Morana’s head swivels in my direction and she narrows her eyes as I hold my hands out at my sides, palms open, and approach where she stands. I’d dropped the bag with the book next to the car, hoping one of the men would find it when they leave.

If they leave.

God, please let this work.

“What trick is this?” Morana asks, clearly not believing my sudden change of heart.

“No trick.” I look over my shoulder as Carver struggles in Hugo’s grip and then turn my attention back to Morana.

“No, Aura, no! Don’t do this.” Carver shouts, earning him a punch to the jaw from Louis.

I wince but turn my attention away from him to Morana.

She smiles smugly. “You wish for me to save him?” She taps a finger to her lips. “He was once my favorite, but lately he has not been a good boy, have you Carver?” Carver snarls at her, twisting in Hugo’s grip and swearing in French.

“Please, my Queen. I will pledge my life to you and do anything you ask of me.” I try not to choke on the words as they leave my lips, but I’ll say anything to save the lives of the men I love.

Morana flicks her wrist and the guards around Lucian and Marius step back, leaving them to surround their queen. They both look to Carver, still in Hugo and Louis’ clutches. Marius takes a step towards them and Morana clicks her tongue.

“I wouldn’t try it if I were you.” She laughs. “After all, Aura here wants to be with me. You wouldn’t want to upset her, now would you?” She gives me a sharp look and I duck my head.

“Please, Marius. Don’t interfere.” I hope that he hears the command in my voice rather than the subservience I’m trying so hard to show Morana in the hopes that she’ll call off her pet assassins. I step forward, inching my way closer to her, keeping an eye out for any sharp objects pointed my way from her cronies.

“Lyra,” Morana calls for her, and I almost trip. Had she seen Lyra let me go? “Be a dear and escort Aura up to me so she may pledge her life to me for eternity.”

Lyra tilts her head in acknowledgement and approaches me. She grabs my arm in a firm grip and makes a show of pulling me up towards where Morana watches us both with a hawkish stare.

“Kneel.” Morana issues the command and I look back at my men once more, hoping they can see in my eyes that I’m not betraying them.

I do as she asks and kneel in front of her satin covered feet. “What ne-”

“Quiet! I will tell you what to do.” Morana hisses the words and I tense.

“You must promise to let them go and not harm them.” I speak the words so fast they’re almost jumbled together but I say them none the less.

Morana slaps me across the face, her ring splitting open my cheek. The very ring I plan to steal from her. And I cry out, crumpling to the ground in a dramatic show for her. After all, that’s what she called us here for. A show. And I’m going to give her one she’ll never fucking forget.

“Oh, do get up. Let’s get this over with.” Morana waves a hand and a knife appears in it. “Hugo. Louis. Let him go.” I hear a body hit the gravel, but I don’t chance looking over my shoulder to ensure that they did as she said.

Morana cuts her wrist and mutters a few words in a strange guttural language. I try not to roll my eyes, but the only thing I can think of is that she’s cursing some poor soul’s cow or something. I bite my lip to keep from snorting at my own thought and try to focus on my actions. Now’s not the time for laughing, but it’s either that or fall to pieces and beg for mercy. And that’s one thing I refuse to ever give her. I’ll put on a show for her, but she’ll never, ever, see me beg for real.

“Repeat these words: My word is my bond. And by these words, I so bind myself to my queen. For eternity.”

I try not to puke on her as I echo the words back to her, but it’s not easy to keep the bile down.

Morana holds out her hand in front of me and it’s the one with the ring on it. I close my eyes for a moment in relief. Thank god. I clasp her hand in mind and shuffle forward on my knees, getting as close to her as I can. If only I had a knife on me. I’d gut her like a fish and watch her flop around.

But I don’t, so I look up into her eyes and meet her gaze. I lower my mouth until my face obscures her view of her hand and I open my jaw, letting my fangs descend. I pause just over the blood flowing from her wrist, and wait for her command.

“Drink.”

I lick my lips as the smell of her blood hits my nostrils. If only a drop of her blood wasn’t akin to drinking the devil’s poison, I’d suck her dry.

Before I can think much about my actions, I clinch my fingers around her bony wrist and with my other hand, I pull the ring from her finger. At almost the same moment, I sweep my leg out and topple her to the ground and scream.

“I’ve got the ring. Run!”

“Kill them!” Morana screeches from her sprawled place on the asphalt.

I take off like a bat out of hell and head for the car. I grab the bag under the car as I race around to the other side, the door waiting open for me. Carver is already sitting in the back and Lucian is at the wheel. I jump inside the car, and Marius slams it closed behind me as her small army descends around us. Marius shuts his door and hits the locks before shouting, “Gun it!”

And just like that, we shoot off down the gravel drive, with two of Morana’s cronies hanging on to the back of the car like desperate cast offs. I look over at Carver, assessing his injuries and searching his face for any sign of emotion. He’s gritting his teeth and holding onto the oh shit bar next to him as we speed won the driveway.

