When Caine stepped closer to the demon, his body crackled with magic. “Get out of here while you still can, redcap.”
Behind the demon, two large, black dogs bounded through the doors, their eyes glowing yellow. Hellhounds. At least some prisoners were making it out.
The redcap glowered, baring his long, yellowed teeth. “I’ll eat elsewhere.” A moment later, he sprinted from the building, metal boots clanking over the ground.
From the prisons below, screams pierced the walls, and the sound curdled Rosalind’s stomach. Gods, what is happening down there?
The building smelled of burning wood and fumes, and Rosalind covered her mouth with her shirt. Tammi must be terrified right now.
Caine pulled open the door to the stairwell, glancing at her as smoke billowed past. “Please be careful down there.”
She stepped into the stairwell, her heart squeezing in her chest as she glimpsed two guards’ bodies lying crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, their throats ripped out. Blood pooled around them—no doubt the red cap’s most recent meal.
As he descended the stairs, Caine chanted a spell, and tendrils of magic curled around him. Through the security doors, the prison corridor glowed orange, but as Caine chanted, the air grew damp. Thunder rumbled through the walls.
At the bottom of the stairs, he pushed open the doors, just as heavy rain began falling from the ceiling. Red lights flashed over the halls, and the acrid smoke burned Rosalind’s eyes. Something felt wrong. Where was Josiah?
Rosalind followed after Caine, and the deluge he’d created soaked through her clothes. The air hissed with dampened fires, and she rushed to the first open cell.
A thin, ginger woman stood shivering in the center of the room, her green eyes large. Her feet were bare, and she wore a ragged white dress, the fabric now singed. Around her, the rain doused a circle of fire, and tiny licks of flames still lingered over the scorched floorboards.
A sharp ache pierced Rosalind’s chest. Apparently, this was the Brotherhood’s primitive back up system in case technology failed. This explained the gasoline stench that always pervaded these rooms. It only required a simple mechanism—something to drop a lit flame from the ceiling when the electricity cut out, trapping the prisoners with fire.
“Go!” Rosalind yelled to the woman. “Get out of here.”
The woman flinched.
“The doors are open!” Caine’s voice boomed through the corridor. “You’re free to go!”
The woman scuttled past Rosalind.
When Rosalind turned back to the corridor, she gasped at the slew of prisoners pouring from their cells. Some sobbed, others growled. By their auras, she could see that some were witches and demons, but many were simply pedestrians.
Rosalind lowered her gun, tucking it into the back of her belt. We’ve won. She just needed to find Tammi. And why couldn’t she shake the feeling that something was wrong?
Ignoring the pit in her stomach, she followed Caine against the stream of fleeing prisoners.
Through the crowd, Aurora hurried toward them, her dress torn and bloodied. “Caine!” She threw her arms around him. “I knew you’d come for me.”
In the next moment, Tammi’s voice cut through the crowd. “Rosalind! Those fuckers tried to light me on fire!”
Rosalind’s throat tightened as she caught a glimpse of Tammi, her lips swollen and cheeks bruised. One of her eyes had swelled shut.
Rosalind gently ran her fingers over her friend’s face. “Oh my gods, Tammi. What did they do to you?”
“Your fuckstick of an ex-boyfriend paid me a visit.”
Hot rage burned through Rosalind’s blood, and she had an overwhelming desire to hunt Josiah down and stake him again. “Do you know where he is now?”
Tammi shook her head. “I’d like to think one of the demons ate him, but I have no idea.”
In the corridor, the crowd was thinning out, and Caine turned to them. “I have to find Miranda and Malphus. I can handle this on my own. The three of you should get out of the building. Wait for Miranda out there if I need to send her to you.”
Rosalind shook her head, marshaling her resolve. She was the whole reason Miranda was in here, and she planned to get her sister out. “I’m staying with you.”
“Who the hell is Miranda?” Tammi asked.
“My twin—” Rosalind stopped herself. There wasn’t any time to get into this now. “Just go outside, and if you see someone who looks like me, that’s Miranda.”
“I’m taking Tammi to safety,” Aurora said, grabbing Tammi by the arm. “With a bit of my blood, she’ll be right as rain.”
Apart from a few other stragglers, who limped on injured legs, the corridor was nearly empty. At least Tammi and Aurora were safe, but Miranda’s absence was a bad sign.
Rosalind raised her gun as they walked quickly through the hall, checking one empty cell after another. If Miranda was a high security risk, maybe she wasn’t even in here anymore.
As she looked into a dimly lit cell, she heard Caine’s footsteps pause.