I reach between the bars and cup her face.
Her lids flutter, like she’d forgotten what it feels like to be touched with tenderness. It’s an arrow through my heart, lit with fire that ignites my veins.
I may not be able to save them all tonight, but I can saveher.
I can saveone.
“I’m going to get you out,” I promise, my voice a punch of steely determination.
Relief crumbles her face.
Damp, heavy tangles tumble down my back as I tug my hairpin free and delve it into the lock, then twist, flick,shove—tipping my head so I can listen close. My hands tremble, hindering my progress. Urgency swells in my chest like a thundercloud.
A growl threatens to rip free, each turn of my hand one too many.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on—
The hairs on my nape lift.
A scurry of motion draws my gaze to the girl shuffling backward, disappearing into the shadowed corner of her small, foul-smelling cell.
My hands still.
I spin, heart jolting at the sight of Cainon behind me, the flaming sconces casting his face in ghoulish shadows that cut his features into harsh, terrifying segments.
I gasp, shoving to a stand.
He darts forward in a blur of motion, and my lungs flatten, head thwacking against the bars so hard lights flash across my vision, a deep throb bulging my brain. My hairpin clatters to the ground as the hard, unforgiving panes of his body lock me against the metal, caging me in his dominating essence, making it hard to draw a full breath.
He smothers my mouth with his salty hand, and my eyes flare, gaze bouncing back and forth between his own.
His pupils have blown so big there’s nothing left of the blue.
“Cai—”
“Hush,petal.” His grated whisper assaults my prickling skin, slamming my heart into a ferocious rally.
A frown touches his lips, and he tucks a tendril of damp hair off my face, warm fingers brushing my thumping carotid once.
Twice.
He leans forward, lips grazing the length of my neck like a lover’s caress, hovering over that frantic, fluttering beat. “We don’t want to wake him,” he murmurs, his voice deep and dangerous.
A bolt of fear shoots up my spine.
Him …
My gaze nips at the slumbering monster chained to the floor, and I swallow—hard—a sense of dread settling on my shoulders like stacks of bricks.
Cainon nuzzles my neck, his words a pattering attack on my fragile flesh. “This is the only time he’s ever truly atpeace.”
Iarch back, using the pad of my thumb to roll her bottom lip so far I expose her clenched teeth, then thread my fingers through her hair that looks like honey in the blazing light—tangled in a mass of knots I itch to tame.
Her cheeks are flushed, sodden shirt clinging to the outline of her heaving breasts, that bold gaze darting between my eyes. Fearlessly seeking.
