Kaillen’s attention swung to the fleeing vehicle.
“Go. Try to catch him!” I coughed again. “This may be our only chance!”
The hunter’s gaze whipped back to me, his eyes skating over my frame, taking in the bound hands, the numerous injuries, my gushing blood, and my labored breathing. A wild look blazed across his face.
“I can’t leave you. You’re still bound and injured. You’re totally vulnerable. I can’t.” He lifted me in his arms and whipped out his yellow crystal at the same moment.
In a split second, his swirling portal was open before us and then we were leaping through it.
Chapter 26
In my next blink, I was back in the cabin in his living room. I lolled in Kaillen’s arms, my head dipping. In two steps, he was at the couch, setting me down gently.
“Go!” I yelled, then coughed again. “Catch him!”
Kaillen’s jaw locked. Fire was rolling through his irises so strongly that all of the natural amber in them had disappeared. And that gold rimming his fiery eyes shone as brightly as the sun. The dude definitely didn’t appear stable right now.
“He’s gone, Tala.”
“But you’re a hunter. Find him!”
His nostrils flared, no doubt scenting the blood running from my body along with the electric magic encircling my wrists. My muscles screamed in agony, and I could only imagine the emotional scents I was giving off, but if that was Jakub, we needed to catch him. Now. This could literally be our only chance.
Another burst of fire leaped into the hunter’s eyes. “I’m not leaving you like this.” A muscle ticked in the corner of his jaw. “We’ll catch him but not today.”
If I were standing, I would have stomped my foot, but then a rush of dizziness swept through me. Blinking, I realized this sofa looked and felt very differently from the couch I’d sat on before. Trying to clear my head, I peered around, and with wild-eyed shock I realized that I wasn’t in his living room in Ontario. This was somewhere else. Somewhere new.
The room we were in was bigger and grander with mountainous views through the windows. But it had the feel of a cabin. Rustic wood railings graced a stairway that led to a large second-floor hallway. Oak floorboards ran the length of the room beneath my toes. A large stone fireplace sat cold and unused to my left. And the windows . . . Gods, so many windows. They rose to the top of a vaulted ceiling and captured the beauty of the wilderness outside.
Snowcapped mountains in the distance butted against an endless valley. Pine trees towered at the base of those mountains, and the rugged beauty was so enchanting that for a moment all I could do was blink, and then blink again as I stared at the view.
Where am I?
I sputtered, my head reeling. Everything had all happened so fast. It probably hadn’t even been thirty minutes since I’d been enjoying a cup of coffee on the hunter’s porch in Ontario, but now, I was in an unknown location. Jakub had tried to abduct me again. Numerous cuts, scrapes, and bruises covered my body, and I had freakin’ electric blue handcuffs around my wrists with no damn key.
“I need to get those off you.” Kaillen turned me slightly, being careful not to touch where my skin was torn as he assessed the cuffs. His fingers probed them, then he growled in angry frustration when they zapped him too. “You’re going to have to use your forbidden magic on me. I’m not strong enough to break these on my own. It’s going to be like in the club. You have to enhance my power so I can shatter them with sheer force.”
My head lolled again. Dammit, I was so out of it. I wondered if these cuffs depleted more than just my power. Or perhaps I had an old-fashioned concussion since I’d been thrown like a bouncy ball so many times onto pavement. Who knew. All I knew was that everything hurt, and the world was beginning to grow fuzzy.
Trying to snap myself into coherency, I managed to shake my head. “I can’t. My magic’s too depleted, and these cuffs aren’t like the ones they had on you. They’re stronger. Better. It’s amazing I was able to break through their binding and gag spells at all.”
A low snarl came from the hunter that sounded a bit unhinged. Then there was silence, as if he were thinking. Or trying to.
“Wait here.” The couch dipped when he stood.
“Well, it’s not like I could really go anywhere,” I drawled as a wave of dizziness swept through me.
He gave a small smile that didn’t reach those crazed-looking eyes as he towered over me. Days’ worth of beard still graced his cheeks. He’d been sporting that look for nearly a week now.
He pulled out his yellow crystal, and before I could blink, he’d created a portal and jumped through it.
“Kaillen?” I called to the empty room. Silence surrounded me, the only sound the soft ticking of a clock coming from somewhere in the house.
A minute passed, and I tried to sit more upright, realizing that even though nobody was harming me here, I was anything but okay. I was a freakin’ invalid with these cuffs on. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom like this.
But before I could contemplate that very embarrassing detail, another yellow portal appeared, and the hunter jumped back through it, reappearing in the living room.
My eyes widened at the huge ax in his hands. I recognized it. It’d been in his closet of weapons in his man cave back in Portland. It was pure black, huge, and deadly looking. Its sheer presence pulled at me, beckoning me to caress it and use it.
“What is that?” I managed.
“A weapon from the underworld. It’s not supposed to be released from hell, and only demons can touch it, so I’d advise you to keep your distance.”
“Do I want to know how you came to possess it?”
“Probably not.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Break those cuffs. I think the ax’s power will be strong enough to do it, but it may take a toll on you.”
“Meaning what?” My eyes widened as he drew nearer. Those manic-looking flames still filled his irises, and I knew the hunter was still feeling a bit crazed and perhaps wasn’t of sound mind right now.
I got awkwardly to my feet, and he assessed the cuffs, testing which angle to use the ax. “You may pass out, but you’ll be okay eventually. I think.”
“Right.” That didn’t sound promising. “Do we do this here?” I raised my arms behind me, positioning my wrists away from my body.
He guided me to the center of the room, which gave him more space to move. “Keep your arms raised, just like that. Don’t move.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Please don’t miss. I don’t really want to lose an arm . . . or a leg. No offense, but I have no idea how good your hand-eye coordination is.”
I couldn’t be sure, but I thought his lips twitched. “I won’t.”
I didn’t question his actions or the wisdom of his decision further. It felt as if my entire body was going numb, and my mind was shutting down. Too much. Too much. Too much was happening.
All I could do in that moment was function on autopilot. I still had my eyes closed when the swing of the giant ax breezed against my back along my skin.
And then a huge clang of power sliced through the air, like an enormous void had been ripped through the cosmos as it connected with the cuffs’ chains.