Swearing a blue streak, Finnén jerked the blade free from his chest and flung it aside. He tore his shirt open and glared at the wound near his heart, which didn’t self-heal as fast as it should have if ordinary metal had been used. She was so fucking glad for that, at least.
When she felt she could pull air into her lungs again, she pushed up from the floor and leaned against the bed. And stared blankly at her bare feet. He’d taken her boots, too. Asshole.
“Every time you hurt me, you will pay, keep that in mind.” He loomed over her, his expression flat. “Just so you know, I have his lockup outfitted with a closed-circuit monitor. He’s watching everything.”
“W-why do you hate him?” she whispered, wrapping her arms around her sore ribs.
“Because he’s a blight on my life. Everything is always about him—”
Suddenly, he stilled, his furious expression morphing into one of irritation. His cold, gray eyes came back to her. “You have a short reprieve, human. I am needed elsewhere. Don’t try to leave this place. If you do,hewill pay with blood.”
“Iwillfind him, and he’ll kill you for this!”
“Very well.” He brought his booted foot down hard on her ankle.
Bones shattered. Her cry lodged in her throat, excruciating pain splintering through her leg and mind. Tears dripped down her face. Darkness hovered.
He squatted before her. “You have free run of the house—ah, well, you can try, if you still think to look for him.” As if to point out why, he pressed a finger on her purplish, mottled ankle, and she screamed.Oh, God—oh, God!
In some part of her pain-drenched mind, she faintly wondered why the bones hadn’t pierced through her skin.
“When I get back, I’ll heal you…if you behave.” He rose and vanished from sight.
Darci shut her eyes, so tempted to let oblivion take over so she didn’t have to live this anguish—no! She had to find Blaéz.
Panting hard, she grabbed the edge of the bed and tried to push up from the floor on her good foot. Just that tiny movement, and she fell back onto her bottom, trying to breathe through the unending agony.
Blaéz, she cried, mind-linking with him again. Silence.Oh,God, please, please let him be all right.After everything he’d endured while trapped in Tartarus, she refused to let anything happen to him again. He had to be close, and the only reason why Finnén had broken her ankle.
Adrenaline pumping, she dashed the back of her hand across her wet face. A quick look around the room revealed no sign of her evening purse with her cell phone. A house this size had to have a landline.
Teeth gritted, she dragged herself on her bottom to the foot of the bedframe. More tears flowed at the pain ripping through her smashed ankle. There, at the bottom of the chest of drawers, was the landline phone…smashed to pieces.
A shattering despair settled like lead inside her as her last hope to call for help gone.
Finnén would be back any moment, and the brief happiness—the life she had with Blaéz—would be over.
Broken sobs escaping, she leaned against the mattress and squeezed her eyes tight at the hopelessness of her situation.
So many regrets seeped through her. Missing out on the last few days of intimacy with the love of her life because of the stupid bet. Leaving her family behind. Not giving Nora a chance when she apologized—Nora!
She’d said to call if Darci ever needed her, but how? She didn’t have a cell. Christ, she rubbed her temple, a thought hovering in the periphery of her mind like a wisp of smoke, something crucial about her friend that she ought to remember, but it slipped through her grasp again. She had to find her evening purse and cell—
Of course! The Guardians’ had talked once about demon summoning and using their true names because they held power. And her friend was a demoness. Hope surged.
“Nora, please-please help me!”
A few seconds passed and nothing. Despair choked her—
No, wait, that wasn’t her proper name. And a demon had to be calledthreetimes.
“Evernora, I summon you,” she rasped, then again. “Evernora, I summon you.” And again. “Evernora, I summon you—”
In an agitated swirl of furious sulfuric green smoke, a form took shape. “Dammit,” Nora snapped. “I swear, I’m gonna kill you, cousin—Darci?” Shock widened her brown eyes, and she dropped to the floor, her fingers gently touching Darci’s face. She swiped away the blood. “What happened? You’re bleeding.”
“Help me.Please,” she choked out. “You have to find Blaéz before Finnén comes back.”
“Who?” Nora frowned, looking around the place.
