Page 29 of Sienna Rossi: Beyond Shattered Trust

He nods, and I raise my hand, the sky splitting as a lightning bolt rips through it and hits the barrier. Ahren doesn’t stumble, but he grabs his shoulder, gritting his teeth.

“Yup, I felt that one,” he groans. “Fuck, it hurts.”

“You’ll live.” Uncle Alejandro slaps his injured shoulder, and I smirk.

“So, the power of a god can harm the barrier but not normal magic,” Uncle Alejandro muses slowly as Ahren nods, still holding his shoulder.

“Precisely.” We all turn at Mikhail’s voice as he steps forward.

How long has he been there?

“Ah, Mikhail, we were just discussing the barrier. It seems Ahren and Sienna’s barrier is made from a similar substance,” Uncle Alejandro explains seriously.

Mikhail doesn’t move, his purple eyes cold and emotionless as he scans the huge dome in front of us.

“I think I missed the memo for this rendezvous, no?” he remarks, his eyes still trained on the dome. Tension settles like a thick glove around us, and I glance at Uncle Alejandro, who has clearly noticed it, too.

“Yeah, we were going to return soon and fill you in. It’s just a theory, but we may have a better fucking idea about this barrier now. Or at least a start on it, anyway,” he says.

“I think you forget, Lycan King, that you are under my command here. These are my lands, and I am the one who has granted you permission to be here,” Mikhail says, his voice as crisp as the brittle cold that surrounds us.

Ahren and I exchange looks. It’s clear he’s offended. Dad told me to be careful, that offending a vampire is dangerous, that they don’t forget, and right now I think we may have just offended him.

Uncle Alejandro shakes his head. “Yeah, I fucking know that, but if there’s nothing to share-”

“You mean you had to confirm that no harm came to your family first, for if it did, you wouldn’t have shared what you learned with me. Just the way the Deimos King noticed the similarities between the barriers instantly earlier on, but he, too, has loyalties.”

Fuck.

“I did, but wasn’t sure what to make of it and didn’t want to jump to conclusions,” I correct.

Mikhail doesn’t even bother looking at me, as if he has no time for the likes of me. His eyes are trained on Uncle Alejandro. “Just remember, you may once have been the King of Wolves, but the vampire race is far older, and here in my domain, you will do well to be careful.”

His eyes meet Alejandro’s, the tension almost suffocating, before he turns and walks away, leaving the three of us behind.

“Well, that was not how I fucking wanted shit to go,” Uncle Alejandro sighs. “Let’s head back.”

He shifts, and Ahren sighs. “Are you forgetting that I’m here?” he says as he lets go of his injured shoulder and, closing the gap between us, places a hand on my and Uncle Alejandro’s shoulders before teleporting us into the outpost yard.

“I’d better try to fix things with Mikhail,” Uncle Alejandro grunts.

I nod, watching him walk off, wondering if Sienna visited the healer. I head towards the infirmary and knock on the door before entering. Korina, the head healer, is a witch in her sixties. She looks me over, her silver eyes steely and her lips pressed in a firm line.

“If you are not hurt, Captain, don’t take up room.”

“I won’t take up too much of your time. I wanted to ask if our new arrival, a woman with dark red hair, came in earlier?” I ask.

“The hybrid witch? No, she did not.”

Tribrid actually.

“I see… Do you have any healing balms I can take for her? She was hurt earlier.”

She glances towards her shelves that are filled with ointments and nods. “Take what you need and nothing more.” With that said, she walks away, returning to whatever she was doing.

I walk over to the shelf and take a few healing balms after skimming over the labels, and duck out of the low door of the infirmary. I stare down at the five tubs I’ve picked up.

Now, how the fuck do I make sure she gets these? Because I’m not about to fucking give them to her.