“Um, Lucian. We have company.” Marius points out.

“Yes, I noticed.” He grunts as he swerves onto the road, gravel spraying behind us as he accelerates. “Persistent little pricks.” He jerks the wheel suddenly and one of them goes flying off. I watch as he tumbles into the gulley on the side of the road. Just as I think we’ve only got one left to deal with, three SUV’s pull out of Morana’s drive, and Hugo’s at the wheel of one of them.

“I’m not so sure this one guy is our biggest problem.” I mutter.

“We’ll out run them.” Carver takes my clenched hand in his, and I loosen my grip around the ring, dropping it into his palm. “I can’t believe you got the ring. I was so worried for a moment that you would sacrifice yourself for me.”

I press my palm to his bruised but healing cheek. “I would have. But I had to try to trick her first.” I smile softly at him. “I was terrified I’d failed you all when I couldn’t find the ring in her bedroom. But when I came back down to the fighting, I saw it glittering in the sunshine on her finger and I just had to do it. I couldn’t not try.”

Carver entwines his fingers with mine, the ring digging into both of our palms. “I know.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t get Jolie.” I whisper the words, yelping at the end when Lucian takes a corner on what I’m sure was two wheels.

“Sorry about that.” He tosses over his shoulder.

“We’ll get her back. But for now, we have Morana’s ring.” He nods to the brown leather bag at my feet. “And you have everything we need to break the blessing on it?”

“Everything but hot iron.” I look back through the rear windshield. “I’m not sure we’ll find that so easily with them chasing us.”

“That’s okay. I’m sure we can find some at the safe house. Maybe you should text Reina and Row so they can either start looking for some or they can have it ready for us.”

I nod. “Good idea.” I search around in the bag for my phone and my fingers hit the leather of the book I’d grabbed from Morana’s bedside chest. I pull it out with my phone. “I found this book. It has Morana’s name in it and a strange language. Maybe it will be helpful.”

Marius looks over his shoulder and raises a brow when he sees the book. “Can I see that?”

I hand it to him, and then type out a quick text to Reina before returning my attention to Marius. I’d rather focus on anything other than how fast we’re going down this winding countryside road with Morana’s goons chasing after us. A shot fires behind us and we all duck.

“Are you kidding me? They’re shooting at us?” Lucian growls the words. “What is this? A spy movie?”

“It would be if you’d quit driving like a grandma.” Marius chuckles.

I raise my brows at his comment, thanking god that I hadn’t eaten actual food before we’d arrived, or it would be sprayed across the backseat with the way that we’re being flung around back here.

“We’re almost to the air strip.” Lucian ignores Marius’s comment and meets my gaze in the rearview mirror. “Marius, give the book back to her, and everyone get ready to jump into the plane. They’ll be hot on our heels and we’ll only have moments to get the doors shut and locked so we can take off.”

“I already told the pilot to be ready to take off immediately.” Marius waves his phone in the air. “We’re good to go.”

“Are you okay to run, Carver?” I look pointedly at his knee, and he grimaces.

“I’ll be fine. Just make sure you get yourself and that ring onto that plane.”

“I won’t leave without you.” I snarl the words, sick of this heroic bullshit. “No more of this saving the lady first crap. We go together or not at all.”

Carver chuckles. “That’s my girl.”

“We’re here. Get ready.” Lucian cranks the wheel and we hit the tarmac at a speed quick enough that if we had wings on this thing we’d probably have taken off already.

I look over my shoulder for those three dark SUV’s but I don’t see them. “Did we lose them?”

Marius snorts. “No. They’re right behind us. Give them three seconds.”

I watch and he’s right. Three seconds later they appear at the gates of the tarmac, but they’re too far away from us to catch us. They could probably shoot at us, not that it would matter, but I don’t think they can reach us before we board the plane and take off.

The car lurches to a stop and we all climb out, sprinting to the door of the airplane. We all rush inside and Marius pulls the door shut, latching it and shouting for the pilot to step on it.

We all stand there for a moment looking at each other like we can’t believe we made it. Bullets ping against the metal of the plane and we all look out the windows at them as they shout. Hugo is driving straight for us, but as the plane starts to move he can’t keep up with us.

Marius flips him the bird through the window, and I laugh, turning around and giving them my back. They can’t touch us. And they won’t be able to find us. Not quickly anyways. For now we’re safe. And we got the ring. Morana will be weakened enough that we can end her life in a more permanent way. Just as soon as we could find some hot iron and perform the small ritual to break the blessing.

We fly into the air and I can’t help but think that we’ll find our answers once we get to Lyra’s home in Ireland. Hopefully she’d be able to join us. Something about her is special. She calls to my instincts like a moth to flame and I can’t help but wonder if she’s the next Dria.

Hopefully once we destroy the ring we’d have more of a chance to regroup and figure out our next steps before Morana could sick her dogs on us. No matter what happens next though, I’ve got my men, and I’m not letting them out of my sight.