Everett sputters, struggling like he’s trying to get up and help before abruptly blacking out. Blood stains his white hair, matting it as his breathing turns labored.
“Everett?” I whisper, voice trembling.
Shaking with anger, I check the fray around us to see if any threats have noticed that we’re vulnerable. I need to use what magic I can and bandage him here before he bleeds out.
Then I’ll need to get him out of the battle so Silas can heal him later, far better than I can.
But I can barely think through the anger crowding my brain. I loathe that my elemental is bleeding in my arms, motionless.
Stupid fucking lich.
Blood blossom?Silas checks in fae inside my head.
Everett will need healing soon,I send back, rage making my voice shake even telepathically.
Crypt appears, making me realize he slipped into Limbo to handle his previous scuffle. His silver-flecked violet gaze drops to Everett and the long gash across his torso and face.
My incubus’s markings light up as he meets my eye. He must see the pure fury there because he glances up at the lich, who is back on his feet and heading toward us again as if killing me is his one and only mission.
It very well might be.
“Tell me what you need,” Crypt murmurs.
My hands shake as I try to wipe blood out of Everett’s eyes. His breathing is growing even weaker.
“Bring me his head,” I grit, looking back at my Nightmare Prince.
His lips curl up maniacally. "Done. I'll be back soon, darling.”
He vanishes. I glance around again to ensure we aren’t about to be killed before I focus on patching Everett before he bleeds out.
Revenant magic destroys, and necromancy can’t heal the living, so I’m left with my weak grasp of common magic abilities as I struggle to minimize the worst of his deep wound. I can’t get it to close, but I manage to slow the bleeding. It’s better than nothing.
Pulling out the roll of bandages, I pause to send another blast of dark magic out around us, bringing down an approaching ghoul and a shrieking banshee.
As I begin wrapping clean bandages around the worst of the damage to the side of Everett’s face, he grimaces again, rousing.
He opens his other eye, gazing up at me in pained, disoriented confusion. Then his unwrapped eye widens, and he lifts an arm to freeze a banshee I didn’t sense coming behind me.
Somewhere overhead, Baelfire roars again before thunder rocks the heavens, barely audible over the deafening battle around us. Ash rains slowly down, along with small flurries of snow. Screams surround us, the grunts and cries and wonderfully morbid sounds of a battle in full swing.
For a fraction of a second, I plead with the universe to keep my other matches unharmed—along with Kenzie and our other allies.
“Come on,” I say urgently, helping Everett get to his feet. “We need to get you out of this.”
“I can handle it,” he argues, lifting his hand to send a massive shard of ice through a Nether vampire when it moves toward us, splitting it in half. But he stumbles, clutching at his still-bleeding chest.
Silas?I check, looking for him in the raging battle surrounding us.
I’ll be right?—
He cuts off with a swear, and although I can’t see where he is in the chaotic flurry of monsters, shadow fiends, Reformists, hellhounds, and bounty hunters, I know he has his hands full.
I just need to get Everett out of here before he gets killed. Then we can drive this shitstorm back, and I’ll take care of the Divide.
For several harrowing minutes, Everett leans on me, still using his powers as we fight to make headway through the bloodbath surrounding us. He’s weak and clearly in a lot of pain—and not the fun kind. He’s trying like hell not to show it.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to stop anything attacking us without killing it—because the last fucking thing I need is to lose control and kill my beautiful ice elemental myself.
