Magic was ripping my arm off.
Mauro was my friend. I couldn’t let him die here.
The world melted into pain. I screamed.
Something pulled me back. I blinked and realized Robert’s arms gripped me. My fingers held the blood-slicked keys.
Hugh grabbed his sword with both hands, point down, and drove it into the big man’s chest, sinking the entire weight and power of his body into it. The gladius sank in three inches. Mauro screamed.
I lunged to the door.
“No!” Robert clamped me down.
Hugh picked up Ted’s mace and brought it down onto the gladius like a hammer. The sword slid into Mauro’s chest.
Mauro gasped. His skin paled, his tattoos fading. His body shuddered. The massive knight drew a single hoarse breath and lay still.
He killed him. He killed Mauro. It felt like someone opened a big dark pit under me and I was falling into it screaming. I failed. I wasn’t fast enough. My friend was dead and there was nothing I could do to bring him back. He was alive yesterday morning. He’d curtsied in my office.
He killed Mauro. I was right there and he . . .
I couldn’t breathe. My rage and grief were choking me, trying to rip out of me.
Oh my God, what would I tell his wife?
Hugh straightened, groaning, spat blood to the side, and crouched by Ted. His face was a bloody mess. On the floor seven people lay dead or dying. In the corner Nick looked at all of it, impassive.
Hugh surveyed the scene and looked at the wound gaping across Ted’s gut.
“I like this better—more satisfying all around. Gives us a few moments to bond before you pass on. I have a secret to tell you about one of your former employees.” Hugh turned on his feet and put his arm around Ted, moving his face so he would see me. “That one. She really hates cages, by the way. You’ll like this.”
He leaned closer to Ted and whispered into his ear. Ted’s eyes bulged.
“Life is full of surprises, isn’t it?” Hugh smiled.
He straightened and closed his eyes. Magic condensed around him. A pale blue glow licked his shoulder. His wounds knitted closed. His nose reset itself. He shrugged and walked up to my cage, blood dripping from his sword.
“It never lasts. They die too quickly on me. Give me the keys, Kate. You fought a good fight, but it’s over.”
“No.” Before I would’ve left the cage to fight him so I could save them. Now there was no need. Now they were dead. Mauro was dead.
“Was he a friend?” Hugh glanced at the big knight’s body. “So sorry. Give me the keys.”
“I’m going to kill you,” I told him. “If I don’t, Curran will.”
“That’s why I like you. It’s always the hard way.” Hugh turned on his foot, his boot sliding on the blood, and walked over to Ascanio. “What do we have here?”
I didn’t think I had enough stamina left to be scared. I was wrong.
He glanced at Steinlein’s corpse. “That would be his handiwork. I detest amateurs. The kid is a shapeshifter and a teenager. His regeneration factor is through the roof. I mean really, how difficult is it to heal this?”
Don’t touch him. Don’t . . .
Hugh held his hands out and began to chant under his breath. Magic moved, slow and sluggish at first, then faster and faster, winding around Hugh and raining on Ascanio’s body. The crushed ribs crawled under the boy’s skin, re-forming.
Hugh stopped chanting. The flow of magic stopped as if cut by a knife and I almost cried out.
Ascanio lay on the table, pale and smeared with blood. He looked so young. So young, just a child dying slowly on the metal table.
“So what will it be, Kate?”
Hugh held his hand out and Ascanio’s wounds began to knit themselves closed. “Yes?” He closed his hand into a fist. The healing stopped. “Or no?”
“Don’t.” Robert’s voice vibrated with urgency. “Don’t take the bait.”
“Yes?” Fractured shards of ribs slid into place.
Ascanio had trusted me to keep him safe. I had promised Aunt B. I’d promised her on her grave that I would look after her people.
“Or no?” The flesh stopped moving.
“Perhaps you’d like me to do it in reverse?” Hugh raised his eyebrows.
“No.” The word escaped before I could catch it.
“Don’t!” Robert’s voice snapped like a whip.
Hugh grimaced, his face jerking with effort. Ascanio’s bones crunched. Oh God.
“Make up your mind,” Hugh said. “Because I’ll splinter every bone in his body. He’ll be soft like a rag doll by the time I’m done.”
I couldn’t let Ascanio die. It wasn’t in me.
It felt like the words cut my mouth on their way out. “Heal him and I’ll open the cage.”
“This is a mistake,” Robert said.
Hugh smiled.
I held up the keys. “You have my word. Heal the boy and I’ll open the cage.”
Hugh turned to Ascanio and raised his hand. Magic built around him like a wave about to break. A steady blue glow slowly flared around his body.
The magic plunged onto Ascanio’s body in a deluge. He cried out.
Ted struggled to say something. His big body shook. The tough old bastard refused to die.
Hugh ignored him, his magic streaming from him into Ascanio.
Ted’s voice was a hoarse rattle, as if an anvil rested on his chest and he couldn’t draw enough air. “Your . . . mission . . .”
Ascanio’s rib cage expanded back, the bones moving slowly back into his chest.
“. . . is . . .”
Ted gasped. Blood poured from his mouth. “Aborted.”
What?
“Effective immediately.”
Ted’s legs convulsed. He gripped the edge of the desk, holding himself upright by sheer will. “Central, acknowledge.”
