But before I could spring, there was a breeze as Selene’s black thigh-high boots landed on the ground beside me. “Can you see this, Cat?” She pulled the foot of her pointy boot back and kicked me high in the side. I bit my tongue, but acted like I was still in the throes of her spell. “See that? She’s almost dead.” Pain raced through my side. The bitch had broken my ribs. “There’s nothing that can stop my death spell, not even your whore. She’s never coming back—”
I lunged upward. “Wrong, Selene,” I said as I grabbed hold of her legs and pulled. She went down. I rolled on top. “I’m not dead yet,” I snarled. She struggled to wriggle out from under me, muttering a spell under her breath. My physical size was much bigger than hers. No wonder she always chose to vanish. “No more spells.” I whipped my fist back and smashed it into her face. She screamed. I had effectively stopped her spell midsentence.
“You biiiiitch!” She squirmed under me. Her head was damaged from the blow, but her body was healing it at an alarming rate. Damn, goddesses.
“No, Selene, you’re the bitch,” I snarled. “And this is for harming my mate.” I smashed my fist into the other side of her head, extremely satisfied when her eyes rolled back into their sockets and she did a little convulsion of her own. “And this is for hurting my new friend.” I slashed my claws down the front of her chest, raking it open, leaving deep furrows in her cream skin. “Do you hear me? Now you’re the one who’s going to die, Selene!”
“Jessica,” Rourke moaned. His chains rattled as he rocked in agitation. “Please… get away from here.”
At the sound of his voice I jumped off of Selene and ran without thought. I leapt, catching the wall, pivoting my foot off the rocks and landed on his chains again. I slid down to him in half a second, the feel of him electrifying me. “I’m not leaving you,” I growled. The pain he had to be enduring must be unfathomable. “I’m never leaving you, so get that through your thick skull. We leave this place together, or not at all.” My wolf howled her agreement, clacking her jaws happily.
I forced myself to glance down the length of his abused body as I pushed my power into the spelled chains once again. It was hard to process how he was even functioning in this state. His lungs filled with air, quivering as they fought to keep working. “Hold on,” I murmured as I scanned the domed roof for coupling hooks where the chains should be attached. There were none.
The chains hung in the air attached to nothing.
If we pour enough power into the spell, I think we can break it. Then we jump before he falls and catch him. It was risky because of the shape he was in, but I had nothing better.
I shot power into the connection as Selene gasped in a big breath and moaned on the ground. No more time.
“Jessica, please… go,” Rourke said on a small breath. He was getting weaker, struggling to stay awake. He was fighting whatever Selene had done to him, but I could feel his power leaking out. So strong. He must have broken one of her spells when he’d heard my voice. “I want you to… live. Please… Jess…”
“Rourke, listen to me.” I lined my voice with as much power as I could. “I’m staying here and we’re going to make it through. I’m going to break this chain and catch you at the bottom.” Movement caught my eye. Eamon again. We can use Eamon. He stood at the edge of the alcove, his sister’s lifeless body in his arms. She was free of the awful netting, but covered in dried blood. “Eamon,” I shouted frantically. “You have to help us! If you do, you will be free of any vow you owe me or your sister, even though you deserve death for your betrayal.” As Naomi’s protector, I had the right to waive a debt. But if he complied I would deal with that separately. I changed the tone of my voice to appeal to him. “Please help us. We’re running out of time.”
Eamon spat, “I will never help you. I am grateful you will meet your end here.” His eyes cut to Selene on the ground. She sputtered and moved her legs. Goddammit. “I never should have come back here.”
“Eamon.” I pinpointed Selene’s spell on the chains and my wolf threw all the power she could into it. “Once your Queen finds out you’re a traitor, that you’ve spent the last few centuries helping Selene, your life is forfeit. Help me now and I will make sure you live. I swear it on my life.”
“I don’t need anything from you,” Eamon sneered. “We will go far from here and my sister will be well again, away from you, away from your dirty mind tricks. We will survive on our own just as we have done before.”
“I highly doubt it.” Strands of my power snaked their way into the chains. The spell weakened by the second. I was going to have to jump soon. Hold on, baby. “Eamon,” I called. “You’re forgetting your sister swore an oath to me and—unlike you—she’s someone who will honor it to her dying breath. How long before she leaves you and comes back to avenge my death? She’s going to be furious with you. Fix it by helping me now. You have a chance to make yourself worthy.”