Page 77 of The Mirror of Beasts

Nash was splattered in enough blood to look like a monster himself as he shouted to us over the shrieking of the Children. “Get to the library, you wee idiots!”

We did not need to be told again.

Caitriona scooped Neve up in her arms, her first uneven steps quickly turning to a flat-out run for the door.

I knelt beside Emrys, hesitating again. His skin was ashen.

Don’t touch me.

Well, right now, I couldn’t give either of us that choice, because I’d be damned before I’d let him die for me.

I looped his arm around my neck. His blood flowed, heavy and unrelenting, soaking into my jacket as I struggled to get us upright.

“Walk, Trust Fund,” I told him, clutching the hand at my shoulder to try to get him to focus. His eyelids were drooping, his face going as lax as the rest of him. “Don’t make me carry your sorry ass—”

As if I could. He was heavy.

Dead weight, my mind whispered.

“Leave … me …,” he gasped out.

The words pissed me off enough that when the next surge of adrenaline came, I started fully dragging him. The sound of gunfire was the only confirmation that Nash was still behind me.

“Come on, come on,” Nash said, reaching Emrys’s other side and gripping his waist. With him balanced between us, we were able to drag him through the library in a few short steps. Nash kicked the door. Relinquishing Emrys to me again, he moved to pull and kick bookshelves down to block the entrance.

“Emrys?” I said, his weight dragging both of us to the floor. “Can you hear me?”

He gave no acknowledgment at all. His lashes fluttered as he fought to open his eyes again. I pulled off my jacket, pressing it against his open wounds, for whatever little good that would do.

The Children battered at the door from the other side. Flakes of plaster shook from the ceiling and walls.

“Vexing vexations—Tamsy!” Nash shouted. “A little help here!”

I tore myself away from Emrys’s side, placing his hands over my bundled jacket. I tried not to think about how cold his skin was to the touch.

“You don’t get to die a hero,” I told him sternly, pushing up off the floor. You don’t get to die at all.

I threw a panicked look over to where Caitriona had set Neve down on one of the love seats, but the sorceress was awake now, her eyes darting around the room.

“What … ?” came Neve’s faint voice.

Caitriona gripped her arms, searching her for injuries, saying something I was too far away to hear. Neve’s gaze shot to the other girl’s face—Neve looked momentarily stunned.

“Tamsy!” Nash bellowed. He’d dug his heels in to try to hold the quaking bookshelves in place as the Children savaged the door. Their eyes flashed through the gouges they’d raked in the wood.

I mimicked his positioning, throwing my weight back against the bookshelves until my muscles quivered with the effort. The bookshelves thumped against my back and my palms with bruising force, and I only pushed against them harder.

It’s really him, I thought. This was the Nash I remembered. Desperately reckless, always finding himself in the thick of things, but armed with an impossibly good sense of timing.

“Did I, or did I not, tell you to stay in that apartment?” Nash got out through gritted teeth.

“Is this really the moment for a lecture?” I snapped. “You would’ve had to lock me up—”

The idea that came to me was as reckless as it was breathtakingly stupid—but that had never stopped me before.

“I’ll be right back!” I jumped away from the bookshelves, leaving a startled Nash in my wake. Caitriona dove forward to take my place, eyeing the shuddering door uneasily.

“Tamsin!” Nash shouted after me, but there was no time to explain.

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