporting back in with an awkward look on his face.
"You guys don't happen to be friends with a group of rocket launcher wielding psychos in masks, do you? Because there's about ten of them out there and they just blew the bus up."
My jaw hung open, and another boom sounded, this time shaking the building even more wildly than the last.
Asher disappeared and reappeared once again.
"And that was the front door."
Someone found us. I didn't know who, and it didn't even really matter. All that mattered was that in a country under a chaos spell, there was a ninety-nine percent chance that they were there to kill us.
Another boom sounded.
Make that one-hundred.
We had to think, and we had to think fast.
My eyes darted to my mother lying helplessly on the bed. There was no way she'd survive a rocket launcher. The building would collapse around her, how was I supposed to protect her from that?
"We know you're in here." An ominous voice called out from the hallway.
It made my skin crawl how raspy and sing-songy it was. It reminded me of every horror movie I'd ever watched.
All of the guys looked at me, waiting for direction.
I guess unleashing my inner darkness and burning an angel to death made me the authority on our battle plans.
But I wasn't strong enough to fight, not so soon. The darkness felt weak and hungry, I knew I didn't have enough in me to hold off a fucking rocket launcher.
Then an idea popped into my head.
"Everyone, join hands."
They looked at me crazy, but the sound of one of the hotel room doors nearby being blasted off its hinges pushed them into a hurry. They all grabbed hands and looked at me.
"Make sure that someone has a hand touching my mother too."
The steps outside the door were getting closer and closer and I turned to Asher.
"Now take us to the Underworld."
Asher's face went white.
"What? What the hell! I've never teleported this many people before. And I'm not sure if it's even allowed. One person is one thing but six is a lot more noticeable." He protested.
"I'm your princess, right? So you're under my authority. I authorize it. Now go!"