Page 67 of Broken Lands

Panic grew inside me, my chest constricting and my heart beating furiously in my chest as memories slowly came back to me. Keeping still, trying not to alert anyone that I was awake, I tried to piece together where the fuck I was.

Quick glimpses came back to me.

Of dancing with Stefan and talking with Lincoln on the beach. Of Colonel Stubbe calling him away.

An explosion and the sounds of fire and of men roaring. My men, I think. Roaring for me.

Fuck. We’d been attacked.

I’d been taken.

Fear had me calling on that well of power inside me, hoping I could somehow break free of the chains around my wrist. The power flowed to my hands, and fizzled out, unable to escape.

“What the fuck?” I muttered aloud. There went any pretense that I was yet to awaken.

Next to me in the darkness, another set of chains rattled, followed by a sharp intake of breath. Stiffening, I strained my eyes in the gloom, trying to pinpoint where the movement had come from, who might be in here with me. I couldn’t see a fucking thing. Fuck.

“Riley? You’re awake?”

I froze, the voice one I’d recognize anywhere. One I’d been dying to hear since he’d left and ascended to Danann a long two years ago.

Tears slid down my cheeks as I turned toward the voice, needing to know if it was him. If he were real and not a figment of my imagination. Had the knock to my head rattled me that hard?

“James?” I asked. If he were here with me, then…

“Yeah, it’s me, sis.”

The Resistance had me.