“Ivy,don’t!” Ava cried, but it was too late.
I heard the unsheathing of a blade, then the tearing of flesh. Chancey’s agonized screams grew louder than ever. My stomach churned as I realized Ivy was slicing off Chancey’s wing in order to save his life.
“Don’t… Leave me… Kill me!” Chancey yelled, before his wails became even louder as Ivy sawed through the bone.
“I will never let you go,” Ivy wept, though they continued slicing through the sinew on Chancey’s wing. “Even if I have to hurt you to make you stay.”
To lose one of your wings was one of the worst things to happen to an angel. To lose them both was a death sentence. Chancey would live if he kept one wing, but he’d forever be broken because of it. Half an angel, never able to fly again.
I didn’t think Chancey would want that— in fact, I was certain he would rather be eaten alive by vampires.
Ivy, though, wasn’t willing to allow him to die. Ivy kept going, using their blade to saw through Chancey’s wing bone and feathers in order to cut him loose. Chancey’s screams grew louder as he begged and pleaded with Ivy to stop, but it didn’t do any good, because Ivy kept going. More warm blood trickled out along the floor, soaking my shoes.
There was a creaking noise above, and I realized with horror that the vampires had cut the cables of the second elevator car, which was now free-falling in mid-air. We had thirty seconds or less before it landed on us and crushed us all.
“Keep going, Ivy!” Ava yelled. “I’ll take care of these vamps.”
Intense magic laced in rage swept through the bond as Ava aimed her hands upward. An icy chill crept over my skin beforebeing met with a blazing inferno as her blue Fire magic swept past me. Vampires screamed in pain as her flames licked up the sides of the elevator shaft. There were very few things that could slow a vampire down, but Ava’s Fire was one of them. Her blue Fire was the most powerful of all.
The vampires turned to ash, the remnants of their bodies raining down on us. Marcus and Eddie yanked the elevator door open the same time Ivy hauled Chancey upward. We hurried out the moment the second elevator car crashed to the floor. It smashed against the spot where Chancey had been laying only a moment ago.
“Good thinking, Ava!” Alistair praised through the comms. “Just like barbeque.”
I ignored him. “We’ve got to keep moving. Ava slowed the vamps down, but more will be coming. We can’t keep going this way, because they could come from any floor before we make it to the top. We’ll have to go another way.”
And we had to move fast, because now we had even more dead vampires that would tip Salvatore off on our location.
We were back in the boiler room, the machines whirring from all angles. Ivy dragged Chancey forward and gently set him on the ground. Chancey didn’t make a sound; he’d passed out cold. Blood dripped from his back as a result of his severed wing.
“Heal him, Ava!” Ivy yelled. “Bring his wing back!”
“I…can’t,” she insisted weakly.
“You replaced your father’s lungs!” Ivy screamed, like she was being unreasonable.
“This isn’t like that,” Ava said. “I can heal Chancey’swound, but I can’t regrow magical appendages, and angel wings are the hardest thing to fix!”
“It’s no use, Ives,” Danny said. “Once an angel loses their wings, that’s it. They’re done for.”
“No!” Ivy raged. “He’s still got one left. I’m not giving up on him.”
“You have to, for the sake of the key,” Danny argued. “He knew what he was risking when he signed up for this. We all did.”
Ivy shot to their feet and began pacing back and forth. “This is my father’s fault. I’m going to kill him; Iswearit!”
I grabbed Ivy by the shoulders. They shook beneath my touch. “Ivy, you can’t, not now. You’ll get your revenge on your father, but we need to get that key first.”
“Then I’ll burn this place to the ground the second we get it!” Ivy shouted.
“No,” I stated firmly. “If that’s the way you feel, then you’re off the job. I’m sorry, Ivy, but you can’t come along if you’re set on revenge. You’re going to get someone hurt.”
“Fuck you, Charlie. You wanna play boss, but this job is already fucked all to hell. Screw the plan— I ain’t taking your orders no more. Iwantto see him get hurt!” Ivy raged. “I want to hurt my father. I want towatch him suffer.”
“Charlie’s right,” Marcus said. “You’re bound to fuck up because you’re so pissed.”
“Believe me, if I get my father in my sights, I won’t miss,” Ivy insisted.
Ivy wasn’t going to listen to me right now, and I couldn’t have someone like that on my team. “I’m sorry, Ivy. This is going to hurt.”
