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I ran past their tumbling, twisting forms, wrenched Amaya free from the tree, and swung her high. But as I did, there was a weird sucking sound—it was almost as if the fire creature was consuming every ounce of air around it. A second later I realized it wasn’t the creature. It was Tao. And his flames were growing brighter, fiercer.
He was drawing the creature’s energy into himself!
“Tao, don’t!” I screamed again, but the words were lost to another explosion—one powerful enough to throw me the full length of the clearing. I hit a tree trunk hard, heard a crack, and knew something inside me had broken. Pain washed through me as I dropped like a stone to the ground and for a moment there were so many stars dancing in front of my eyes that I couldn’t see anything else.
Damn it, it hurt. It would hurt more to move. And yet move I did, wanting—needing—to know if Tao was still alive.
I pushed to my feet and staggered back across the clearing, holding a hand to my side and feeling pain every time I took a step or drew a breath. The heat of the fires that still burned all around us was nothing compared with the burn inside me. Sweat broke out across my brow and my stomach twisted, threatening to rebel. But I staggered on, my gaze on the unmoving Tao.
He couldn’t be dead. He just couldn’t.
I dropped on my knees beside him. The action jarred my whole body, but I swallowed heavily and studied my friend, searching for some sign of life, but fearful of actually touching him lest I find none.
I couldn’t see him breathing, but his skin was red and the heat within him burned so fiercely it washed over me like flame.
He couldn’t be dead. Not when the fire was still burning so ferociously inside of him.
“Risa?” Ilianna said tentatively, from somewhere behind me. “Is he … ?”
“I don’t know.” My voice broke as I said it. I swallowed heavily, then gathered the remnants of my courage and touched his neck. It was as if I’d inserted my fingers into the heart of a cauldron. It hurt. Burned.
I jerked my fingers away before they blistered, but not before I’d caught a pulse. It was thready and erratic, but it was there.
I closed my eyes and released the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“He’s okay,” I said, even though I knew that wasn’t necessarily the case. He’d sucked in the energy of a fire elemental—consumed it, in much the same manner as my demon sword had. But Tao was a half-breed were, not a sword forged in the death of another demon, and who the hell knew what the merging of his flesh and an elemental’s would do to him?
Ilianna dropped down beside me. “God, he’s burning up,” she said, her voice still distressed. “Inside and out.”
“Have you got any holy water left?” I said, suddenly remembering how it had healed my wounds. It might not work on whatever was happening within him, but it sure as hell would help with his outside.
She nodded and scrambled up again, returning a few seconds later with a small bottle. “It’s all I have, though.”
“Then drizzle it over the worst of his wounds. His wolf healing capabilities should take care of the rest.”
I pushed wearily to my feet. Pain rolled through me, catching in my throat and, for a second, sending those stars dancing again.
Ilianna frowned up at me. “You’re hurt.”
“Yeah.” And if I had cracked a rib, as I suspected, then there was nothing I could do but grin and bear it. At least until I got my hands on some painkillers.
“You should let me see—”
“Ilianna,” I said softly, “the only cure for a cracked rib is rest and time. I can’t afford either right now. Just take care of Tao until I get back.”
Her frown increased, and her green eyes searched mine worriedly. “Why? Where are you going?”
“I’m going to find the first damn key and attempt to finish this whole stupid thing.”
“But that could be dangerous—”
“Yeah. Which is why you and Tao will stay here for now.”
“But Tao needs more medical care than I can give him. We can’t just leave him here!”
“Ilianna,” I said, as gently as I could, “he took an elemental into his own body to destroy it. I have no idea what that’s done to him, and I very much doubt anyone else will, either. I certainly don’t think there’s anything modern medicine can do for him that you and his own natural healing abilities can’t.”
“But if he’s in a coma—”
