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Tavion shook his head and climbed to his feet. “This is your show, princess. I’m just here for muscle.”
When we stepped into the hall, the prisoners retreated a few paces, but no more, while Tavion scooped Adele up off the floor. Fear crept up my spine when I saw her thin legs dangling loose.
“They’re getting restless,” she murmured. “Though I can hardly blame them. I can’t wait to get out of here.” Tavion backed into the cell, Adele in his arms, giving me a look of warning.
I nodded to the iron-clad door, the one that led to the staircase up to the main floor. “Once you reach the top of the steps, there will be more guards, but not many. The main exit to the streets is to your left. Good luck.” Then I handed the closest male the keys and jumped out of the way.
* * *
Frantic prisoners streamedpast the open door, shoving and fighting for freedom.
I turned my attention to Raz, so pale he looked dead, then dropped to my knees before him, well aware of how keenly Tavion and Adele watched. Well aware of how sweaty my palms were when I pressed them to his chest.
His heart beat slow and faint, his breathing erratic.
I closed my eyes and settled myself. Settled my magic. Let the world fade away until there was only Raziel and me.
The one I chose.
The one I loved.
The one who was meant to be mine. Magic seeped from my palms in a warm and gentle wave, and I willed my stolen power to repair the torn flesh, the ruined vessels, to take the pain away and replace it with the love he’d long been denied.
Heal,I breathed.Heal and be made whole again.
There was a meaty, hideous pop when his shoulder slid back into place, followed by his deep, shuddering groan tinged with agony. The scarf came unwrapped from my head and I tore it away, pushing my hair back out of my face.
I love you so much,I thought, feeding more magic into him as slowly as I could, trying to focus to make sure it went to the right places, but it all became too much.Please. Please come back to me.There were too many feelings tangling inside me, I had too much to lose if this didn’t fucking work.
When a callous roughened palm flattened over my hand and pressed it tighter into his chest, I opened my eyes to meet Raz’s dark, confused gaze, his half smile fading away the longer he stared up at me. The scrape on his cheek was little more than a pink mark, the arrow holes slightly puckered but healing on his shoulder.
“You called me a pincushion,” Raziel whispered, but he looked at me like I was the moon that all his dreams hung on.
A laugh that was more like a sob tore out of me, his face blurring as I blinked away the tears. “Youwerea pincushion, until Tavion pulled all those arrows out of you.”
His brow wrinkled. “Where are we?” Raz’s eyes widened as he looked over my shoulder, then he scrambled sloppily to his feet, staring through the door to where the last of the prisoners streamed past, to Adele cradled in Tavion’s arms, to the blood-stained table where I once thought I’d die.
His face becomes a mask of confusion. “This is the Tempeste prison.”
“It is.” I climbed to my feet, bracing his arm as he wove unsteadily.
“And we are leaving this shithole for good.”
28
ZORANDER
The Caladrians might be a pack of voracious, soulless monsters, but the bastards could fucking fight.
With spears and swords and razor-sharp teeth, they attacked with an efficiency my men were not initially prepared for, until the rancid scent of fear stained the air as they’d glimpsed what we’d be facing.
Our lines had not broken, but they had wavered when the first of the Caladrian soldiers launched themselves at my men, tearing at them with those hideous teeth and claws. Corrupted by this realm’s dying magic, they were little more than animals.
Once the first heat of battle faded, the odds evened out, and Caladrian soldiers died just as easily as Solarys ones. Not that their skill level surprised me. Tavion had trained these men for twenty years, some of his expertise was bound to rub off.
Nor was it in Tavion’s nature to be sloppy, and so, the troops we met in battle were vicious and deadly, but we turned the tide. Except the tide kept coming.
A few thousand, that lying bitch of an Oracle had claimed, according to Tristan.
