I shook my head. Technically, the only brother whose name I knew was Chadwicke, and he was dead as a doornail.
“Get her to safety, I’m going back in.”
“Okay. But be safe, now. I kind of like you,” Esperanza said.
“Ah, the approval of a teenager. Exactly what I’ve always needed in my life.” I knew sarcasm was hit or miss with some people, but she grinned at me.
“Don’t take it for granted.”
We chuckled for a few seconds, then I was running back into danger. What was that, three times in one day? It looked like it was becoming a habit.
Leo would be upset with me, but it wasn’t like I was running directly into battle. Not at all. The closest I had gotten was the hallway next to it, and that was only because the werecat and Leo had brought it tome.
I doubted Leo would agree with my logic, but I couldn’t leave Chris all alone. He’d risked his life to go back and save more of the captives, so why shouldn’t I? The two of us were a lot more likely to survive together than on our own. Besides, with one brother down, the majority of the forces would be focused on protecting the other brother—and I hoped to God those efforts would be in vain. It was a huge stroke of luck that we had the opportunity to take down a pair of the warlocks instead of just one.
When I entered the kitchen again, it was somehow even more of a wreck than it had been. I slipped down the hallway to the door at the end that led to the prisoners downstairs.
When the door burst open, I screamed in surprise. A hulking, roaring man blocked my path, and my mind started firing on all cylinders. If he was standing in the doorway, then Chris and all the other prisoners were pretty much trapped downstairs somewhere.
I needed to get him away from the door.
But how? He had at least a foot on me, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was pushing four hundred pounds of muscle, because his fists were nearly the size of my head. Was he some sort of gorilla shifter in the middle of transforming? Did gorilla shifters even exist? I had no idea.
Doing the first thing that came to mind, I roared and charged at him. Apparently, the element of surprise added a whole bunch of bonus damage to my attack, because the giant man stumbled back into the staircase, and I managed to swing the door shut.
Normally, I would have locked the door and trusted that the behemoth would take the time to break it down,but unfortunately I’d sabotaged the lock. I glanced around frantically, trying to come up with an idea. My gaze landed on the heavy statue next to the door. I braced myself against it, then pushed with all the strength I could muster until the statue was in front of the door.
Normally, this would be an awful idea, as it would trap the prisoners and Chris with whatever that giant man was, but I had no doubt he would move my obstacle out of the way in no time. Hopefully, it would be give me enough time to get to the end of the hall.
Because I actually had a plan.
Internally chanting a whole bunch of prayers for luck, I sprinted down the hall as fast as I could, which wasn’t really all that fast. I was built for endurance, not speed. When I was about halfway down the hall, I heard thumping on the door behind me, and sure enough, I’d only barely skidded to a stop at the corner when the statue went flying into the wall, and the door half-broke off its hinges.
Well, that worked out better than expected.
The mammoth of the man stepped out, his head swiveling this way and that as if he was looking for something.
Something like me.
“Over here!” I called before booking it down a path I’d only been through once before.
I didn’t wait to see if he would follow me, mostly because I knew he would. I ran with all I had, breath rasping in my chest, until I made it to that hidden bathroom the maid had showed me earlier. Hoping I’d put enough distance between myself and the giant and that he didn’t have the same extreme sense of smell that shifters did, I opened the hidden entryway and quickly went inside, closing it behind me. I wasn’t willing to leave anything up to chance, however, so I grabbed the lid of the toilet tank and waited beside the door.
And waited.
And waited.
It seemed to take an age before I heard heavy footsteps approaching me, but instead of the thundering storm of someone chasing down their prey, the steps were slow.
I frowned in confusion. Had I lost him already? I’d expected this to be more difficult. Not that I was complaining, of course, but I was a little surprised. It seemed my battle instincts were pretty all right for being a college dropout and grocery store clerk.
Just when it felt like I might be stuck in the tiny space forever, another crash sounded from somewhere far away, and I heard the heavy footsteps take off. Could it really be so easy? Somehow, it seemed like I’d wiggled out of danger again. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought I had someone watching out for me. I hadn’t had such good luck in my entire life. In fact, I would say having bad fortune was my norm. Sort of like a cosmic punishment for causing my mother’s death.
Cautiously, I left the bathroom and made my way back to the door, but once again, I didn’t make it to my destination. Right as I rounded a corner,the entire wall exploded.
The force of it threw me back against the wall, knocking the breath out of me. Even my vision went gray. For a moment, everything was a faint echo, and all I heard was the sound of my blood rushing in my ears. My whole body throbbed with an unpleasant sensation, the blow having rattled my entire being.
It felt like it took forever for the ringing to stop and my vision to return, but when it did, I found myself looking through a sizable hole that led all the way to the ballroom.
