Anya Bast - Witch Heart

"Nice way to treat your daughter," muttered Isabelle.

"I had no choice!" Rue shouted, closing his eyes for a moment and clenching his fists. "The Atrika would have killed her had she stayed in the spell room. If the Atrika had captured me and extracted the elium, all the demon breeds but the Atrika would now be exterminated or close to it. I had no idea that the two Atrika would lunge through the doorway after you. I did not intend for that to happen."

Claire folded her arms across her chest. "They've killed many witches here." Her tone dropped the temperature of the room. "They were going to kill me. The Coven has paid a high price to keep the elium safe."

"We weren't keeping the elium safe," said Thomas. "We were keeping you safe, Claire, no matter what we may have told you." The head of the Coven stepped forward to stand beside her. His black eyes seemed endless with hot fury. "You'd better tell me right now, Rue, that you have a way to take the elium from her safely. I want you to take the elium and then take yourself the fuck out of my home." His voice shook.

It was the closest Claire had ever seen the normally well-controlled witch to losing his temper.

Rue fixed his gaze on Thomas. "There is no need for us to be enemies."

Isabelle made a scoffing sound. "You tried to kill him. You tortured him to within an inch of his life! If it hadn't been for Claire, he might have died in your dungeon. You did all this and think we can be friends?"

Rue kept his gaze on Thomas's face while he answered Isabelle. "We never would have killed your mate. We had no idea, of course, the extent to which Claire was interfering." His turned his frosty eyes to her for a moment. "However, we never would have allowed a man as important as the head mage of your people to perish in our care. We simply needed information." He paused. "We still need information."

"You'll get nothing from us," answered Thomas. "Can you take the elium from her or not?"

"Where are the Atrika ?"

"Still out there, still wanting the weapon. The sooner you take it from her, the sooner she'll be safe from them. If you care about her the way you say, you'll take it from her soon."

Rue jerked his chin at her. "Then we must leave immediately." He reached out, snagged Claire's arm, and jerked her forward.

"The hell you're taking her anywhere," Adam roared.

Rage distorted Rue's handsome face and Claire's stomach twisted in fear. "She is mine, aeamon. My property. The fact you've lain with her gives you no right—"

Adam punched him.

Rue went careening backward under the force it and hit a chair. He stumbled to the side and raised his gaze to Adam's. There was murder on his face. His eyes were red and his fangs had extended.

Claire stalked to Rue and slapped him across the face. "How dare you treat me like a dog to be commanded? I am not property, not anymore. I am home, where I belong." She motioned to Adam and the others. "Among the people I should be with. You say you think of me as your daughter, but you hardly want the best for me, do you? The best thing is to leave me alone, let me stay here with them."

He looked shocked. "Do you want that?"

She closed her eyes in frustration and fisted her hand in her hair. "Home, Rue. I just said I'm home. Of course I want to stay."

Rue looked so surprised and, yes, a little bit hurt, that she went to her knees in front of him. "You've treated me well. Without you, I would've died on Eudae. I thank you for that." She pressed her lips together. "But you could've sent me home, right? You could have opened a doorway and sent me back here at any time. Isn't that correct?"

"To what? You had no one here. Your mother was dead and you didn't know who or where your father was. I thought you were happy with your life on Eudae. I didn't think you wanted to come back to Earth."

There had been many years in which she'd most likely have balked at the opportunity to come back here. It was a foreign place to her. Even when she'd had the opportunity to return when Thomas had jumped through, she'd stayed behind. Still… "You never asked me. Not once. You never gave me the choice, the opportunity. You just kept me like a pet or a servant— your property —and performed your little experiments on me. You denied me the love of a man of my kind… love, period. You denied me anything resembling a normal life."

Rue's jaw worked. "I–I'm sorry."

It was the first time in her life she'd ever seen the great Rue, Cae of the Ytrayi, speechless. It was the first time he had ever apologized for anything.

Rue frowned. "You are so different now. These weeks here on Earth have changed you."

"I am different. I'm changed for the better, Rue." Speaking of the experiments… "Were you trying to make me into a demon?"

Rue stared at her for a moment and then struggled to his feet. "In a manner of speaking. I infused you with the other three elements, but I could never manage to get you to thread them all together."

Claire stood. "Why did you want me to learn that?"

Rue shrugged. "It makes a close approximation of demon magick."

"But it isn't exactly demon magic," Claire inferred.

Rue shook his head and raised his gaze to hers. "You are aeamon, not daaemon. You don't have our full blood, so you cannot carry our full power."

"Except for the elium."

"That's different. It's bundled in a way that you can hold it."

"It's seared onto my seat. I managed to isolate most of it, but there are tendrils of the elium clinging to it. No one can take the weapon out of me without killing me. Not even Tevan and Kai."

Rue shook his head and smiled. "You don't understand. That's because—"

Something in the corridor outside the library exploded. The building shook and plaster rained down from above them. Adam yanked her into his arms and covered her head in an effort to protect her. Magick pulsed, deep through their bones.

Demon magick.

"They're here," said Isabelle unnecessarily from across the room.

"And they're mad," Claire finished.

Rue stormed past them, toward the door. Chances were that Tevan and Kai had no idea Rue had arrived.

They were going to be surprised.

Claire pulled from Adam's arms and followed Rue out into the hallway. Tevan stood with his back to the Cae of the Ytrayi. Tevan turned. If she could have bottled the look on Tevan's face to keep as a memento, she would have.

"You think you've come for the elium," said Rue in Aemni. "But you're getting far more than you bargained for."

Tevan replied by attacking.

Demon magick momentarily bulged the walls of the corridor and Claire found herself yanked back into the library forcibly by Adam. Beyond the doorway power pulsed and destruction reigned.

Another blast of magick made them both hit the floor. Books from the shelves around them slid off and hit the hardwood. The bottles in Thomas's liquor cart rattled until one of them broke in a cascade of amber liquid.

"Houses, I wish Rue hadn't come alone," she muttered. "We could use a few more Ytrayi."

"That begs the question. Where is Kai?" said Adam near her ear.

"Looking for me, probably."

"Come on." He dragged her to her feet and they ran to Thomas and Isabelle who stood clinging to Thomas's desk under the force of the battle beyond the doorway of the library. Two daaemon in the heat of conflict was like a war, complete with cannons.

"We've got to get Claire out of here before Kai shows up. I don't trust Rue to handle both Atrika at once. Hell, I don't trust Rue at all, and I don't think you do either." Adam jerked his chin at the only other way out, the large picture window overlooking the Coven grounds at the far end of the room.