Please be all right. He wouldn’t be able to live if anything happened to Darling. He knew that.

Darling was his entire world. He always had been.

And as he watched Nykyrian carrying Darling on board their ship, a bad premonition went through him.

By their actions with this, the Resistance had awakened the devil himself and there would be hell to pay for it. Not from Maris. Not from the Sentella.

But from Darling.

If there was anything in this universe Darling truly hated, it was being a victim. Having his hands tied so that he couldn’t fight back.

It was an unforgivable sin where Darling was concerned. And contrary to popular thought, Darling was one of the most skilled fighters out there. Maris would even run him up against Nemesis/Nykyrian.

Once Darling regained his strength from this, he would become the very god of death and retribution that Hauk had proclaimed him as a joke. No one suspected that darkest side of Darling existed, but Maris knew and it scared him to the core of his soul.

Take cover, bitches.

The right hand of retaliation was about to come calling. And it was going to be brutal.

There would be no escape or sanctuary. Not for any of them. May the gods take pity on all who came into Kere’s path because he knew Darling wouldn’t.

6

Darling came awake slowly to the sound of something beeping in a steady rhythm nearby. He held his breath, waiting for that familiar, rancid pain to kick in.

It didn’t.

But when he tried to open his eyes and couldn’t, panic tore through him immediately. Had they finally blinded him?

Am I dead?

He felt a kind, gentle touch on his shoulder. “Sh… It’s okay, baby. It’s me, Mari. Don’t strain yourself. You’re safe. No one’s going to hurt you.”

Darling relaxed at the sound of Maris’s soothing voice in his ear. He tried to speak, but he couldn’t do that either.

What was in his mouth now? Even with Maris here, panic consumed him.

Maris took his right hand, and cupped it with both of his. “You’re in the Sentella’s hospital. Syn’s been tending you since you were freed. We have you, sweetie. It’s all good now. Don’t worry about anything, okay?”

Darling tightened his hand around Maris’s fingers as gratitude overwhelmed him and he remembered his rescue. It hadn’t been a dream after all. He was free and alive.

Thank the gods.

“Is he awake?” That was Caillen’s voice from a distance.

Darling heard his heavy footsteps as he neared the bed on the opposite side of where Maris stood. Since Caillen had been trained as a smuggler and not a thief or assassin, his footsteps were very distinctive and extremely loud compared to the rest of Darling’s friends.

“He just woke up.”

Someone touched Darling’s left arm in a roughened grip. “Boy, I ought to kick your ass for this. What kind of fool-headed lunacy were you thinking? Taking off alone? You better be glad you’re on a monitor or I’d be strangling you right now.” That was Hauk’s gruff, accented voice, taking him to task. Something that meant the Andarion had been terrified for real. Hauk had the most screwed up way of showing his emotions.