I would destroyeverything.
I fled in the direction of town as quickly as my legs would carry me.
It wasn’t fast enough—I could feel Ginger’s pulse as it slowed, feel her body as it grew dangerously colder. I should have wrapped her in my cloak when I had the chance.
I needed to get to the healernow.
As I blinked, I found myself in the dark alley beside the clinic.
Not taking a moment to think, I sprinted to the front door. Shifting Ginger’s weight to one arm, I pounded my fist on the wood. When it didn’t open instantly, I braced myself and kicked the door open with one powerful thrust of my leg.
Someone screamed.
I didn’t care.
“Healer!” I shouted.
“Oh, dear gods! Is that Ginny?” a small, scared voice asked.
The angel. She was here. I exhaled a sigh of relief. I held Ginger’s body out in an attempt to pass her to the woman, but she stepped back hastily, pointing to a cot in the corner.
I growled. I forgot how weak these folk were.
I placed Ginger’s body on the cot.
Fear gripped me as I released her—I didn’t want to let her go.
But the angel flitted in front of me and shoved me out of the way before I realized what was happening.
She splayed her wings, shoving me backward and shielding my wife from view.
I balled my fists. “Step aside, I don’t wish to harm you,” I warned, violent energy thrumming in my bones.
She glanced over her shoulder, her face pinched. “If you want me to heal her, you will step back.”
I held my ground.
“Now,” she urged.
She stared at me, wasting precious seconds when she should have been saving my wife.
Reluctantly, I retreated two paces.
She got to work.
She fluttered her hands over Ginger’s body, hovering over her face, her chest, her stomach.
She mumbled under her breath, words of stress and worry that didn’t make me feel any better about the situation.
“It’s not just the injury to her head, is it?” she asked, not taking her eyes from her patient.
“No,” I answered.
“Did you poison her?”
Red hot anger boiled in my stomach. “Of course not!”
She didn’t respond. She grabbed a pad of gauze and pressed it to Ginger’s forehead to staunch the bleeding there.
