She let go.
Zens crowed as she flew into the air, stopping just beneath the rock ceiling. He laughed, rubbing his hands together. Beside him, 000 guffawed.
In a sudden clatter of chains, Roberto was behind 000, a chain around the beast’s neck, garroting it. “Free the women, Zens. Or I’ll kill Triple.”
Zens turned, eyes radiating malice. “Go ahead. It’s just a tharuk, Roberto, I kill them all the time.”
“Really?” Roberto raised an eyebrow, as cool as a winter’s morning. He tightened the chains.
000 gurgled, red eyes bulging.
Zens’ face contorted with rage. “Harm 000 and the Queen’s Rider’s skull will be smashed on the stone, scattering her brains.” Zens waved a hand.
Ezaara plummeted toward the floor. She’d never see Zaarusha again.
He flicked his hand, arresting her fall, a body’s breadth from the granite. Ezaara sucked in a gulp of air.
“Just another tharuk?” Roberto said, tightening the chain a notch.
Ezaara shot back up, hovering below the ceiling.
Zens said, “Take your pathetic sister and go, but I warn you, Roberto, harm 000, and you’ll hear your darling Queen’s Rider scream.”
“Adelina, open the door.” Roberto yanked on 000’s chain.
Zens snarled as Roberto manhandled 000 out the door, Adelina on his heels.
Ezaara tried to swallow, but couldn’t. Oh gods, he was abandoning her.
Mage Fire
Zens twitched his fingers. Ezaara landed gently on the floor.
“And you thought he loved you? He’s incapable of love. He’s saving his own skin and leaving you to rot.”
Ezaara barricaded her mind, shutting Zens out. Roberto had left to save Adelina. He’d had no choice. But as the door thudded shut, Ezaara’s heart shattered into a thousand pieces, the shards plummeting to the floor.
§
Roberto stumbled out the door, keeping the pressure on the chains around 000’s neck. Shards, he was weak. Physically, but also emotionally for leaving Ezaara behind. His chest was a ragged hole of desolation.
Adelina barred the door. The wooden beam rattled in its fitting—Zens, no doubt. Gods, what would he do to Ezaara? Adelina gathered up the loose end of the chain around Roberto’s leg, swinging it. She hit the tharuk on the head. 000 dropped to the floor.
“Adelina, the key to my shackles is around its neck.” Roberto disentangled his arm chain from around 000’s throat.
His sister unlocked Roberto’s burning arm and leg. That was much better, now he could move.
Thumping sounded in the tunnel. Adelina’s eyes flew wide. “What’s that?”
Someone was running toward them—a lot of someones. “Tharuks. Quick.” Roberto hoisted Adelina up into a ventilation shaft near the door—must have been the one Ezaara had used when she’d first come through his door. Gods, Ezaara. He’d left her with that monster. Hot tears pricked his eyes.
“Hurry,” Adelina hissed.
Roberto tried to jump up to the shaft but failed. Adelina held her arms down. “Grab hold.”
He was too weak. Roberto rolled 000’s body over against the wall, grunting and stopping to catch his breath. Then he propped the tharuk up against the wall and climbed up his body, grasping Adelina’s hands and walking his feet up the wall. She hoisted him into the shaft.
Roberto crawled on battered limbs, his head throbbing and gashes bleeding. But it was nothing compared to the ache in his chest at leaving Ezaara behind.
§
Zens burned with anger, his mind searing hot. When had Roberto figured out that 000 meant so much to him? That his first creation was his only true friend? 000 was the only intelligent, formidable tharuk. Zens had deliberately engineered the grunts to be dumb, so he could keep them in submission. He’d sacrifice every other tharuk to save 000’s hide.
He melded with 000. Darkness. Not dead, but unconscious. If Amato’s whelp had damaged Triple …
Revenge would come later. Roberto would not get away with this. No one threatened 000.
Zens melded with the nearest troop, sending them into the tunnels after Roberto and his sister. He would own Roberto. Break him and mold him to his will.
Although weak, Amato’s whelp had been walking properly. So, Roberto wasn’t limplocked anymore. Someone had given him antidote. Now that he wasn’t going to die, Zens could still use him.
His eyes slid over the pretty Queen’s Rider lying on the floor. Roberto had found love, despite all Zens had done to him. The best way to break Roberto would be to make him destroy this girl himself.
Zens licked his lips. Now, that was the perfect plan.
§
The tunnels echoed with thumping and snorts. The stench of tharuk crept along the shaft toward Roberto and Adelina. He crawled on, every strike of his palms and knees ricocheting through his battered body. One arm gave out. His face hit stone. He couldn’t go on.
“Come, on, you can do it,” Adelina whispered, voice trembling.
He had to. For Adelina. For Ezaara. Gods, Zens had ruined him.
Adelina hoisted him to his elbows, half dragging him along the shaft.
A low snarl made the hair on Roberto’s neck rise. He forced his clumsy, broken body on. The snarls grew louder. Closer. “Flee,” Roberto whispered. “Leave me and flee.”
Adelina shook her head, yanking him forward. They crept around a corner.
Tusks gleamed among a mass of dark fur.
Adelina screamed. She kicked and fought, but the wall of tusks and fur dragged her off.
Pain seared through Roberto’s leg. “Got you,” the tharuk behind him snarled, digging its sharp claws in, and hauling him backward, away from his sister.
§
The door opened. Ezaara glanced up. Was Zens returning? No, it was 000 with tharuk grunts. They dragged someone inside. The shrotty beasts had recaptured Adelina. The
