Page 29 of Wicked Enemy
“Yeah.”
A side door was opened from farther into the throne room. I slid my gaze to it to find Gemma striding across the threshold and straight towards me. Her wavy light brown hair had been pulled up in a ponytail, and her kind brown eyes moved anxiously around the room.
“Tyler?” she asked as she closed the distance to us. But before I could answer, she added, “And the others?”
I just shook my head.
Worry swirled in her eyes, but she managed a nod. “We’ll get them out next time.”
I wasn’t sure whether I was annoyed or pleased by her confidence. But before I could figure it out, she let that emotionless expression descend on her features that she usually wore when she was blocking out her feelings and concentrating on her work.
“Can I go back to my own home now?” she demanded.
“I really would prefer it if you would stay here. Just until we can get this mess sorted.”
“I know you would.” She leveled a no-nonsense stare at me. “But you know how I feel about hiding inside your Court. What if someone needs help? I need to be in my own home so that I can help the ones who actually need it. This was a one-time concession.”
And a damn hard-won concession at that. Since both Shinji and I were heading to the north side, I hadn’t wanted Gemma to remain in her house unprotected, in case one of the other gangs was stupid enough to attack. I didn’t trust my household staff and low-level fighters to keep her safe, so I had convinced her to stay hidden inside my Court while we carried out the rescue attempt. And byconvincedI meant, I practically had to beg her to do it just this once.
“Fine.” I heaved a deep sigh. “You can go back home.”
She gave me a nod. Then her eyes softened as she scanned my body. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
For a moment, it looked like she was going to say something else. But then she just turned around and walked towards the front doors.
I tipped my head back and blew out another long breath. In the ceiling above, the oil lamps still swung slightly on their chains from when I had hurled the sheet of metal into the wall. It made the firelight dance over the gray walls.
“Not to add to an already shitty situation, but…” Shinji began.
Tilting my head back down, I met his apologetic eyes. “What?”
“Anna told me that she and the other runners have been hearing rumors that the House of Stone is planning an attack too.”
I wanted to scream. Or bang my head against the wall. Or kill someone and watch the blood splatter my metal walls like paint while the light died from their eyes. But I couldn’t do any of those things, so instead I forced myself to just ask, “On the Court?”
“No. They seemed to have learned their lesson after you impaled those guys from both the House of Onyx and Lightning, so they’re apparently not in a hurry to try the same tactic. Instead, it sounds like they’re planning to attack you when you’re out in the street. Less metal. Fewer defenses.”
“Fucking hell.”
“So please be careful, sir.”
“Yeah. I—”
The front doors were yanked open. I whipped around towards them while slapping my palms together, but then stopped when I realized that it was just Gemma.
Confusion whirled through me at the sight of her wide eyes.
“Levi!” she yelled. A sheet of paper flapped in her hand as she ran towards me. There was a knife in her other one. “Levi, they took her.”
“Took who? What’s going on?”
While sprinting the final distance, she shook the paper and the knife in the air. “This was lodged in the table in my reception room when I got back.”
“Okay?”
She skidded to a halt in front of me. My heart stopped for a second at the dread pooling in her eyes as she pushed the paper into my hands. “Read it.”