My gut twisted. He sounded so defeated. I released one hand and ran my fingers along his jaw, persisting in turning his head back to me when he tried to flinch away. “None of this is your fault, Rafael.”
His eyes closed. “Maybe not. But she can do these things because I exist.”
I stood on my tiptoes, and kissed him.
With his eyes closed, it took him completely by surprise. He froze, and then, suddenly, his hand rose to the back of my head, and he leaned into it. Lips, teeth, tongues—he plundered my mouth with desperation, as though it were his last hold on reason.
It set my entire body on fire, but I had a mission in mind. I wrapped my fingers around the back of his neck, and broke away from him. He was breathing heavily as he bent, laying his forehead against mine.
“You have to show me exactly where they are keeping you,” I said.
“No.” He tried to pull away, but I held on.
“Show me.”
“There is nothing you can do for me, Riley. Leave me be.” He spoke through clenched teeth.
“I have seen it before, in the other place. I know what they are doing to you.”
His entire body went very still. “You’ve seen that?” I could barely hear him. He shuddered beneath my fingers.
“This is on them, not you,” I insisted.
His head pulled back, and a muscle jumped in his jaw. “The Satyr in me needs to feed. They have it so twisted with their perversions—I don’t know where I start, and they end.”
“Show me,” I insisted. I released his hand, and before he could move, reached up to place both on each side of his face. “Because You. Are. Mine. And I will come for you.”
I saw it then. The hope, warring with pain and fear. But he nodded, and closed his eyes.
In that moment, the clearing, the forest, and Rafael all vanished. I blinked, and looked out into a room.
Not a room. A dungeon, complete with creepy stone walls and indecipherable apparatus along them. This time, I lay on a cot. A chain ran from my ankle manacle to the floor. My hands were also bound in metal.
My heart sank. How could I Jump him out of there if he was chained? I had, in the past, picked a simple lock. Could I handle these, too?
Rafael seemed to understand what I needed. He sat up and looked around the room. He was alone, but my stomach clenched when I saw bloodstains on the floor and across the machines that lined the walls.
Then, the heavy door along one wall swung open, and a tall, thin man with red eyes and black teeth walked through it.
Panic surged through Rafael, and suddenly I was shoved away so fast that everything spun around me…
I blinked at Cara. I was breathing as though I’d just run a marathon.
“What did you see?” Kiko was watching me with wide eyes.
Had I seen enough to Jump to Rafael? My brain scrambled to set in stone what I’d witnessed. “I saw through Rafael’s eyes where they are keeping him. With his crystal—it might be enough to Jump to him. But even if I managed it, it won’t matter if I can’t break him free from the chains and manacles.” I twisted my fingers together. “And my only chance of getting to those kids is to Jump right in with them. No way I can fight my way through their guards.
Vali pushed herself off the wall and moved to lean on the table. “Has he seen where they are kept?”
“He gave me a visual description of the room.” I told her about the library and garden.
Her eyes lit up. “I think I’ve been in that library. It used to be full of books, and the double doors opened into a garden. Not many strongholds had gardens, and most libraries were on the upper floors.”
I stared at her. “You visited their libraries?”
She chewed vigorously on her pinky nail before replying. “Xumi wasn’t much of a reader, but the books in those places were ancient, accumulated by generations of underlords. When I was younger, she let me collect some to take home.” Her fingers curled and uncurled. “I know of only two libraries that open onto a ground floor. And only one has a garden. It’s near Rannkin, in the heart of the Hunnite Mountains, in the Briatic realm.”
We knew where they were. But before I could get too excited, Cara asked, “How deep in Brock’s territory is it?”
