“Supposedly, I’m really powerful or something,” Abby said, trying to lighten the dark mood.

Aidan smiled wryly. “Seeing as you froze me and my men in place and escaped from us without too much trouble, I’d have to agree.”

“Yeah, well, about that whole escape thing. You can’t keep us here, Aidan.” His pointed look gave her pause. “Okay, well I’m sure you could keep us here but what for? Just let us go. We have a queen to kill.” Wow, she was talking about it as if she was actually going to go through with something so insane.

“What do you get out of this?” he asked her.

Abby put on a smile as she struggled to find an answer. Alrik looked down at her and something strange swirled in his eyes. It was a haunted look. A look that flashed at some hidden thought because instantly guilt and shame filled his gaze. The look sent the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. She did not like this. She didn’t like this at all.

He was hiding something.

Something that had to do with her. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Then she remembered. At first, she did think he’d kill her. There was no way he’d let her kill her mother and just walk away plain as day. Maybe he really did plan to kill her.

Intense, stomach-churning pain exploded inside her. Tears welled in her eyes. Her body suddenly felt so cold, except for where his hand still clutched hers. Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her but she swore he held her hand so much tighter than before as if he was clinging to her.

He saw the look on her face and knew. He knew that she knew.

Looking down, she stared at her lighter colored hand in his dark, cursed one. His touch had comforted her before. Now she felt only disgust. She sniffled, her nose starting to run.

Oh, God, why did it have to hurt so badly? Her heart felt like it’d exploded in her chest cavity like something hard was lodged inside her was trying to break her apart. She wanted to just run away and bury herself away crying until she turned numb. Just numb.

Stupid, Abbigail.

She understood now why she was reacting this way to that betraying look in his eyes. Those few moments where raw honestly had flashed in his eyes and told her something she wished she’d never found out.

She loved him.

It took effort, but she swallowed hard and pushed back the tears, delicately cleared her throat so the heavy emotion couldn’t be heard and then tugged her hand—hard—until he let her go. Another lance of pain cut through her. Oh, she hated this, both wanting him to touch her and not touch her.

She managed to lift her heavy head to Aidan who watched her with an intense look. “What is it?” he asked.

“What do I get out of this?” she repeated. Damn but her voice was hoarse. It couldn’t be more obvious that she was near the breaking point. “Apparently, I don’t get anything out of this.” Her lips twitched with a bittersweet smile. Alrik was hiding something from her. Something big judging by the guilt in his eyes. She didn’t need to have witch’s instincts to know whatever it was didn’t bode well for her at all.

I trusted him! her mind wailed.

“Come with me and you will.” Aidan’s final plea didn’t move her in any way except to make her feel worse. She didn’t want to hurt him, but that’s what she had to do. She could use his help but he wouldn’t help her. He just wanted her for his own purposes too, and then what would happen when the other demon’s got jealous of him having a woman? There’d be bloodshed and somehow she’d get hurt in the process.

“No, I’m not going with you either.”

Disappointment flashed in Aidan’s eyes, pulling her heartstrings.

Alrik tensed, his big shoulders bulging. “What do you mean ‘either’?”

She tried to hold his gaze, but couldn’t.

Aidan saved her from the pressing intensity radiating from Alrik. “You will let her make her own choice. If she doesn’t want to help you any more then she doesn’t have to. She can come with us.”

No, no I can’t, she wanted to say.

The atmosphere shifted, becoming tense like a string pulled taut. “I’m not leaving here without her, and I think it’s time you took your leave Aidan,” growled Alrik.

That icy energy was starting to pour out of Alrik. In her witch’s eye, the one she’d managed to shut off for so many years, she could see it like a fog forming around him.

Some instinct inside her had her taking one step back then another as the two big men faced each other. It all felt so wrong. She didn’t want them to fight. She didn’t want to be the cause of any of it.

But that look in his eyes...

God, how could he?

What did he have planned?

How could she have been so blinded by him?

Well, she wasn’t now. She’d woken from her stupid, romantic dreams. He was up to something and if it wasn’t to kill her like her gut told her, then it was something else but it was just as bad. Maybe he meant to kill her and her mother? To leave no possible witnesses? Another horrible idea hit her. The thought nearly sent her to her knees. Maybe he’d already killed her mom.

Oh, God...

It was hard to breathe. She kept sucking in air but it wasn’t enough, it didn’t fill her lungs full like it should. Her mind whirled as if she was riding a carousel spinning out of control moving faster and faster. Blood pumped fast and hard in her head and throughout her body. She was too warm; too much was happening.

Alrik and Aidan were in each other’s faces. Their lips moved but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. So much anger. So much negativity. They shook with the rage. That icy cloud around Alrik grew and grew. She didn’t want anything to do with this. She just wanted out. She just wanted to go back home to her rented little house with the cheap furniture.

She just wanted it to stop.

She didn’t know who threw the first punch. The men were a blur of movement, but one of them struck first. All she saw, or, heard rather, was the sound of flesh being pummeled. She winced stumbling backwards as her stomach convulsed trying to make the contents in her stomach come back up.

“Stop it.” Her voice was too quiet.

“Please, stop it,” she tried again, a little louder.

Still, the men launched at each other, grunts and cracks, and those horrible sounds of flesh hitting flesh assaulting her senses as they did each other.

Her senses went on overload. She couldn’t contain it anymore. She had to unleash the burning, fiery energy boiling up inside her. It had to be released—must go somewhere. The spinning of her mind had to stop. The pain in her heart and in her belly had to stop.

With a shout that could cause an avalanche, she screamed. “STOP IT!”

With her scream, something else happened. Something she didn’t expect.

The men were thrown back as if struck by a wrecking ball. They flew high into the air and backwards. They had to have gone nearly half a mile. Abby shook, her knees knocking together, and her arms trembling with the force of what she’d just done. She’d never done anything like that.

She could hear the demons waking up behind her, asking questions, and moving around. There was no time to waste; with one final glance at Alrik she watched his body slam into the trunk of a tree. It was too far away to be certain, but she thought she heard a bone-snapping crunch. The tree shuddered and limbs broke and crashed around him.

She took a step toward him then caught herself. He’d be fine, she knew that. Besides, she needed to get away from him now, not run over there and try to nurse him back to health.

She just hoped he was hit hard enough to give her some time to run. With her heart breaking, she took off down the length of the fissure.

It took her a moment before she realized it.

That she was a blur of speed.

All that energy inside her still hadn’t burned up. Her high emotions drove the magic in her blood.