The room was still glowing from the bomb that had gone off. The body, no longer in the chair that had held it. This had been a trap, or a warning. We needed to get outside, but I didn’t have enough power to move the bubble even with the added powers.
"Syn!" Larissa shouted as blood erupted from my nose. Ryder moved in closing the distance, his eyes scanning my face.
"Why is it hurting her?" He demanded in an angry voice that scraped on my nerves.
"She took the brunt of the explosion. The spell is a reflection of herself. Her magic is the base of it, so she takes the damage portion of it."
I wanted to tell Larissa to shut it, Ryder didn’t need to know my secrets, or that I was the only Witch who had ever been able to wield this certain spell. I had been one of the only ones willing to train in the Dark Arts, besides Adrian.
I felt my body growing heavy, the room was still ablaze, thick putrid smoke that could suffocate my team still lingered. I turned my head ignoring the dizziness that assaulted my mind as I searched for the door. It had been blown closed in the explosion.
Ryder noticed where I was looking and moved into action. "Dristan, we need to get them out of here. Zahruk clear the room."
They all ducked, as Dristan and Zahruk stepped up and held hands chanting in the language of the Fae. It was taking every ounce of energy I had to concentrate while keeping the barrier between the fire and us in place.
In the few moments it took them to get the words out, the house gave an audible shake that I felt down inside my bones and exploded outwards. The moment it did, I fell and almost hit the floor, but Ryder was quick as he reached out and grabbed beneath my arms and pulled me against his tall frame, already moving away from the carnage that now looked as if a nuclear bomb had been dropped on the house instead of a small bomb.
I closed my eyes, unable to keep them open any longer and gave in to oblivion for a moment. The warmth that surrounded me was welcomed and comforting even if it was because I was now being cradled in the Dark Prince's arms.
"Lay her down, I can heal her," Larissa assured him but I felt him tense as if questioning her motives.
"Please," I whispered hating that I had to ask him for anything, but I needed her to heal the pain that was threatening to become relentless. I felt the cool grass as it met my tender skin, wet with the evening dew.
I felt Larissa's hands as she placed them, one on my heart and one on my forehead as she performed the healing white magic which she was known for. It was also why she wasn't included on a lot of our missions. Enforcers didn’t normally need a healer for killing.
"The scene," I whispered realizing that any chance we had to find the person responsible for the brutal murder was gone.
"Destroyed," Ryder growled standing up to his full height.
I stretched my neck, testing out the pain in my head before I sat up and then stood so he wasn’t so tall. Not that it helped since the guy was freakishly large, looking at him from flat on my back on the cold damp ground was just not an option.
When I had made it to my entire five foot six stance, I felt down my back and hips making sure I was still in one piece. This day sucked—big time. I'd felt an itching in my hand long before I felt the air sizzle around us—a reminder that I was connected to him now. As if it wasn't bad enough standing inside a house with a woman missing her most delicate parts, the only reason I knew something was wrong because of the blasted contract!
I needed more coffee before I could deal with this crap. I wasn’t sure if there was enough coffee in the entire world to deal with the Fae though. I turned, watching the smoke waft up into the chilly night air, thick plumes of it a stark reminder at how close we'd come to death this night.
"You prevented us from taking damage, thank you," Zahruk said softly surprising me more than if he'd said my ass was on fire.
"I saved my coven," I replied softly unsure how to accept his compliment.
His lips twisted up into a smirk. "Still, I don’t fancy a night in a healing tank so thank you."
I nodded at a loss for what he expected. He was Fae and thanking me for saving him from being harmed. It stood against everything I stood for and yet with the bonding of the contract I'd been helpless to do anything less than save Ryder which was a bitter pill to swallow. I turned back looking at the onlookers.
No one in the crowd stood out, the green aura wasn’t present among any of those standing across the yellow line of tape. I'd never seen that color of aura before, not from any of the creatures we had trained to combat or assassinate, which wasn’t a good thing.
"What creature has a green aura?" I asked as Adam stepped up beside me, his eyes scanning me for bodily damage.
"Ask them," he tilted his head in the direction of the Fae. I scrunched my face with distaste.