A blue glow flared around Hugh’s fingers. Something gurgled in Ted’s throat. Red bubbles expanded out of his mouth.
He was healing him. This was torture. “Just let him die!”
“No, not yet.” Hugh shook his head. “Come on. Come back to me.”
Ted’s arms shook. He sucked in a breath.
Hugh released him. The knight-protector stumbled back.
Hugh banged his gladius against the shield. “Come on, knight. Show me more.”
The carmine aura flared around Ted once more. He charged forward and slammed his shoulder into Hugh. Hugh flew back and rolled to a crouch next to the medmage. Steinlein had stood so still, all of us had forgotten he was even there, pressed against the wall and holding a small axe. Before Hugh could rise, the medmage swung the axe. Hugh moved, but not fast enough. The axe sank into his left shoulder.
Hugh kicked out, sweeping the medmage’s legs out from under him. Steinlein crashed down. Hugh buried his gladius in Steinlein’s gut, casually, almost in passing, and rolled to the left just in time to avoid Ted’s mace. The knight-protector chased him.
Steinlein shuddered on the floor. His legs shook. The gaping wound in his stomach gushed blood.
I had no feelings left anymore. Just cold quiet hate.
Hugh charged Ted like a cornered tiger. They clashed, mace to shield, muscling each other across the floor. Hugh dug his feet into the floor and pushed, knocking Ted back. The knight-protector spun his mace, aiming at Hugh’s head. Hugh swung his shield to counter, putting all his enormous strength into the blow. The shield connected, knocking Ted’s mace aside. For a fraction of a second, the knight-protector was wide open. Hugh swung and opened a second mouth in Ted’s stomach. Ted sagged against the wall and slid down.
Mauro charged into the room, bloody and smeared with soot. Blood dripped from his short, wide sword. “I can’t hold them. Pull the . . .” He saw the bodies. His eyes bulged. He dropped his sword.
“Don’t!” I yelled.
Mauro bellowed and ripped off his shirt. Tattoos wound along his torso, dense swirls of dark ink in precise patterns. He clapped his hands together like a sumo wrestler. His skin turned black. The edges of his tattoos flared bright red, shifting slightly, as if his obsidian skin had cracked along their lines, revealing a glimpse of the lava underneath. Heat bathed me, rolling off him in waves.
Hugh shrugged his shoulders. “Come on, big man. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Mauro charged. Hugh swung out of the way and sliced at Mauro’s stomach with the gladius. The blade glanced off. Mauro drove his shoulder into Hugh. The preceptor flew a few feet and bounced off the wall. Mauro lunged at him, roaring. Hugh spun out of the way, avoiding being trapped.
Hugh was better with a sword, but I had once seen Mauro lift a car when a cat was trapped under it. Do it, you can do it.
Hugh stabbed the gladius at Mauro’s side. The blade slid off. Hugh dropped the gladius and drove his fist into Mauro’s throat. It was a hard, powerful punch. Hugh’s skin sizzled. He stumbled back. Hot enough for you, you asshole?
Mauro locked his hands on Hugh’s throat and drove him into the wall. Hugh’s back slapped the stone with a satisfying thud. Mauro slammed him again and again.
“Snap his neck,” I yelled.
Mauro smashed Hugh into the stone again, shaking him back and forth. He didn’t hear me. He was too far gone.
Hugh thrust his arms upward, between Mauro’s massive arms, trying to break his hold. The air smelled of singed flesh. Hugh jerked his arms up, Mauro’s arms went wide, and the big knight headbutted Hugh in the face. Blood drenched Hugh’s lips. Broken nose, for sure.
Mauro grabbed Hugh into a bear hug, lifting him off his feet. Bones groaned.
“Kate!” Robert pointed to the right. I glanced in that direction at the medmage lying in a pool of blood. Steinlein strained to say something and reached into his pocket.
Hugh jabbed his thumbs into Mauro’s eyes. Mauro hurled him aside like Hugh weighed nothing.
Steinlein pulled out a bloody key ring.
Keys. Keys to the cage. I dropped on my knees by the bars. “Here.” If I could get out of the cage, between Mauro and me Hugh was finished.
Mauro grabbed at Hugh, but the preceptor moved out of the way. Burns covered his arms. The flesh around Hugh’s neck blistered.
Steinlein’s hand shook. He crawled toward the cage, leaving a bloody smudge on the floor. Hurry. Hurry.
Mauro bellowed again.
Steinlein stretched his hand with the keys toward me. I reached for it. The tips of my fingers just brushed against the keys. Magic sawed through my arm with fiery teeth and I jerked my fingers back. Damn it.
Hugh darted behind Mauro, grabbed his right wrist with his left hand, planted his right hand on Mauro’s shoulder, and swept his legs out from under him. The big man crashed down like a colossus on legs of sand. The room shook from the impact. Mauro’s head bounced off the floor.
Steinlein pulled himself forward another foot and collapsed, his hand stretching to the bars. I thrust my arm through the ward. The magic burned me, so intense that tears slid from my eyes. I clenched my teeth and reached through the agony, stretching.
I couldn’t let Mauro die, not big, kind, funny Mauro. He’d watched my back, he brought my dog treats, he helped people . . . I wanted him to live and be happy. I wanted him to go home to his wife. I wanted it so much. I didn’t want him to die here.
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 . . .