Their Fireheart

Chapter Twenty Two

Aelin

The following night, I leaned against the damp wall of an abandoned room off one of the older sewer tunnels, cloaked, armed and masked. Watching dispassionately as my mates circled the bound Valg commander in the center of the space.

The plan had, as expected, gone off without a hitch. It had been pathetically easy in all honesty.

I'd had to force myself to focus on this one step, this one thing we had to accomplish before the rest of my plan could be put into play. I knew what came next, everything else that would need to be done, but I couldn't dwell on it. Not yet. No matter how much I wish I could put it off indefinitely, I knew I had to repay Arobynn's little favor first.

So, that's what I was going to do. Clear my debt, and ensure he paid his.

Earlier in the afternoon, my mates and I had stalked the Valg patrols from the rooftop, eventually picking the smallest patrol led by the mildest commander. Right before the patrols switched shifts, the five of us had ambushed them in a quiet part of the city. I'd only had time to kill two guards before my mates had successfully cut off the commander from the rest of his men - who were slaughtered soon after.

Black blood still dripped from my blades when I faced the commander and pretended to falter. Taking off in a run, the commander chased after me - too caught up in the hunt to realize he was being lured towards the nearby sewer entrance.

I made sure he had enough time to catch the flash of my blond hair as I slipped inside, knowing he wouldn't be able to resist following me into the tunnels he thought the Valg controlled.

Once inside, he hadn't even had the time to realize it was a trap before I rendered him unconscious with a sharp blow to the base of his skull with my dagger's hilt.

My fae warriors had arrived within heartbeats, just in time to help drag his carcass down the decrepit tunnels, into the ancient room we'd uncovered earlier in the day, where we'd chained him to a chair.

Waiting for him to wake up had been tedious, but now came the fun part.

"You've signed your death warrants, you worthless maggots. The king will make you pay for this, and we'll destroy everything you hold dear," the thing inside the guard's body snarled.

My mates' chests rumbled in warning at the creature's sinister words, but I was far from phased.

"Forgive us for not shaking in our boots. Somehow, I doubt the king will care very much about one of his weak little pawns" I drawled, cocking my head to look the vile thing in the eyes - eyes that did not belong to it. "And you must not be a very impressive demon, to be captured so easily."

The thing curled its lips in a semblance of a snarl, but then seemed to freeze.

I watched curiously as the guard began to blink rapidly, shaking ever so slightly. Surely the human the body belonged to wasn't - surely, he wasn't fighting it?

Intrigued, I loosed a tendril of power from the amulet around my neck, pushing the Valg back the barest amount. The guard's muddy brown eyes glazed over, unfocused, before they cleared - latching onto me with startling clarity.

"I'm - I'm not a demon," the human hissed, as if each word burned him.

I crossed my arms as I stared him down. Rowan and Cassian circled him, predators closing in on their prey - daring him to even flinch in my direction.

"Then what's the ring for?" I asked.

A gasp of breath escaped the man - human - labored, heavy. "To enslave us - corrupt us."