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Gabriel caught me before my head would have hit the floor. I could barely hold it up with the way my nerves were still jittering all through my body. I couldn’t move my feet to try to pull them back under me.
Nearly everyone around the table had sprung to their feet now. The Northcotts were staring at the figure behind me—an enforcer with his baton clutched in his white-knuckled hand. That was what had hit me: his magicked baton.
“What are youdoing?” Lady Northcott burst out.
The guard’s face had gone blotchy, pale and flushed at the same time. “The way she was talking—the way she came in here—someone had to stop her. She’s got the demon’s power in her, doesn’t she? Bringing these men who aren’t even witching into our Assembly space. We can’t trust her.”
I might have been gratified by the horror on the expressions all around me if I hadn’t been so shaken from his blow. Gabriel’s arm tightened around my back, but I barely felt the contact. My legs still refused to move. My mind swam and steadied, swam and steadied.
“You donotact beyond your orders,” Mr. Northcott bit out. “That includes striking down a member of our society when no one was in any immediate harm.”
“But I—she’s a blight on this building since she got here,” the enforcer protested.
Lady Northcott flicked her hand, and Investigator Ruiz moved to grab the guy by the arm. He started to pull away, and she made a twisting gesture with her fingers that stilled him in an instant. His baton dropped to the floor.
I tried to say something, but my lips only twitched. A wordless sound escaped me instead. Lady Northcott turned to me, her expression pained.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, and for once I thought she really meant it. “He’ll be dealt with. We’ll do what we can about the portal—I swear it.” Her gaze rose to Gabriel. “With the magicking on those batons, Lady Hallowell won’t be able to do very much for an hour or so. She should be given space to recover. Do you need help bringing her to your rooms?”
“No,” Gabriel said evenly, but there was a tautness to his voice that told me he was furious under the calm front he was presenting. “I can manage.”
He slid his other arm under my knees and scooped me up, tipping me against his chest with my head on his shoulder. I leaned into him as well as I could in an effort to make myself easy cargo.
“As soon as the effects have worn off, reach out to us,” Lady Northcott said to me. “We’ll talk.”
Heat flooded my face at the thought of all those officials watching me be carried out of the room like a helpless child, but I was just glad when the door closed behind us.
Talk. It was all talk. Were they even going to do anything about the portal other than that? But I couldn’t express any of that to Gabriel. I just nestled closer, my forehead coming to rest on the side of his neck. He bowed his head as he marched down the hall.
“I’ve got you,” he said. “They’re not touching you again. Unless…” He hesitated at the stairs. “If you want me to ask them to send a medic…?”
I managed to rouse my tongue enough to form one word. “No.”
His embrace around me tightened. He shouldered aside the door and headed down to the floor below.
The door to our office was open. As Gabriel strode past it to the room with the cots, Kyler and Damon emerged. I guessed Seth and Jin had left to see about the cage like Seth had suggested.
“What happened?” Damon asked, bursting in after us. Anger already burned in his eyes as he watched Gabriel lay me down on the cot.
“One of the enforcers stunned her with his baton,” Gabriel said. “Lady Northcott said it’ll take about an hour before she can move normally again.”
“Fucking hell. The bastards.” Damon dropped down beside me, clasping my hand. The heat of his touch coursed through me. My fingers trembled and closed around his, just slightly. A little more sensation, a little more control, seeping back in.
“What can we do?” Ky asked, crouching at my other side and glancing up at Gabriel.
“I don’t know,” Gabriel said. “It sounded like it’ll just wear off on its own. I don’t think there’s much wecando.”
He didn’t move, though. None of them wanted to leave me. I squeezed Damon’s fingers harder. My tongue formed another word that only required the slightest movement of my lips: “Stay.”
“Of course, angel,” Damon said. “Whatever you need.”
“What even happened?” Ky stroked his hand over my hair. “I thought she was down with the witches from the faction. Where did an enforcer come from?”
“One of the witches down there thinks the other demons will break through the portal soon,” Gabriel said. “Rose believes her. She went to tell all those Assembly people that we need to shut down the portal, destroy it, but all they did was argue, as usual. The enforcer got pissed off that we hadn’t gotten an invitation before coming in.”
“Assholes,” Damon muttered. “Are you sure we can’t just leave them all to be demon food?”
I made a noise of protest, and his expression softened. He kissed the back of my hand, his eyes tender when they met mine. “You know I don’t really mean that. I mean, I might like the idea, but I know that’s not what we’re doing.”
