ADRIAN's POV
The blindfold came off and I took in our surroundings. Sterile room, industrial lighting, no windows. Even if I hadn't seen the tattoos on our kidnappers' cheeks I would have known who took us. This had Alchemist written all over it. We'd heard that some of them had started working with the Warriors of Light and were going after Moroi as well as Strigoi, but I'd been content to let others handle the investigation.
So content that I'd actually laughed at Jill when she asked if I was afraid of the rogue Alchemists coming after us. Since a group of them had busted into our dinner party and taken us captive, it didn't feel like such a joke.
The man who'd untied my blindfold walked in front of us and headed down the line to Jill. "The queen never wanted a sister," he told her. "She only kept you under protection because she needed you to keep her throne. Now that she has changed the law, she doesn't care for you anymore."
I hated to agree with anything that the Alchemists were saying, but our captor did have a point. Lissa had gone to an awful lot of trouble to keep Jill safe and hidden while the law demanded that their ruler have at least one living relative, which had the unfortunate side effect of keeping the newly discovered sisters apart. Since getting the law changed, Lissa had made strides to accept Jill as family, but they were still far from comfortable around each other. What lengths would the queen of the Moroi world go to in order to recover the undeniable proof of her beloved father's infidelity?
Under normal conditions, and yes, being held captive sadly came under the heading of normal in my world, the queen's strained relationship with her sister would be the least of our worries right now. After all, being abducted by a group of rogue Alchemists who seemed determined to drive a wedge through Moroi society was a little more important than Jill and Lissa resolving their feelings. When that wedge was pointed right between the two of them, however, their relationship suddenly became paramount.
Not to mention, as much as I hated to admit it, being rescued was our best way out of this mess. I was still on the pills that kept my moods level and my sanity in place, but it also kept spirit out of my reach. This was exactly the type of situation that I dreaded and why it had taken me so long to agree to taking the mood suppressants in the first place. My loved ones were in danger and I was useless. So, unfortunately, was the rest of our group.
Jill was wise beyond her years and one of the most admirable people I knew, but she wasn't going to be able to get us out of here. Eddie could always be counted on in a tough time, but he had fought long and hard while we were being taken and was not looking his best. He was straining against the restraints holding him to the chair, but I didn't think that he was going to break free anytime soon.
And Sydney, brave, passionate, brilliant Sydney was just barely keeping her terror at bay. This was her worst nightmare come to life. Even after all the risks she had taken and the deal she had blackmailed Stanton into, she found herself retaken by her former organization. Remembering those long months that she had been held in their re-education center was still painful for me. For her, it was unbearable. Though there was no one else I found more reliable in a crisis, I could tell that my wife was going to need time in order to pull herself together. Time, I was afraid, that we didn't have.
The Alchemist continued his taunting, aimed mostly at Jill, though I wasn't sure what he hoped to accomplish by turning her against her sister. "Vasalissa doesn't care if you're alive or dead," he sneered. "Do you think she'd waste valuable resources coming after a couple of abominations?"
That would by Sydney and me, by the way. We were abominations. At least, most people thought we were. Humans and Moroi may have intermarried at one point in history to create the dhampirs, a half breed race that made superior warriors in the fight against Strigoi, but it hadn't been an acceptable practice in centuries. For a royal like myself to actually marry a human was disgusting in both of our cultures. I loved her enough to stand up under it, and honestly didn't care what the Alchemists thought of our relationship, except at the moment they did hold all the power over us.
"And you," he turned his attention back to Jill. "your sister never did like you. Certainly not enough to send anyone after you."
"Then what do you think I'm doing here, Ink Face?" A wonderfully familiar voice floated out of nowhere before an invisible force threw the Alchemist to the ground. Once I knew what to look for, the figure behind that force became clear to me. And even though she'd once broken my heart, at that moment she was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.