Hugh shrugged his shoulders. “Come on, big man. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Mauro charged. Hugh swung out of the way and sliced at Mauro’s stomach with the gladius. The blade glanced off. Mauro drove his shoulder into Hugh. The preceptor flew a few feet and bounced off the wall. Mauro lunged at him, roaring. Hugh spun out of the way, avoiding being trapped.
Hugh was better with a sword, but I had once seen Mauro lift a car when a cat was trapped under it. Do it, you can do it.
Hugh stabbed the gladius at Mauro’s side. The blade slid off. Hugh dropped the gladius and drove his fist into Mauro’s throat. It was a hard, powerful punch. Hugh’s skin sizzled. He stumbled back. Hot enough for you, you asshole?
Mauro locked his hands on Hugh’s throat and drove him into the wall. Hugh’s back slapped the stone with a satisfying thud. Mauro slammed him again and again.
“Snap his neck,” I yelled.
Mauro smashed Hugh into the stone again, shaking him back and forth. He didn’t hear me. He was too far gone.
Hugh thrust his arms upward, between Mauro’s massive arms, trying to break his hold. The air smelled of singed flesh. Hugh jerked his arms up, Mauro’s arms went wide, and the big knight headbutted Hugh in the face. Blood drenched Hugh’s lips. Broken nose, for sure.
Mauro grabbed Hugh into a bear hug, lifting him off his feet. Bones groaned.
“Kate!” Robert pointed to the right. I glanced in that direction at the medmage lying in a pool of blood. Steinlein strained to say something and reached into his pocket.
Hugh jabbed his thumbs into Mauro’s eyes. Mauro hurled him aside like Hugh weighed nothing.
Steinlein pulled out a bloody key ring.
Keys. Keys to the cage. I dropped on my knees by the bars. “Here.” If I could get out of the cage, between Mauro and me Hugh was finished.
Mauro grabbed at Hugh, but the preceptor moved out of the way. Burns covered his arms. The flesh around Hugh’s neck blistered.
Steinlein’s hand shook. He crawled toward the cage, leaving a bloody smudge on the floor. Hurry. Hurry.
Mauro bellowed again.
Steinlein stretched his hand with the keys toward me. I reached for it. The tips of my fingers just brushed against the keys. Magic sawed through my arm with fiery teeth and I jerked my fingers back. Damn it.
Hugh darted behind Mauro, grabbed his right wrist with his left hand, planted his right hand on Mauro’s shoulder, and swept his legs out from under him. The big man crashed down like a colossus on legs of sand. The room shook from the impact. Mauro’s head bounced off the floor.
Steinlein pulled himself forward another foot and collapsed, his hand stretching to the bars. I thrust my arm through the ward. The magic burned me, so intense that tears slid from my eyes. I clenched my teeth and reached through the agony, stretching.
I couldn’t let Mauro die, not big, kind, funny Mauro. He’d watched my back, he brought my dog treats, he helped people . . . I wanted him to live and be happy. I wanted him to go home to his wife. I wanted it so much. I didn’t want him to die here.
Magic was ripping my arm off.
Mauro was my friend. I couldn’t let him die here.
The world melted into pain. I screamed.
Something pulled me back. I blinked and realized Robert’s arms gripped me. My fingers held the blood-slicked keys.
Hugh grabbed his sword with both hands, point down, and drove it into the big man’s chest, sinking the entire weight and power of his body into it. The gladius sank in three inches. Mauro screamed.
I lunged to the door.
“No!” Robert clamped me down.
Hugh picked up Ted’s mace and brought it down onto the gladius like a hammer. The sword slid into Mauro’s chest.
Mauro gasped. His skin paled, his tattoos fading. His body shuddered. The massive knight drew a single hoarse breath and lay still.
He killed him. He killed Mauro. It felt like someone opened a big dark pit under me and I was falling into it screaming. I failed. I wasn’t fast enough. My friend was dead and there was nothing I could do to bring him back. He was alive yesterday morning. He’d curtsied in my office.
He killed Mauro. I was right there and he . . .
I couldn’t breathe. My rage and grief were choking me, trying to rip out of me.
Oh my God, what would I tell his wife?
Hugh straightened, groaning, spat blood to the side, and crouched by Ted. His face was a bloody mess. On the floor seven people lay dead or dying. In the corner Nick looked at all of it, impassive.
Hugh surveyed the scene and looked at the wound gaping across Ted’s gut.
“I like this better—more satisfying all around. Gives us a few moments to bond before you pass on. I have a secret to tell you about one of your former employees.” Hugh turned on his feet and put his arm around Ted, moving his face so he would see me. “That one. She really hates cages, by the way. You’ll like this.”
He leaned closer to Ted and whispered into his ear. Ted’s eyes bulged.
“Life is full of surprises, isn’t it?” Hugh smiled.
He straightened and closed his eyes. Magic condensed around him. A pale blue glow licked his shoulder. His wounds knitted closed. His nose reset itself. He shrugged and walked up to my cage, blood dripping from his sword.
“It never lasts. They die too quickly on me. Give me the keys, Kate. You fought a good fight, but it’s over.”
“No.” Before I would’ve left the cage to fight him so I could save them. Now there was no need. Now they were dead. Mauro was dead.
“Was he a friend?” Hugh glanced at the big knight’s body. “So sorry. Give me the keys.”
“I’m going to kill you,” I told him. “If I don’t, Curran will.”
“That’s why I like you. It’s always the hard way.” Hugh turned on his foot, his boot sliding on the blood, and walked over to Ascanio. “What do we have here?”
I didn’t think I had enough stamina left to be scared. I was wrong.
He glanced at Steinlein’s corpse. “That would be his handiwork. I detest amateurs. The kid is a shapeshifter and a teenager. His regeneration factor is through the roof. I mean really, how difficult is it to heal this?”
Don’t touch him. Don’t . . .
Hugh held his hands out and began to chant under his breath. Magic moved, slow and sluggish at first, then faster and faster, winding around Hugh and raining on Ascanio’s body. The crushed ribs crawled under the boy’s skin, re-forming.
Hugh stopped chanting. The flow of magic stopped as if cut by a knife and I almost cried out.
Ascanio lay on the table, pale and smeared with blood. He looked so young. So young, just a child dying slowly on the metal table.
“So what will it be, Kate?”
Hugh held his hand out and Ascanio’s wounds began to knit themselves closed. “Yes?” He closed his hand into a fist. The healing stopped. “Or no?”
“Don’t.” Robert’s voice vibrated with urgency. “Don’t take the bait.”
“Yes?” Fractured shards of ribs slid into place.
Ascanio had trusted me to keep him safe. I had promised Aunt B. I’d promised her on her grave that I would look after her people.
“Or no?” The flesh stopped moving.
“Perhaps you’d like me to do it in reverse?” Hugh raised his eyebrows.
“No.” The word escaped before I could catch it.
“Don’t!” Robert’s voice snapped like a whip.
Hugh grimaced, his face jerking with effort. Ascanio’s bones crunched. Oh God.