“I’ll take that as a yes.”
He grinned. “Takes more than a moody witch and a bunch of ugly medieval decorations to do this fairy in.”
“Yeah, so it seems. Although I think I know a certain werewolf that would be willing to help Hazel if she decides on a rematch.”
“Pfft! I could take on Hazel and Farvin with my hands tied behind my back and my wings put away to boot!”
“Ya know, I think I’m good without seeing that matchup. This was enough.”
He looked around the store, inspecting for further damage. Finding none, he returned to his pile of rubble, then back to me. “What’d I miss?”
I shrugged. “Nothing much. Hazel tossed you across the room, froze me in place, then did this.” I motioned again to the slash on my cheek. “Nothing else, besides getting in the last word and heading to the back room.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just wanna get outta here.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
Twenty-Eight
FINN DE MORISCO
We madeit an entire two feet out of the entrance of the Square before I crashed to the ground, hands rising to my head. It felt like my skull was breaking apart. I pushed on its sides, as if trying to hold it together. The fire in my bones was worse than I’d felt it before, and I could feel my body contorting as it tried to escape the pain.
“Finn!” Schwint threw himself down beside me and grasped my arms, trying to stop the convulsions.
At his touch, I screamed even louder, his skin against mine pouring gasoline on the flame.
He let go. “What can I do? What do you need?”
I turned my head, following the sound of his voice. I barely cracked open my eyes before I let out a curse and slammed them shut again. Even the slightest bit of light sent extra needles through my brain.
“Finn, what can I do, babe?” Schwint’s voice was above me, but he didn’t touch me again.
I could barely make sense of Schwint’s words, let alone respond to him. The entire universe was agony, one part of my body igniting in a burst of fire, only to fade as some other portion exploded. Even though I squeezed my eyes shut, raptures of color sparked behind my eyelids, each corresponding with a different puncture through my brain.
Schwint said something, but I couldn’t make out any decipherable words, just a blur of sound against the onslaught in my body.
I screamed as I felt his hands on me again, one on each side of my upper arms, his pressure hard, his fingers digging in. Each point of contact seared my flesh, shooting lightning through my body.
Suddenly, the pressure of the ground below me vanished, bringing with it a sense of relief at the lack of sensation on my skin. Even so, it only caused the force of his fingers to dig deeper into my arms, slicing into the bone, sending pulses of heat through my marrow.
When the pain was so great I was on the verge of passing out, I felt the ground beneath my back once more, and Schwint’s fingers released me. The aftershocks were so strong, it took several moments before I realized my brain was no longer trying to beat its way through my skull and my bones had quit boiling.
I lay there, body trembling, feeling the sweat roll down my sides toward the ground. Schwint said something beside me, but I still couldn’t make it out. Slowly, I let my eyes crack open. When light seeped in, I slammed them shut once more, only to realize there hadn’t been any pain. Gingerly, I tried again.
Schwint knelt above me, a blurry form. I wiped the tears out of my eyes with the back of my hand and tried again. He slid into focus this time. Concern etched his handsome face. “I’m sorry.”
I took a few slow breaths before attempting to respond. “For what?”
“For hurting you. I didn’t know what else to do. I had to get you back in here.”
Confused at his words, I looked around. We were back inside the Square, just a foot or so inside the entrance. What he’d done was obvious. “You pulled me back in here. You were lifting me by my shoulders.” I glanced down, expecting to see my shirt in tatters, revealing deep puncture wounds in my shoulders where his fingers had dug in. Everything was as it should be. My shirt was in one piece, and there was no blood, so my skin must be in similar condition under the fabric. Part of me was surprised. As badly as the voice had hurt me before, there’d never been any physical evidence of his onslaught. This had been so much worse, though. I would have sworn I’d been cut open. I should have been covered in blood and burn marks. Nothing.
“I half dragged you, half flew us through the boundary. I was moving too fast to really think about what I should do. I thought you were dying.”
At the mention of flying, I noticed his wings beating slowly behind him. “I thought I was too. Or at least I would have, if I’d been able to form actual thoughts.” I looked around again, the spot of my collapse nearly within reaching distance. “Good thinking, Schwint, getting me back in here. Thank you.”
