Gabriel dragged the medallion out of his pocket, murmured a simple spell, and the doors opened with a faint click. Twenty feet away, Dante drove his fist straight through two feet of solid rock, heat surging with the blow. Rock melted around him, lava hissing where it dripped into the snow, the whole castle groaning beneath his assault.
“Or that works, too,” I said grimly, not really giving a shit if this whole place came down, so long as Emberline wasn’t inside when it did.
“I can’t feel her,” Dante roared, completely lost in his frenzy, ripping through another section of wall with his bare hands, the air around us churning with smoke and heat asguards rushed toward him from all sides, screaming threats, weapons drawn.
Dante lifted his hand, and they vaporized.
“Holy shit,” I muttered, the stench of burning hair and skin washing over us. “We have to get to Emberline before he tears this entire building down.”
“Agreed.” Gabriel looked past me into the fortress, torn. “I’ll stay here and monitor my brother; you get our girl.”
Our girl. I liked the sound of that.
“She’s downstairs. Basement.” I explained quickly. “In case I don’t come back. Door is at the far end of the eastern wing. Metal stairs. That’s where she’ll be.”
“Go while they’re focused on him,” Gabriel ordered, then we both paused as Dante roared out Emberline’s name along with a shower of sparks and smoke, red-hot lava dripping from his fingers. He was… fuck, I didn’t have words for what he was.
I’d seen some shit in my life, but whatever monster Dante had turned into didn’t have a name. Not one I knew. A beast crafted from fire and fury and instinct, yet there was a dangerous intelligence there too, hidden behind the rage.
“Maybe you should…”
Gabriel shoved me through the doors. “Fucking hell. I’ll be fine.Just fucking go.”
I pulled up my shadows and crossed the entryway, then the soaring ballroom where Rocco had held his party, flattening myself against the wall as guards raced past toward the front. Smoke was already spilling into the fortress, but the further in I moved, the more I finally caught a hint of her scent.
She was here.
Gods, please let her be alive. Please let us not be too late.
I hurried down the last corridor, flinging open the doorleading to the stairwell, an industrial affair of metal and concrete, and I took a minute to listen for the sounds of reinforcements. Then I prowled down the three flights, keeping my eyes peeled for guards.
But there was nobody here.
I reached the bottom when the smell hit me.
The smell of fresh blood.A lot of it.
Terror tore through every vein, erased every thought, until there was nothing left but rage and a need to kill whoever hurt her. My hand trembled where I gripped my knife. I doubted I could shoot straight if I had to.
Above me, the dull thudding of feet grew closer, vibrations punctuated by screams of pain and gunfire. I glanced back up the stairwell. Metal. Dante would melt through that in a heartbeat, and if he was trapped down here and burning uncontained, he would bring a hundred thousand tons of rock down on our heads.
I couldn’t waste time on weakness.
I needed to become the clear-headed soldier Emberline needed me to be. The one without feelings, the one not compromised by my fear for her.
A shout had me lifting my head.
“Dante.” Gabriel barked from up above. “If you bring this place down, you’ll bury Emberline, right along with us. Either get out, or get a fucking grip.”
Godsdamn it.
Through the doorway leading to the basement, a plume of flame exploded like a dragon’s breath. The fortress didn’t even feel solid anymore, like every stone was shifting on its foundations.
Down here, the scent of her blood was so strong. That’s what was drawing Dante—that’s what was making him wild with panic. More screams erupted, more fire, and then…
“Go. Find my wife and get her to safety.” Dante’s booming voice echoed off the stone walls, the metal. “I’ll hold off the rest of the guards.”
Gabriel raced down the steps, leaping down the final flight, landing beside me in a crouch. There was a corner up ahead. We could turn that corner and walk into a wall of gunfire… or nothing.
