The wraith looked at the wall, then its head whipped back around to stare at me. It let out a furious hiss.
“Still think I can’t do any good?” I asked.
It bared its teeth, its eyes glinting with greedy interest. “So it wasn’t the other witch who cast the flame that day,” it said, almost conversationally. “Fascinating.”
“Let Emma go, and I won’t turn you into glass again,” I said, conjuring another fireball in my hand, the heat licking comfortingly at my palm, soothing in a way the stifling temperature of the rest of the cave wasn’t.
It snarled, taking a step toward me. The second it moved, I thrust out my hand again, conjuring a giant wall of fire. It wrapped around the wraith, pinning it and preventing its escape.
“Go find Emma,” I told Elias.
The men darted down the far tunnel, everyone except Sam, who stood next to me. I kept my concentration on the fire as the wraith watched.
“Rachel, look—”
Sam’s warning was cut off with a strangled cry. I turned just in time to see a demon grabbing for Sam’s throat as its claws dug into his flesh. A moment later, I was knocked off my feet as another demon slammed into me. It sat on my chest, claws pressing against my throat but not breaking the skin. The flames holding back the wraith vanished, and it came to loom over me, eyeing me with interest and fascination.
“Perhaps I’ll simply add you to my collection,” the wraith said.
One second, the demon was pinning me to the ground, the next, I could breathe again as its weight was wrenched off me. Sam had barreled into it, ramming the iron blade into the demon as he pinned it to the wall. The demon twitched once, then stilled. Sam turned to the wraith.
“You’ll have to get through me first,” he growled, stepping in front of me as I got to my feet.
The wraith chuckled. “That can be arranged.”
It sped toward Sam, pushing him to the ground with whirls of sand. It reached out, arm outstretched to grab Sam by the throat.
While the wraith was distracted, I flung the fireball at it, this time aiming it at its chest. It moved out of the way again, but not fast enough. It let out a grating, furious howl of pain as its arm transformed into glass.
I grinned, but that joy was short-lived as I watched what unfolded. The wraith slammed its arm against the wall. The glass exploded. And I watched, helpless, as a long, sharp piece pierced into Sam’s stomach. I froze, barely able to believe what I was seeing as Sam stumbled and fell to his knees.
“Oh, God,” I moaned.
To the side, the wraith laughed.
“Either save him or kill me,” it said. “The choice is yours.”
I glanced at the wraith, who watched with a smirk. Before I could conjure another ball of flame, it darted to the tunnel, disappearing.
I bit my lip as I looked from Sam to the tunnel, then back again. The monster had been right. I could go after the wraith and maybe kill it for good, or I could save Sam.
It wasn’t a choice. I couldn’t let Sam die. For all his faults and all his infuriating qualities, I loved him. I might have been trying to deny it to myself for a long time, but I couldn’t anymore. I loved him, and I was going to do everything in my power to save him. Because I couldn’t imagine a life without him.
Praying that none of the others would hate me for what I was about to do, I darted forward toward Sam, ignoring the wraith.
“It’s all right,” I muttered, stroking his hair. Without thinking about it, I jerked off my jacket, getting it stuck on one arm in my haste to get it off, then wrapped it around the wound, pressing down. I wanted to pull the shard of glass from his body, but I had read somewhere that you shouldn’t remove it because it would make them bleed more.
But what if it breaks off?A voice asked.You need to get it out of there in case it moves around and pierces something.
An idea came to me. I crawled up to his face, hating how pale he looked, and I brushed back a lock of hair from his forehead.
“I’m going to do something, and it’s probably not going to be pleasant,” I muttered to him.
His hand raised to my arm, then cupped my cheek. “It’s okay,” he muttered. “I trust you.”
I squeezed his hand, unable to speak as a whirl of emotion swirled inside me. A lump formed in my throat.
He sucked in a breath as I slid the glass from his stomach.
