AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll fucking kill you if you hurt him,” he growled.
Patrick looked at him with dark, narrowed eyes. “I won’t.”
Oliver had no idea how he would kill Patrick if he had to. He had no training and no weapons, and Patrick had both in spades. But as he watched Patrick advance on Mal’ik kneeling on the ground with his neck exposed, Oliver was pretty sure he could fucking find a way.
Patrick got to Mal’ik and shoved Mal’ik’s dark hair to the side with his free hand. He ran it up and down the back of Mal’ik’s neck and behind his ears. Then he let out a sigh of relief, and his posture dropped. Oliver hadn’t realized how tense the man had been. “Clear.”
Mal’ik surged up and grabbed Patrick’s jaw. Oliver’s heart clenched, but Patrick didn’t move. He just let Mal’ik turn his head and run his hands over the back of Patrick’s neck just like Patrick had done to him.
“Clear.” Then Mal’ik turned to Oliver, and Oliver almost ran to him, except the threatening look in his eyes stopped him dead. He took a step back.
“Mal’ik? What are you doing?”
“Come here, Oliver,” Mal’ik ordered. Oliver couldn’t make himself take a step toward him, but he forced himself to stop taking any steps back. He stood, frozen, as Mal’ik got to him and grabbed his jaw just like he’d grabbed Patrick’s.
His grip was gentler, though, his fingers soft as they traced over the back of his neck and the hollows behind his ears. It would feel nice if they weren’t standing in the middle of the wreckage of an explosion and if Mal’ik didn’t seem like he was still ready for a fight—possibly with Oliver.
But then Mal’ik wrapped his arms around Oliver and pulled him into his chest, and it was definitely a hug and not an attack. “Clear.”
Oliver let himself collapse into Mal’ik’s solid weight. The fear and tension that had been building to a fever pitch inside him drained out. He didn’t know what Patrick and Mal’ik had been afraid of, but whatever it was, that danger seemed to have passed.
“They found another one, Mal’ik,” Patrick said from behind him, voice calm but urgent. “We need to get moving.”
“Let’s take him to my rooms.” Mal’ik let Oliver go and turned to Patrick. “Back way. Try not to be seen.”
Patrick nodded and led the way to the back of the hangar. Mal’ik put a hand between Oliver’s shoulder blades and pushed him to follow, bringing up the rear just at Oliver’s back.
“Another bomb?” Oliver asked.
“No.” Patrick shook his head. “Another body. A servant not far from here.”
“A body?” Oliver repeated. “What does that have to do with anything?” He glanced back at Mal’ik, but Mal’ik wasn’t looking at him, too busy scanning behind them, in front of them, and all around.
Patrick got to the hangar exit and held out a hand to stop Oliver. He peeked his head out into the hallway, looking both ways, and then beckoned for them to keep moving.
“They had cuts in the backs of their necks.” Patrick tapped his forefinger over his own spinal vertebrae. “A torvar’s cuts.”
Oliver froze in shock, only to be kept moving when Mal’ik gave him another shove between the shoulder blades.
“A torvar? Those are…” Oliver was about to say real, but of course, he knew they were real. They were a recognized species. Oliver had just so rarely heard of them. And he had never wanted to. “Here?”
“There are a number of them in Southern Tava.” Patrick looked around the corner of the next hall they got to, then waved them toward the left. Oliver didn’t know where they were going, but it didn’t seem to be back to their old rooms. “Impossible to know how many, obviously.”
“You never know who the worms might be hiding in,” Mal’ik growled from behind Oliver.
“They’ve always been peaceful enough.” Patrick shot a look over his shoulder at Mal’ik. “They’re not body snatchers.”
Mal’ik lifted his upper lip in a look of disgust Oliver had never seen on his face before. “Aren’t they?”
Oliver had the impression he was witnessing an old argument and cut in. “Well, this one obviously isn’t peaceful. Where did it come from?”
“The Resistance,” Patrick replied. “No idea how it got in, though. Stay here while I check these next two rooms.”
Oliver and Mal’ik stopped while Patrick went on ahead. Mal’ik stood close enough behind Oliver for Oliver to feel the heat of him. “We got word that the Resistance had a torvar in their ranks. We’ve been checking all personnel. No one’s been allowed in without submitting to a search.”
“Except for participants in the talks.” Oliver grimaced. He hadn’t been checked, and he would have remembered if someone had breathed of a torvar threat. He glanced up at Mal’ik to see a matching frown on his face. They had a traitor. And a high-up one.
Just then, Patrick came striding back toward them. “Alright, we—”
