One of the dark mages holding her snickered.
Her interrogator’s face turned blank.
He backhanded her violently across the face, splitting her lip.
Evander fisted his hands and swallowed a sound of rage as Ginny’s head snapped to the side.
She shook her head dazedly and blinked.
Their eyes met briefly through the gap in the door.
Something shifted in her expression, there and gone so swiftly the dark mages didn’t notice. She spat out some blood.
“Wait,” Ginny gasped, her defiance crumbling into apparent terror as she gazed pleadingly at her interrogator. “I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you everything. Just, please?—”
The dark mage paused, a cruel smile stretching his mouth. “I knew you’d see reason eventually. Now then. What does that damn duke know?”
Ginny mumbled something.
The dark mage frowned. He leaned closer. “What?”
Ginny lunged, her teeth sinking into his nose with a sickening crunch.
The man screamed and stumbled backward, blood streaming down his face and a piece of flesh now missing from his physiognomy. The other two mages gaped in shock.
Evander moved.
The door exploded inward on a hurricane of wind magic. The first mage holding Ginny went flying into the wall before he could react. The second mage managed to summon a shield of shadows which shattered like glass when Evander’s ice lance punched through it and caught him in the shoulder.
Rufus was right behind him, his pistol cracking in quick succession. Stunning bolts caught the interrogator and the wounded mage, dropping them both.
The man Evander had sent flying first staggered to his feet, dark energy crackling around his fingers.
Ginny twisted and swept his legs out from under him with a brutal kick before Evander could hurl the ice and stone lances he’d manifested. He fell, but not before she drove her foot into his temple with enough force to knock him unconscious.
“Took you long enough,” she said shakily as Evander rushed over to free her, her voice muffled by the blood still dripping from her mouth. She spat the chunk of skin and tissue she’d taken from her interrogator onto the floor. “God, that was disgusting.”
Evander cut through her bonds with a blade of ice, his heart thumping hard and his stomach churning with guilt. “I’m sorry we’re late.” He helped her to her feet, steadying her when she swayed.
They headed over to Shaw.
Rufus was crouching beside the forensic mage, his expression grim as he examined her arm.
“I’m afraid it’s broken, sir,” Shaw said through gritted teeth, the words coming out thick. “On the other hand, I did manageto kick a couple of the bastards in the family jewels when they grabbed us at the opera house.”
Fury burned through Evander’s veins when he saw the ugly cigarette burn marking her exposed ankle.
“Save the jokes for later, Shaw.”
“The chair.” Ginny indicated the corner of the room. “We can make a splint with the leg.”
Evander propped Ginny against the wall and snapped the leg clean off the chair tucked under a desk.
Ginny ripped a strip of cloth off her gown.
They used it to make a splint for Shaw’s arm, the forensic mage biting down hard on her lip so as not to make any sound beyond a single agonised moan.
Rufus carefully lifted her in his arms.
