Her last memories came flooding back in one nauseating rush. Being at her place with Dagan. Ronin storming in and fighting him. Fleeing to Central Park…where she met Thorne and he convinced her to go back to his apartment with him.
Lina forced her eyes open, and it took everything she had not to hurl. Her gaze fell on Thorne, who sat on a burgundy wingback chair across from the unfamiliar bed she reclined on.
“You drugged me, ass-face!”
“Yeah,” he said agreeably, nodding his head. He casually rested his folded hands behind his head. “That was one major dose I injected you with. Had to make sure you stayed out of it for a while.”
Fury constricted her chest, and she tried to shoot out of the bed, but dizziness set in, forcing her to settle for sitting up slowly. “How dare you? You realize I’m going to kill you, right?”
He chuckled, seemingly oblivious to the stark truth threading her tone.
“Come on, it’s not so bad, is it?” He spread his arms. “Look at this place. Your bedroom is bigger than our entire house back in Infernum.”
Lina swallowed her automatic retort and took a moment to take stock of her surroundings. She was on a king-sized four-poster bed made of dark wood. The canopy was covered in burgundy velvet that matched the heavy coverlet beneath her. The bedroom was indeed huge, and textured burgundy wallpaper covered the majority of the walls, while the doors were the same dark wood as the bed frame. A stone fireplace was cut into the wall directly to the left of the bed, sort of catty-corner to the writing desk where Thorne sat.
She swallowed past another burst of nausea and asked the obvious next question. “Where am I?”
He gave her a wolfish grin. “Romania.”
“Romania?” she repeated blankly. “How?” More importantly, “Why?”
Thorne shrugged and removed his hands from behind his head, slapping them onto the delicate antique desk. “I brought you through the hidden portal that’s located outside of New York City.”
She let out a gasp, wrapping her arms around her stomach when it roiled and her vision blurred. “That’s real? I heard the rumor…”
“Oh, it’s real. And my employer discovered it. He also owns this place.” He spread his arms wide. “A castle. A freaking castle, Lina. Can you believe how far I’ve come?”
The grin on his face said it all. He thought he’d made it big time, all because he happened to work for some eccentric rich dude.
“Who’s your employer?” she asked. “And why did you bring me to his castle?”
Thorne gave another nonchalant shrug. “Just some dark fae I met several months ago.”
Dark fae?
His expression sobered, and he scooted his chair closer to the bed. “He’s crazy powerful, Lina, and you should see what he’s paying me. We’ll be set for life, babe. I can finally take care of you the way you deserve to be taken care of.”
Dread settled in the pit of her stomach, twisting and burning in her gut like the remnants of the drug she’d been injected with. “Wait, this dark fae you’re working for…is this the crazy fuck the Council is hunting?”
He frowned. “He says the Council is compromised. He’s going to bring justice to us all.”
She shook her head, fighting past the dizziness that accompanied the movement. The dark fae had convinced Thorne he was seeking justice? And from the way Thorne was speaking, it sounded like he actually expected her to be happy he was doing all this for her.
Was he out of his mind?
“What’s this got to do with me?” she asked flat-out. “Why did you bring me here?”
Thorne’s expression grew sheepish, and his gaze dropped. “Well…”
Oh, no. Just from the look on his face, she could tell she wasn’t going to like this. Not one bit.
“Well, what?”
He took a breath, but before he could respond, the antique ivory knob on one of the doors turned, and the door swung partially open, revealing a tall, gaunt figure of a man on the other side. His hair was dark and his skin the customary bluish-gray of a dark fae. He wore a flowing black robe, and power pulsed off his figure in intense waves that billowed the fabric. His eyes fixed on her, and he gave her a genial smile.
Holy shit.
Lina swallowed hard and fought the urge to scramble further back on the bed. It wouldn’t do to show him just how much his mere presence unnerved her, and besides, her back was already against the headboard.
“Hello, my dear,” the dark fae said, his voice gruff and filled with power. “Glad to see you’ve awakened.”
Oh, damn. Dark fae were notorious for their power and unpredictability, and she could instinctively tell just by looking at this one that his abilities surpassed most. From the sizzle in the air, it seemed his body couldn’t even contain it all.