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I almost dropped Barney in my eagerness to see Briar, but this was a matter that needed to be finished. Instead, I turned to Rachel and nodded once. She rushed toward Draven’s voice, and I looked back at Barney.
“You never deserved any of the women you had in your life, Barney. But I will make sure you can’t ruin any other.”
Higher I raised him, fingers squeezing slowly but deliberately, each crunch driving Barney closer to death until the last of the light faded fully from his eyes and his tongue lolled out of his mouth like a pig on a spit.
I dropped him then, allowing him to crumble to the floor in a pile, and spun around.
“Call out!” I yelled to the team. “Where are you?”
“In the basement!”
Off to the kitchen, I found a staircase and rushed down the rickety steps, glaciating in place, when I saw Briar lying on a metal cot.
Rachel stood over her, holding her hand and touching her cheek, an urgent expression on her face.
“Is she—?” I choked, not wanting to believe we were too late.
Rachel glanced at me and shook her head quickly.
“She has a pulse, but it’s thready. I need to work on her.”
“Not here!” I roared, rushing toward her to scoop her up in my arms.
“Be careful, Ash!” Rachel warned. “I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with her.”
Tenderly, I carried her in my arms and led her out of the house, the team following behind me. I noted the elderly couple still lying on the floor and looked to Draven, who seemed to understand my unspoken command. He rallied up his team to deal with Barney's mess, and I placed Briar in the cramped backseat of my car, Rachel climbing in with her.
“Can you fix her?” I demanded, pulling away from the street, ignoring the massive crowds that had formed to gawk at the spectacle we’d made in our rescue efforts.
Good. I hoped they all figured out the kind of man they’d been living next to for all those years.
They could say what they wanted about me, but I had never hidden who I was. Barney Madison was scum of the lowest kind, preying on the most vulnerable for his own profit.
With one eye on the rear-view, I whizzed back to the estate almost as fast as I had made it to the Madison’s home, but Briar was still unconscious when we brought her up to my suite, laying her on the massive double king. I tuned into the rhythm of her breathing, conscious of her every inhale, the beat of her pulse.
I stripped her of the filthy nightgown and bowed my head over the swell of her belly, emotion choking me as I felt the life stir within her.
“What did he do to her?”
“He kept her drugged, I think,” Rachel responded. “You have to let me heal her, Ash. I don’t know how long she’s been under, and I don’t know how much time we have.”
She pulled on my shoulder gently, and I reluctantly pulled away, allowing my fae assistant to do what she did.
“Maybe you shouldn’t stay,” Rachel added worriedly. “In case…”
“I’m staying,” I said flatly. “No matter what happens.”
She didn’t argue with me and instead focused her attention on waking Briar as I paced the room. Rachel murmured spells and used the energy in her hands to pull the toxins from Briar’s body. I wanted to interject every two minutes and ask if it was working, if the baby was hurt, if they were going to survive, but I knew enough about fae healing to understand that interruptions could be deadly. I had to let Rachel do her work.
An hour passed, and then two, Rachel working tirelessly as despair twisted inside me. It shouldn’t take this long.
I didn’t kill him slowly enough. I should have drawn out his death for days, for weeks. I should have kept him in a cell and starved him for months.
But none of that would bring Briar and our child back to me now.
“R-Rachel?” Briar rasped.
My head jerked back so fast, I kinked it.
