“We will avenge your death, Maximus.” His deep voice vibrated with the intensity of a zealot, committed to telling the world it was about to end.
Diana started. He was speaking to the boy leaning against the tree. The boy merely looked up. His gaze was sullen and doubtful, the look that any teenager might shoot a parent they thought was stupid. It was out of place in this solemn world. So normal that it made her ache for the boy despite her fear.
“Who’s there?” The man’s head snapped up and his black eyes bored into Diana. Her heart. “Someone’s there, I can sense you.”
“Gotta go.” Esha’s voice shook.
Diana nodded emphatically despite her desire to stay with Vivienne, who’d now opened her eyes and was blindly searching the clearing. Diana’s stomach soured at the sight of her friend, trapped and bound, but she couldn’t help her if they were caught unawares.
“Come on, Esha,” she whispered. Why weren’t they leaving?
“I—I can’t.” Her voice trembled with strain.
“What can I do?”
“Imagine the chamber. Picture as many details as you can. It could help, since our minds are linked in this.”
Diana struggled to bring the image to mind, but the man was getting closer. Her breath began to saw in and out of her lungs. He couldn’t hurt them. Couldn’t.
She squeezed her eyes shut and visualized the chamber. Their bodies still stood there; they just had to return their minds.
“That’s it—it’s working,” Esha said.
When Diana opened her eyes, the scene in front of her began to fizzle out like a dying fog. A moment later, they were standing in the underground chamber.
“Hang onto me, I’m getting us out of here.” Esha’s grip tightened, Diana felt a brief tug, and they were back in Esha’s flat. She reached out to steady herself against the couch, swallowing hard against her roiling stomach.
“What was that? Why were we trapped? Could he see us?”
“I—I don’t know. That’s never happened before.” Esha sat on the couch and buried her hands in her hair. “None of this has ever happened before.”
Chapter 27
“They had better be back here, damn it,” Cadan said as he pounded on the door to Esha’s flat.
He stood next to Warren, rage and confusion brewing a bubbling poison in his veins, waiting, hoping, for their knock to be answered. At Warren’s suggestion, they’d tracked Diana and Esha to the underground. They hadn’t seen them there, nor had the guards. Either they hadn’t been there, or Esha had cast a spell to hide them.
It had taken them nearly twenty minutes to get from the chamber back to Esha’s tower flat in hopes that they might have returned. They had no other leads. He hated this feeling.
Diana had run off alone. A sense of helplessness he hadn’t felt in millennia fueled the anger vibrating through him. Ever since losing Boudica the first time, he’d become obsessed with controlling his environment and having a handle on things. Like her.
He’d tried to let go of Diana after she’d left him tied up in his own house. He hadn’t wanted to come after her. But then Warren had arrived, sent by Esha to free him from the Maoin straps. He’d been bloody lucky the goddess Aerten had been in a meeting with Warren when Esha had told him about Cadan. She’d helped Warren get to him so quickly. When faced with a chance to return, Cadan had felt compelled to do so. When he’d stood across from Diana in Esha’s flat earlier today, he’d realized why.
She was his heart.
He’d been stupid to ever think, no matter how briefly, that he could stay away from her. Diana drew him toward her like a dying man to his last sight of the sky. But the way she’d looked at him when he’d said that all he’d wanted to do was protect her...
“Gods damn it.” He pounded on the door again. They’d been standing here five minutes and he was starting to wonder if this was hopeless when the door swung open to reveal a scowling Esha.
“Hold your horses, damn it,” she said irritably. “What are you doing here?”
“Are you joking? I’m here for Diana,” Cadan said.
Esha raised a brow. “Any idea how she feels about that?”
“Doona care.” He pushed past her into the room. “Are you all right?” He directed the words at Diana, who stood near the couch.
She glared at him. He’d take that as a yes.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, running off?” He was at her side in a moment, running his hands over her, checking for injuries while she struggled to pull away. Relief that she was unhurt washed over him and he released her when she started to struggle.
“What I’m supposed to do! Trying to save Vivienne and stop that bastard Gaius Suetonius Paulinus.” The gleam of battle lit her eyes as she squirmed out of his grip.
“What?” It had been centuries since he’d heard the name of the Roman general. Millennia, even. And who the hell was Vivienne?
“Who is Gaius Sue Whatever?” Esha asked.