And I did it again, too. And a third time just for laughs.
“Elyx is stationed outside the manor with a sniper rifle,” Ava explained quickly. “He shot Esther in the wing to slow her down, then Asa and Ares snuck up behind Mad Dog to siphon his strength. They used knives to pin him to the wall. Gavyn took on Naya.”
“I siphoned her wings and her super strength,” Gavyn said. “I beat the crap out of her before locking her and Esther up in a safe down the hall, but it won’t hold them for long.”
“We need to kill them while we have the chance,” I said.
Ava gave a hollow laugh. “Oh, believe me. I’m burning this place to the ground the second we’re out of here.”
“Come on. Max is waiting for us outside!” Gavyn called.
I didn’t want to risk staying another second and facing the Warden. Because if what Danielle said was true about him, we weren’t ready. Not even close.
But you know what? Deuce was stuck in the floor, and he wasn’t going anywhere. He couldn’t fight back, and I had a few minutes to take care of this fucker. I swore not long ago that the next time I encountered Deuce, he was going straight to hell. Deuce was as good as dead.
I took a step forward to do just that, but I found that the movement made my head spin. Suddenly, my body felt feverish when it hadn’t been before. An intense wave of dizziness overcame me, and I was briefly aware that I’d staggered forward. Eddie caught me, holding me upright.
“Charlie?” Ava asked in worry. “Are you okay?”
I tried to say something, but instead, something caught in my throat. I heaved, and without me realizing what was going on, I was vomiting a thick substance that poured from my mouth and onto the floor.
“He’s been poisoned! Hurry!” someone barked, but I couldn’t be sure who it was. I’d lost all my bearings.
Several heavy hands landed on me, and they lifted to raise me onto Oberi’s back, situating me in front of Ava. A horrible sickness swelled in my gut.
“Danielle made me drink the wine…” I slurred. I gagged again, and tasted copper.
An enraged cry tore from Ava’s lungs. “These bitches are going to learn to never touch my man!”
Oberi took off running toward the doors, and our friends quickly followed. Fire crackled, and the waves of heat nearly seared my skin. Ava had lit the mansion aflame. The warmth quickly shifted to an icy chill as Ava blasted another spell at the walls, ordering her blue Fire to consume it all. The dying screams of the trapped demigods echoed through the air.
I received a brief moment of satisfaction before everything disappeared.
Chapter Fourteen
AVA-MARIE
This couldn’t be happening.
Oberi surged into a gallop, and we left the others behind us as we burst through the double doors of the Warden’s shitty manor. This place was warded up the ass, so we had to get off the property in order to cast a portal and get out of here. I held on to Charlie, clutching him tightly so he didn’t fall off. He lolled in my arms like a rag doll, spent of all energy, and my panic grew to an immeasurable rate as the flames raged around us. My fury at what Danielle had done to Charlie made the fire grow larger, consuming the mansion and turning every bit of it to smoldering cinders. I hoped Esther, Naya, Mad Dog, and Deuce had extremely painful deaths, because that’s what they deserved for hurting my husband.
We passed the bodies of dead guards stationed around the manor. Oberi leapt over them like they were nothing, and she was right, because theydidmean nothing if they had helped cause this. The Elvish Associates had taken them all out so we could get inside the mansion.
In the distance, dots had appeared in the sky above tall, golden skyscrapers. They were only growing closer. I saw wings, and even from here, I could make out the expression of my mosthated enemy. The Warden and a whole angel army was on their way to capture us.
Go ahead and try.I had burned this mansion to ash without bothering to blink. I was more enraged than I ever had been before, and I knew if anyone got in my way now, I’d put them in the ground before I gave up a second more of Charlie’s life.
Max was waiting for us once I was past the manor’s open gate and on the empty streets of Celestial City. She gazed at the blood soaking Charlie’s shirt and didn’t ask any questions. She pulled a pocket mirror from her jacket and projected it forward. A portal bloomed ahead, and Oberi charged through it just as I heard the Warden give a cry of frustrated rage.
Oberi stepped out of a mirror that led to the palace hospital wing, followed by our friends. The portal snapped shut behind us, preventing anyone from following. Now that we were in a safe place, I put my hand to Charlie’s heart so I could heal him.
My fingers glowed white as I surveyed his body. The light grew in intensity as I forced my powers through his systems. I hadn’t noticed before when I had healed the vampire bite and regrown his hair, because the poison had been so small, but clearly it had grown. A sickening feeling overtook me as I found the poison sifting through his bloodstream. It was sticky as it clung to the inside of his throat, his stomach, his lungs, a vile substance that tasted disgusting and foul.
When I prodded further, my entire soul quivered as I recognized something familiar— the sting of inferichite.
“I can’t heal this,” I said in terror. “There’s still poison in his blood. It won’t clear.”
“What do you mean?” Eddie asked, an edge of denial in his voice. “You can heal anything, princess.”
