“How can I help?”
I stepped back from her, doing the opposite of what my heart begged me to do. “There’s nothing I want more than to hold you, be normal, and enjoy holding your hand. But I don’t see how I can improve.”
“I don’t believe it.” She edged closer. “Alex.”
“Don’t worry about me.” I held up a hand to keep her away.
“Of course I’m worried.”
The intrusive and unwanted need to scrub my skin raised my anxiety. “I… I need to leave.” I left the sitting room and locked myself in my bedroom, losing yet another battle.
In my bed,I watched the sun rising, almost wishing it would turn me into dust.
There was nothing I wanted more than to touch Irene, hold her in my arms, and be normal without fear, pain, or feeling sick. I should accept her offer of help. Or I should let her go to live her life in the light where she belonged.
Sunlight streaked across the floor towards me inexorably as if it wanted to prove that darkness didn’t own me.
Darius barged into my bedroom, making me bolt upright. “Alex, you need to come.”
I shoved off the covers and donned my shirt and trousers. “Is it Irene?”
“No.” He frowned as if he didn’t recognise me. “It’s the man you brought in yesterday. He’s gone.”
“Gone? From a cell with four-foot-wide walls and iron bars? How?”
“Search me.”
We rushed down the stairs towards the lower floors, and the air became cool. Darius’s breath turned to mist. I came to a grinding halt in front of the empty cell. The man’s clothes and boots were lumped on the floor. The chains and shackles hung from the wall, holding air.
Aside from a narrow opening secured by a grid of steel bars and close to the high ceiling, the only access was the reinforced, armoured steel door guarded by werewolves.
“Who has the key?” I paced in the cell, searching for any detail that helped.
“I do.” Graves stepped inside, an air of challenge on his face.
“Did you open the door for any reason last night?”
A growl rumbled out of him. “Why would I have done such a thing?”
“Stop growling. I’m not accusing you of anything. Did you have any contact with the prisoner?”
He didn’t soften. “No. I carried him in here when he was unconscious, shackled and chained him, and locked the door.”
“And was the lock intact when you came down this morning?”
“It wasn’t forced. The door was locked, and the shackles were as they are now.”
Darius paced as well. “Did you detect any supernatural powers?”
“None.” Graves shrugged. “He was completely human.”
“I agree.” I studied the opening. “I drank his blood.”
The bars were solid and in place, and the window was too tight and narrow for him to go through.
“Darius, is there a spell that allows someone to leave a cell undetected?”
He scratched his chin. “Many, but he wasn’t a mage. Although a mage might have come to his rescue.”
