If looks could kill, he would have rammed a thousand swords into my body. I smiled at him in return.
“You can’t defeat us,” he snarled.
“Who’s this us you speak of? The other aristocrats are all dead. We killed them before coming here… for you.”
The color drained from his face, and if he’d had any urine left, I was sure he would have peed himself again.
“What do we do with him?” Ianto asked.
“I think Ryker should decide his fate,” Tucker said.
I appreciated that Tucker didn’t add if he’s still alive to the end of his sentence. He had faith we’d find Ryker alive, and so did I.
“I agree,” I said.
“Then some of the gargoyles will fly him to the jail and watch over him,” Indon said.
“Thank you, Indon,” I told him.
As the duke was led through the crowd and out of the pit, more and more amsirah pointed and laughed at his piss stain. Others threw stones at him as they jeered and ridiculed the man.
I took no pleasure in any of it. I was just glad to have him under our control and to know where he was.
Exhaustion weighed heavily on me as I resumed my work, but I wouldn’t rest until I found the others. There was no way I could sleep while knowing they remained trapped under this wreckage.
At least another hour, if not more, passed before I lifted another rock to discover Callan’s face beneath. His eyes were closed, his head tilted to the left, and blood trickled from his mouth.
Chunks of debris covered the lower half of his body, and as we carefully worked to remove them, we discovered his crushed pelvis and legs. The bones had started to heal, but they hadn’t gotten far, either because his wounds were too bad… or was he dead?
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
Ellery
I went to my knees beside him and hurriedly brushed away the remaining rubble covering him. The deep blue color of his lips and the pallor of his skin frightened me.
“Callan,” I whispered.
Tucker fell beside me while Ianto and Ruby knelt on his other side. Running my fingers across his cool flesh, I searched for a pulse but couldn’t find anything.
I almost grasped his shoulders to shake him, but Ianto’s words stopped me. “He’s breathing.”
My gaze shot up to the giant before returning to Callan. I couldn’t find a pulse, but I was also too frantic to think properly.
Callan didn’t move as I stared at him. And then, when I was certain he was dead, his chest rose ever so slightly before falling again.
“Bring the stretcher!” Tucker bellowed up the hill.
Amsirah ran down with a makeshift stretcher between them. With care, we lifted Callan’s broken body onto it. No matter how gentle we were, his eyelids fluttered and his eyes rolled behind them, but that was his only sign of discomfort. He was too weak and broken to do anything more.
With a heavy heart, I watched them carry Callan up the hill and toward the makeshift infirmary we’d established at the edge of the pit.
“Callan was with Scarlet and Luna when the palace fell,” I told the others. “They might be right here with him.”
They edged away as they carefully stepped on the remnants that might have been covering our friends. I brought my wind tunnel back to life as I gingerly removed more of the rubble from where we found Callan.
It took a little while, but eventually I lifted a shattered armoire to uncover a hand poking from the wreckage. Judging by its small size, it was most likely a woman’s.
Ruby let out a little cry of hope and rushed to the hand. Falling to her knees, she grasped it between hers.
