Free Dark Forsaken (The Devil's Assistant Book 3) by H.D. Smith Page B

“It’s the hippest place downtown.”
    I hadn’t noticed a new spell. The place had seemed ordinary to me, so it didn’t make sense that Sorrel would be affected by something I’d already given him the cure for. I reached out to touch his arm, thinking there might still be some part of the general Underworld spell on him. His phone buzzed and he pulled his hand out of my reach, but not to answer the phone. He dropped it in his pocket, ignoring it without even checking the screen. He picked up a menu and started looking through it.
    I was momentarily caught off-guard by his actions when I sensed an unexpected presence near me. Ronin? I stood up to try to pinpoint the source.
    “What’s wrong?” Sydney asked.
    I shook my head. “Nothing, I think, but we should go.” Mace clearly hadn’t sent Sorrel down here to check this place out and Sorrel was just acting weird.
    I stepped away from the table, expecting Sydney and Sorrel to follow. He didn’t move, and Sydney was confused and maybe a little scared. I was about to reassure her when I was grabbed from behind. Strong arms trapped me and a hand covered my mouth.
    Sydney let out a startled yelp and looked around frantically, which was when I realized that from her perspective, I’d just disappeared. My senses had been correct. Only one man knew how to do that, but what the hell was Ronin, Mab’s one-time bounty hunter, doing here?
    I mumbled something unintelligible into his hand.
    “Shhh, lass, this’ll only take a minute,” he said with that sexy Scottish Burr.
    I tried to struggle free, but Ronin was significantly stronger than me.
    Sydney’s eyes darted around the room, her face showing more concern. Sorrel hadn’t even looked up from the menu. What was up with him?
    Pushing back from the table, Sydney stood.
    “Where do you think you’re going?” Sorrel drawled.
    “Claire just disappeared,” she said, her voice higher than normal.
    “So?” he said as if that were nothing.
    “Screw this shit.” She turned to leave.
    Of course, that was just when a group of ninjas—yeah, ninjas —stormed the restaurant.
    The hoard, dressed in head-to-toe black fatigues, including the visible eyes-only balaclava, shot Sydney and Sorrel with tranquillizer darts.
    I kicked at Ronin’s legs and attempted to wriggle free.
    “Be quiet, lass, or they might hear ye,” he whispered.
    Fuck, I didn’t care if they heard me. I didn’t want them to take Sydney. I was a bit annoyed at Sorrel right now, but they couldn’t have him, either. I heard the faint crackle of power as wisps of energy circled my wrists.
    “Settle down, lass.”
    Ronin was about to go back on the jackass list—the one he’d been on when he kidnapped me last summer. My thoughts went to the first time I’d met him: the day I’d stepped through a portal at the office and wound up face-down in the canyon. The power at my core roiled and a line snapped to that location in the past. In a blink, I was there, but not alone. Ronin still held me, but I’d somehow slipped through time and space with him in tow.
    “What the fuck?” he muttered, which were my sentiments exactly.
    How the hell had I walked through time? I’d lost the ability and the power needed to walk through time when Harry removed his blood last summer. Now, without warning, I’d done it with a rider in tow. I had no clue how it happened. Ronin was also the Prince of Time, but he had no memory of that. Based on his reaction, he hadn’t brought us here intentionally or unintentionally.
    I briefly noticed that the other Ronin had just snapped his whip around the other me’s waist. Neither of them appeared to notice our future selves were in the in-between, unseen. My thoughts turned back to Sydney and we slipped the line back to the restaurant, but there was no Sydney. The ninjas were gone, and they’d taken Sorrel and Sydney.
    Without a word, Ronin released me. I stumbled forward, reappearing in the restaurant and causing the two