“Ronan! Incoming!” Deirdre shouted, and I jumped on top of Elena, shielding her from the blast of magic that exploded behind us. Something burst into flames, but it wasn’t Orendiel. He was already running away from the destruction, fleeing our brutal assault like the coward he was.
I crawled over to Emilio, gently turning him onto his back. I gasped, unable to swallow the raw horror of it.
Elena said nothing, her face a mask of pure shock.
Her brother was covered in blood, more of it pumping out with every beat of his heart. Muscle and torn flesh glistened, the jagged edges of broken ribs protruding. The silver was pure poison, amplifying the effects of a regular dagger by a thousand. I couldn’t even decipher where the blood was coming from—where the worst of the damage was. Confused by the silver poisoning, Emilio’s body was stuck in limbo, parts of him shifting back into human form, while other parts remained wolf.
“No!” A gut-wrenching scream rang out across the room, and I looked up to catch Gray and Asher pushing through a group of witches, running toward us from across the room.
I caught her eyes and knew in an instant that she’d seen everything. That she’d watched the man she loved get gutted by the Darkwinter captain while I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop him.
“Emilio,” she breathed, falling to her knees before him. She took his human hand, tears spilling into her mouth as she reached up to touch his wolf snout.
He was stuck, half wolf, half man, his face twisted in excruciating pain. The sounds coming from his mouth were indescribable, each one tearing a chunk out of my heart.
Behind us, the fire crackled, superheating the air around us.
“Put pressure on the chest wound,” I ordered, snapping my fingers in front of Elena’s face to snap her out of her shock. “Now, Elena. Now!”
The sharp command woke her up, and she did as I asked, pressing her palms to the wound near his heart. Blood leaked out through her fingers.
“He needs to shift back into wolf,” she said. “His body is using too much energy trying to shift back and forth between the two. We can’t heal him like this.”
“We damn well need to try,” I said. “Unless you can force him to shift.”
She shook her head.
I whipped the T-shirt over my head and tore the fabric into strips, tying them tight around his limbs, anywhere I thought might help slow the bleeding.
But nothing I could do was helping. Emilio’s breath was shallow, fading. Blood pooled on the cement floor beneath him, a glossy black slick that reflected the flickering firelight surrounding us.
“You fucking listen to me,” I shouted at him. “You’re not going anywhere. Don’t eventhinkabout it. You hear me, asshole?”
A gentle touch on my arm made me flinch. I didn’t need to feel the burn to know it was Gray.
“Ronan,” she said, her voice broken and soft. I didn’t even want to look at her. Didn’t want to see the hopelessness in her eyes. The resignation.
Behind us, the flames surged, licking up the walls, consuming everything they touched. We had five minutes, maybe ten before they crawled across the ceiling, and then we’d all be fucked.
“Ronan,” she whispered again, that soft voice trembling. I’d never seen her so scared. Not in the Shadowrealm. Not with Sebastian. Never. “Do something.”
I finally met her eyes, the fierce need to protect her rising up inside me.
“Go with Ash and Darius,” I said, blinking the sweat from my eyes. This place was quickly becoming an oven. “You need to get the others to safety. I’ll take care of him.”
Gray’s eyes were wide in a pale face as she looked him over. Then, she turned to me again and nodded, locking her gaze on mine. Instead of the hopelessness I’d feared, I saw the exact opposite. Hope, so much of it, it made me dizzy. She was pinning it all on me, and I felt the weight of it on my heart. The importance of it.
“I won’t let him die,” I said. “I swear to you, Gray. Iwillget us out of here.Allof us.” My promises weren’t worth much in her eyes these days, but it was all I had to give, and I gave it honestly. Emilio would survive this. He was the best of us, and he needed to be there on the other side when we got out.
Gray got to her knees and leaned forward, still holding Emilio’s hand. She pressed her mouth to mine, her kiss fiery and all-consuming, hotter than the flames behind us. She tasted like smoke and ash and everything—everything—I’d ever loved. Everything I’d ever lived for.
When she pulled back, her mouth was red and swollen, her lips blistered.
“Don’t you let go, Ronan Vacarro.”
Asher hauled her up to her feet, and they followed Darius and Jael and the hell hounds, leading the witches out the front entrance, leaving a trail of bloody footprints in their wake.
Emilio’s blood.
