Rapture. Jacquelyn Frank

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      Brendan was gaping, he knew, as the not-so-shy girl exited the room.

      “Boy, she’s got you pegged,” Magnus remarked, pausing in his meal to grin at his friend.

      “Yeah, huh? I think I’m jealous.”

      “No, you’re not,” Magnus returned calmly, although Brendan knew there was nothing calm about it. It was a warning, plain and simple. It made Brendan frown. The Magnus he knew would never have been that insecure. It infuriated him, thinking of how screwed up everything had gotten with Karri. Poison! The idea of a man like Magnus being left to die that way! It was unconscionable. The man was a warrior and should die as a warrior, not at the deceitful hand of the one woman he had trusted the most.

      “Probably not,” he agreed. “I like them a little more on the loyal and bubble-headed side. Like Nan was.”

      “Nan was a fantastic lady. Darkness keep her safe.”

      “I know. And I miss her like hell.” Brendan shed the emotions that came with the thought by smiling. “Especially around bath time.”

      “Bren.” Magnus chuckled.

      “Well, she had a way with a sponge,” he said unrepentantly.

      “Keep it up, I’ll have you doing penance for besmirching the dead.”

      Brendan wisely changed tack, although he went for the throat when he did. “How do you feel about Daenaira?”

      Magnus knew Brendan was just about the only one who would have dared ask the question. He supposed it needed asking, though. “I’ll let you know when I know her for longer than five seconds.”

      “You don’t even have a feel for her yet? Where’d she come from? She’s not a student here. I would remember, err, her attributes.”

      “Bad edit, my friend,” Magnus warned him. “A little respect, please.”

      “You’re right. Sorry. But, uh, I was talking about her hair color, my friend,” Brendan said with amusement.

      Magnus looked up in surprise. Brendan had a huge grin on his face, enjoying having his trap walked into so neatly. Magnus had no choice but to smile a bit sheepishly. “Yeah. She’s got quite the, uh…”

      “Hair color,” Brendan added helpfully.

      Both men chuckled.

      “Magnus!”

      Brendan watched his friend freeze for three of the longest heartbeats on record, and then they were both on their feet and running. Magnus touched his hip as he ran, but there was no weapon there. Brendan grabbed for his backup, a Lithe dagger, and slapped it into the other priest’s palm. They both tore down the hall toward the main stairwell, hoping to Drenna that she called out again because everything split off from there. Then Magnus came up short.

      “No. She doesn’t know this way. She wouldn’t wander.”

      He doubled back, cursing himself for not thinking straight. It was only another corridor to the back stairs, but it seemed like miles as his heart raced with dread and worse.

      When he saw her crawling over the floor, he felt the world drop out from under him. He dropped to his knees as he skidded to a halt beside her, the dagger clattering to the floor as he gathered her up tightly to himself.

      “Where?” he rasped, unable to catch his breath as she clung as hard to him as he did to her.

      “The stairs,” she said.

      Brendan was off in a flash, running through the doors behind them.

      “Gods, let me look at you,” he demanded, dropping his hold a few inches so he could see her. She was burned. Her face was bright red, her hands and chest as well. “What in Light did they do to you?”

      “A light. A strobe. Gods, it burned! I can’t see.” She swallowed and coughed, and he wanted to hold her tighter but feared hurting her where she was scorched. “He tried to…shit. Shit, shit, shit.”

      She was going to cry like some big stupid baby. Dae did not cry. She fought. She won or she lost, but she never cried.

      “Tell me you fought really, really dirty,” he commanded of her.

      “Like mud in a pig’s sty,” she said with a shaking laugh that helped thwart the urge to cry. “I think I have penis under my nails.”

      Magnus laughed, a hard fall of sound as he hugged her tight again despite his concerns. “See, that’s what I wanted. A fighter.”

      “Okay, but please can we keep it to once a day? That was a bit of overkill.”

      “Yes, baby, it was. I’m so sorry. I can’t seem to keep any promises for you today. I said no one would touch you.”

      “Well, I touched harder. That counts for something.”

      “Yeah, it sure does.”

      Magnus looked up when Brendan came back through the doors and shook his head.

      “Aw, fuck. I can’t believe he got up!” she grumbled when she realized Brendan had returned empty-handed. “I thought I had him good.”

      “You blooded him well enough,” Brendan said with a grin.

      “Great. Now we just have to get everyone to drop their drawers and we’ll have our man,” she said dryly.

      “Okay, let’s get you back to our rooms,” Magnus said softly, rising to his feet with her.

      “She should go to a healer.”

      “No!” It was a single, terrible word, but it spoke volumes about Magnus’s shattered trust. Brendan wasn’t inclined to push him again.

      “I found this. This guy had a damn death wish, using something this strong.” Brendan showed Magnus a battery-operated lamp with a focused beam of light before he shattered the bulb against a wall. “Where the hell does someone get something like this down here?”

      Magnus and Brendan looked at each other.

      “Hydroponics,” they said together.

      “Yeah, that stands for ‘the place with the lights,’” Dae sighed.

      “It’s a highly secure area. Very few people have access to it. This could narrow our search immensely,” Magnus told her.

      “Great. Magnus?”

      “Yes, K’yindara?”