“Acknowledged,” Maxine’s voice said in my head. Robert looked around, startled. Hugh stopped and raised his head. Everyone in the room must’ve heard it. “Knight-crusader Nikolas Feldman, you are hereby ordered to return to regular duties.”
I knew only one Feldman. Greg, my deceased guardian.
Ted’s hand slipped. He sagged to the ground. Blood gushed out of his mouth.
Nick stepped forward. The twin thorn vines shot out of his body and punched Hugh in the chest, sweeping him off his feet. The preceptor of the Order of Iron Dogs flew and crashed to the floor outside the room. Nick ripped a green shield off the wall, revealing a switch and punching it. A metal portcullis slid in place, separating Hugh from the rest of us.
They had a portcullis! I almost choked. Okay, so I didn’t know it was there; the other knights may not have known either. But Ted knew. He could’ve locked Hugh out at any time.
Hugh rolled to his feet and screamed, a howl of pure fury.
Uath ran down the stairs. “We have to go.”
Hugh stabbed at the portcullis with his hand. “I want this broken.”
“There’s no time,” she said.
He spun to her, his face contorted.
Uath shrank back. “A National Guard platoon is incoming. They’re less than a mile out.”
“How many?”
“Two squads. Eighteen soldiers and a mage unit. We can wipe them out but it will take too much time. By the time we’re done, half of the city will be on us.”
Hugh looked at the ceiling.
“Sir,” Uath said. “Should I take up a defensive position?”
Hugh’s anger imploded. His face slid into icy calm. “No. Move our people out.”
Uath ran back up the stairs.
Hugh pointed through the bars at Nick. “Well played. You and I aren’t done.” He turned to me. “At noon, I’ll be coming for you.”
He turned and walked up the stairs.
I thrust my hand between the bars and unlocked the cage.
Nick walked over to Ted, crouched, and touched his neck. His voice shook with suppressed rage.
“Well, here we are. You’re dead, you f**king dumb bastard. Two years of my life undercover. Do you have any idea what sort of shit I’ve seen? Do you know the things I had to do? The things they did to me? Two years of gathering information, waiting for a chance to make a difference. And you burned me. You threw it all away so you could have a witness to your holy war.” Nick rose and kicked Ted in the head. “And now you’re dead, you f**ker, and I have to live with all of it.”
I swung the door open and ran to Ascanio. He was breathing. The gashes were still open, but his chest was no longer a misshapen mess. I turned to Mauro and felt for a pulse. Please. Please, please, please . . .
No shiver. Not a hint. Mauro was dead. He was dead. How would I ever explain it to his wife? How . . . ? Who would look after all the dogs he raised . . . ? He was just alive, just a minute ago. He would never go home. He was just dead. I felt so hollow, so ragged, as if my soul had been shredded to pieces. It hurt. It just hurt so much.
When the National Guardsmen came to pry us out of the vault, I was sitting by Mauro’s body, Robert was trying to call to the Pack from the Order’s phone, and Nick was kicking Ted Moynohan’s corpse and growling like a rabid animal.
10
ONCE THE MSDU took over the scene, they found the Order’s petition and released us. The last I saw of Nick Feldman, he was surrounded by soldiers. There was no getting to him. We had convinced the National Guard to give us a lift to one of the Pack offices. From there Robert and I had loaded Desandra, Derek, and Ascanio into a Pack vehicle and driven to the Keep. None of the three moved. They were still breathing, but we needed to get them to Doolittle.
I walked into the Keep two hours before dawn, covered in drying blood and limping. My face must’ve been terrible, because people moved out of my way.
The Keep was crowded. Every shapeshifter in the city who didn’t evacuate had traveled here.
Barabas came running down the stairs.
“Curran?”
“No word yet.”
“Julie?”
“Should be in Virginia by now.”
I turned around. The Keep had gone quiet around me. People stood in the hallways and on the stairs, waiting. I was the Consort. I was their alpha.
My voice rang out in the sudden silence. “Bring me Dorie Davis! Bring her to me alive!”
Everyone moved. People dashed in all directions, some human, some furry. The Keep sprang to life.
Behind me Robert roared, “We need a medic!”
Jim appeared as if by magic.
“I need to tell you some things. Come upstairs.”
I marched upstairs into one of the conference rooms and landed in a chair. Some time ago I had gone to a place where pain didn’t matter, but now it was coming back again, gnawing at me. Everything hurt. Jim followed me.
Thirty minutes later I finished talking.
Jim leaned forward and flashed his teeth. “Hugh f**ked up.”
“Yes. He’d had the advantage, what with us being the guilty party, and he pissed it away by attacking the Order. He’ll still bring the People here, but now the city won’t help him.”
“We can use this,” Jim said. I could almost see the wheels in his head spinning.
“We need Dorie Davis.”
“I’ll find her,” Jim promised. “We can work with this, Kate. The MSDU and PAD were staying neutral, but this just changed the game.”
“Maxine called Nick the crusader Nikolas Feldman,” I said.
“Interesting last name,” Jim said.
“Is he related to Greg Feldman?”
“I don’t know,” Jim said.
“Nick showed up right after Greg was killed, he involved himself in the investigation, and he has the same last name. When this is over, I need you to find out if Greg Feldman had a younger brother or a son.” Because that would just be the cherry on the bloody sundae of the past twenty-four hours.