With my hand pressed to my rune, I burst through the front door of the noisy Bitter Barrel and fight my way up the crowded stairs that lead to the inn. Halfway to the second floor, I falter as a hot, merciless throb pounds through the rune, reverberating in my chest and ribs, threatening to take me to my knees again.
Rhonin is still there, grabbing me from behind, helping me stand. “Clear the way!” he yells in a booming voice.
These people are gathered for a reason.
A spectacle.
When they don’t part, Rhonin steps in front of me and shoves forward, moving patrons aside like rag dolls, using his size to forge a clear path.
Standing in the hall, I know which room is Finn’s. The door is open, and the innkeeper waits outside the threshold, hands fisted at his sides as he shakes his head. I hurry toward the room. The innkeeper tries to stop me, but I shove him aside.
Then I freeze, grasping the door frame, the wood singed and burned, like someone tried to use fire magick to get inside.
Helena sits in the middle of the room, in a puddle of blood, holding Raina and Finn. As she weeps, one bloodied hand rubs her brother’s chest, just over his heart, as though she might rub life back into it, while her other arm is wrapped around Raina’s shoulders, cradling her best friend’s slumped body against her breast. All three faces are pale.
Helena looks up at me and Rhonin standing in the doorway, her eyes wide and distant and filled with tears. “Help them,” is all she says.
Rhonin hurries to Helena’s side, and I go to Raina, taking her from Helena and holding her in my arms. Using my mind, I slam the door and slide the bed in front of it.
I graze my fingertips over Raina’s throat where life still flutters, thank Loria. She’s just unconscious, for now. But Finn… I’ve seen that sickening smile across throats too many times. It’s partially healed, likely thanks to Raina, but if his end hasn’t already come, it’s very near.
“Raina was stabbed,” Helena says, trembling as she tries to gather herself. “In her side. She healed the wound enough to stop the bleeding before she passed out. Gavril got away. And her rune is… it’s almost gone.”
I process three words from that. Healed. Gavril. Almost. Carefully, I push the torn pieces of Raina’s dress aside. A portion of the mark remains, but it’s only a fraction. The skin surrounding it is angry and red, bubbled and seeping.
Burned.
My arms tighten around Raina. I can barely contain what the knowledge of her pain does to me, the rage inside me that makes me want to roar. My power breaks over the room, crackling like lightning along the walls.
Rhonin draws Helena against his chest, and I see the panic and urgency in his eyes. “We have to get them out. Are you listening? There are too many people here, Alexus. Badly as I know you want revenge on Vexx and Rooke, taking it out on their guards will come at the expense of innocent lives.”
Taking a ragged breath to cool the fire inside me, I focus. I know he’s right. I must think through my hatred, blinding as it is.
“You have a horse and cart nearby?” I ask, my voice shaky.
“Yes, near Emory’s. But it only carries two. Three at most. I stole it from the stables.”
There’s a ruckus downstairs. Shouts and thudding footfalls. The Watch is here.
“If you can see to Helena and Finn,” I tell Rhonin, “I can distract the Watch and get Raina home.”
His brow furrows, and Helena looks up at me. At the same time, they ask, “How?”
“I don’t have time to explain. I just need you to trust me. Both of you.” I jerk my head toward the balcony door. “Be sure to take the back streets and ditch the cart. Do your best to enter the tor through the cove. The patrols will be thick. Now go.”
Without another word, Rhonin hauls Finn’s lifeless body over his shoulder, and Helena leads him to the balcony. They look back at me, concern darkening their eyes.
“Protect her, Alexus,” Helena says, dragging her skirt up to retrieve her dagger, even as another tear tracks down her cheek.
I nod once before she vanishes into the night. “With my life.”
I call forth all the energy I can summon and let it hover in the darkness outside. I capture just enough to send a ribbon of power through Raina, hoping to wake her. I’m not sure I can do what I need to do with her unconscious. I’ll try, if I must.
Thankfully, her eyes blink open. For a moment, I think perhaps nothing has changed. That perhaps this Gavril person didn’t know runic magick so well. But Raina’s gaze widens as she takes in my face, and she twists out of my arms, landing in a crouch.
The first pound on the door strikes, and I use some of my gathered power to electrify the entry. Raina’s attention flicks toward the sound, but then she looks back at me, on edge. Feral. Ready to kill.
I hold out a placating hand and pour my heart through the rune, praying to the Ancient Ones that she can still feel me. “Raina, baby. It’s me.”
