“Get ready to run,” she whispered to Caine.
She took a few steps back before pulling the gun, aiming it at the glass doors. If she couldn’t scan her way out, she’d have to shoot her way out. She squeezed the trigger and broke into a sprint. Glass shattered all around them. Shards blasted against her skin as she bolted to the pavement outside. They cleared the door’s entrance just as the guard unleashed a round of bullets. Caine pulled her out of the crossfire, taking shelter behind the building’s brick facade.
He folded her in an embrace and pulled off her ring. In the shadows, he began chanting in Angelic. The mage joined in as their mingling auras whirled through her body. Panicked shouts echoed from within the building, but the magic was already rippling over her skin, and a thick, protective mist enshrouded them.
Caine slipped the ring back on her finger, and the mist thinned. Rosalind let out a long, slow breath. They stood in Mount Auburn Cemetery, dwarfed by Abduxiel Mansion. Blood streaked Caine’s neck.
Pain splintered her shoulder. She pressed her fingers to her collarbone, wincing. “I’ve been shot three times in two days. This is not how I imagined my life turning out.”
Caine slipped his arm around her waist. “Let me get you inside. I’ll heal you.”
As they approached the tall oak door, it swung open, revealing a cavernous hall. Moonlight shone through a stained glass window—an image of an angel. Twinkling lights hung suspended in the air like stars, flickering over an empty marble floor. If she weren’t half-dead, she might actually enjoy this place.
Orcus rushed from a darkened archway. “I tried to keep her here. She wouldn’t listen,” he hissed. “Are you injured, Master? And what is happening with Bileth?”
“I’m fine, but she’s badly hurt.”
Orcus pulled off his hood, revealing black eyes and a pale, bald head the color of bone. “Take her into the celestial room. Try not to get blood everywhere. I’ve just cleaned up. I’ll draw a bath in the adjacent washing room.”
She leaned into Caine, and agony burned through her shoulder. He led her through an archway, pushing open a door into a candlelit room. Midnight-blue wallpaper, marked with silver stars, surrounded them. A silky, blue bed stood in the center of the room, and a twinkling chandelier hung from the ceiling.
“Lie down,” instructed Caine. “You’re walking like you’re in agony.”
She pulled off her boots, wincing as she bent over. Nice of him to notice. She lay on the soft bed, barely able to restrain the tears welling in her eyes. “I am in agony. And what about you? You’re covered in blood.”
“I was shot in the neck, and the rest is from the glass.”
Her stomach clenched. “Shot in the neck? Why aren’t you dead?”
“I can’t be killed that easily, not unless it’s a hawthorn stake.”
A hawthorn stake—so that was why Malphas had been weakened. Her sense of relief at their escape was crushed by the weight of guilt—not just because of Malphas, but the friends she’d left behind. “What about the others? What if Josiah and Randolph punish them for what we did? We need to get back there.” Miranda probably looked exactly like her, and Josiah would be sadistic enough to act out his most depraved revenge fantasies on her.
Caine eyed her with concern. “You need to calm your breathing. You won’t heal as well if you’re panicking. We’ll save them, but I need to heal you first. And then you can tell me about your plan. Open your shirt, please.”
She unbuttoned the front of her shirt, grimacing at the pain when she moved her arms.
Caine brushed his hands over her sternum, chanting in Angelic. His aura seeped into her skin, soothing away the pain. He trailed his fingers lower, lingering lightly over her broken ribs and lung, before they moved to her neck and face, lanced with shards of glass. With each stroke of his fingers, the pain began to ebb, leaving behind only a dull ache in her muscles.
“Is there anything else?” he asked, his eyes roaming over her body.
“That’s it. Just soreness.”
His gaze met hers. “I didn’t realize how bad it was. You had five broken ribs.”
“You let him torture me.” She sat up. “Why didn’t you stop it?” She wasn’t quite sure she wanted to know the answer.