At the same moment Angelica screamed. Sweet Dove must have figured out what he was doing and, in an attempt to distract him, was hurting Angelica again.
He struggled to stay focused. His primary instinct shouted at him to stop Sweet Dove from torturing Angelica. But what could he do if he didn’t have added power?
He turned all his attention back to his Ancestral storehouse. He began to sink within it and felt an absolute rush of sensation, like nothing he’d ever known before. He felt strengthened from within and without at the same time.
A second sensation followed, like the tightening of a bond, which he knew would complete his rise to Ancestral status if he allowed it to form. But he didn’t want that, at least not now. He didn’t trust the Ancestrals he knew and wouldn’t allow himself to become one of them.
By pulling back slightly the impulse of the bond melted away, yet he could still draw from his power. When he felt he’d gained enough to break free of the preternaturally charged shackles, he began the long glide back to consciousness.
Angelica, if you can, reach down and grab hold of me. Can you do that?
Too … much … pain …
She couldn’t move. Sweet Dove had her trapped in pain. He knew that sensation. He’d lived with it for a century.
He flooded every muscle in his body with the stream of Ancestral power. He focused on the shackles at his arms and wrists.
As the power coalesced, Reyes opened his eyes and saw that Sweet Dove was distracted by Angelica’s pain, that she was feeding off her suffering. Her attention sidetracked, in one burst of energy Reyes broke out of each shackle, rushed toward Angelica, and gathered her up in his arms.
Before Sweet Dove had the time to react, he shifted to altered flight and flew straight up and out of the cavern system.
He wanted to keep going, but he had a powerful instinct about the situation that if he didn’t play this moment right, he’d get kicked out of Starlin then and there.
Angelica, we have to return. I must speak with Sweet Dove. I’m sorry.
She trembled in his arms. No, I get it. You have to mend this bridge right now or she’ll revoke your membership.
Exactly, but I hate taking you back there.
Please, don’t worry about me. I’m siphoning your power and healing as we speak.
He circled back quickly to Sweet Dove’s torture cave and found her crumpled on the floor, against the cave wall.
As he touched down in front of Sweet Dove, the woman’s eyes rolled in her head as she worked to recover.
She looked up at him, squinting. “You broke free.”
“I did. You’ll never own me again, Sweet Dove. But you’ve made me what I am today. I’m a slaver now and this slave belongs to me, to use as I see fit. I wouldn’t mind becoming your lover, though, if you’re open to it.”
Sweet Dove sat up and her vision finally came together. “Even after I tried to enslave you, then to kill you?”
“Now that I know I can occasionally tap into my Ancestral power, that you can’t hold me, I’m open to a relationship. Your ruthlessness excites me.”
She got a look on her face that he’d seen before, a very calculating expression. At one time he would have shuddered, knowing that nothing good could follow. But after having escaped just now, he had no fear that she could ever capture and hold him again, not like before.
“I’ll have to think about it, Reyes. I’ve never thought of you as true lover potential, but it might work.”
“We could be excellent partners as well. I have a head for business and already have ideas about ways we could expand the Starlin enterprise.”
“You did quite well for yourself after you escaped me, and I’ll admit I’m impressed by that. I suppose this means I’ll need to adjust my thinking, but you’ll have to give me time. I’ve thought of you as just a slave for so long, it never occurred to me you could become something else in my life.”
He used words she could understand. “But I want more, Sweet Dove, so much more. I have ambitions and want to fulfill them.”
She gained her feet and stroked his arm. “I guess we’re more alike than I ever understood. We’ll talk again. Soon. Perhaps when the final event of the festival is over.”
He almost pressed her about the one thing she’d promised, a place on the Starlin Board of Governors, but he knew he’d reached his bargaining limit.
“Yes, we’ll talk after the masked ball at the Crystal Dome.”
She glanced at Angelica. “And maybe by then you won’t be so encumbered. It would please me if you would get rid of your slave.”
Reyes actually smiled, because he had every intention of faking Angelica’s death immediately following the masked ball. “That won’t be a problem.”
With that he returned to altered flight and shot toward his home in the Como Cavern system.
Once arrived, however, he recalled that Angelica couldn’t handle flying that fast. When he touched down in his bedroom, he released her, apologizing. “I forgot. Angelica, I’m so sorry. Are you all right?”
She blinked at him. “I’m not hurting anymore. Once you tore me away from Sweet Dove, the pain stopped.”
“No, I mean, don’t you have a headache?” Previously when he didn’t take altered flight slow enough, Angelica would experience a pounding headache that made her sick for a long time after.
She shook her head, then her eyes went wide. “Oh, because you moved so fast during altered flight.” She put a hand to her head. “I’m not. I’m fine. Why?”
“I guess because I tapped into my Ancestral power.”
She held both his arms and frowned slightly. “That’s right. Does this mean you’re an Ancestral now? Although I’m not sensing much of a difference.”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not, but I did make use of the power.”
Her lips curved slowly. “You broke out of those chains.”
He nodded. “I did.” He still couldn’t believe he’d accomplished the impossible.
“While it was happening I felt so much from you, what you were going through, even while that bitch was hurting me. I could sense you reaching deep, and I knew the moment you connected. Everything began to shift. Most of the pain Sweet Dove was inflicting drifted away. And the way you looked when you were free, like a triumphant warrior.”
He turned in a circle. “You have no idea how wonderful this feels. All those years with Sweet Dove I was powerless, but now I feel as though I could do anything.”