Page 67 of These Wicked Desires

My gaze travels to Cade and my own heart stutters. His clothing is singed like mine, like her fire didn’t want to hurt us, but the ferocity of it still beat through all the barriers that surrounded us to keep us safe. It’s not the singed clothing that steals my breath though. It’s the bloodied hole in his shirt, right over his heart.

Is Cade dead? Is that why Ellis had lost it? Why her fire had burned so fiercely?

My fingers shake as I reach out and tug Cade’s tattered shirt aside. Fully expecting to see a gaping wound, I’m startled to see pale, smooth flesh. With Ellis still in my arms, I scoot closer and see his chest rise and fall with steady breaths. My body sags under the realization. Something bad happened here, and Ellis must have done something to save Cade.

The ceiling cracks above me, and I glance up to see spiderwebs fissure across the charred and blackened ceiling tiles. This entire structure is going to come down around us. Gritting my teeth, I throw Ellis over one shoulder and snag Cade around the waist, hefting him onto my other shoulder. My legs shake as I walk out of the room, a combination of fear, relief, and exhaustion making me weak.

While Ellis put out the fire in the torture room, the rest of building is still aflame. If I had time, I’d stop to admire the way the golden tongues lick and dance along the walls. There’s no smoke, but they put off an incredible amount of heat as they eat away at the building.

More groaning and cracking sounds in the hallway, and I hurry my steps as fast as I can. I’m honestly not positive I’ll be able to climb the stairs with both of them. Before I have to try, a figure shimmers in the heat behind the flames. For a second I freeze. Is that Sam? Did he not get caught in her inferno? Before I have to make the decision to put Cade and Ellis down to fight, the figure clarifies. Connor.

His clothing is smoldering, but he is uninjured by the fire. Whatever Ellis did to create this inferno, it doesn’t appear to be harming our family and friends. Connor’s gaze is somber as he takes in the two bodies thrown over my shoulders.

“Are they …”

“They’re alive,” I rasp. “I don’t know what happened. They’re both unconscious, but breathing.”

He nods and takes Cade from me, lightening my load. My muscles almost scream in relief. Normally, carrying both of them wouldn’t be an issue. But the heat from the fire has sapped my energy, not to mention the tidal waves of fear that washed through me before I found them both alive.

I sling Ellis down into both of my arms. Her wings drag behind us, trailing on the ground, but there is nothing I can do about that.

“The entire building is about to collapse,” Connor gasps. “We have to get out of here.”

I nod and follow him up the stairs, easier now that I only have one person to carry. The flames continue to crackle and burn. The building creaks and groans. Connor rushes to a classroom, and turning so his back is facing the wall, he shields Cade as he tears through the weakened structure.

I hunch over Ellis as debris falls around us. But Connor has made a man sized hole in the wall, and we both slip through into the cool fresh air. In the distance, I see Sterling, Cole, and Drew waiting, and we make our way toward them.

Sterling collapses to the ground when he sees me with Ellis limp in my arms, and Cade unmoving in Connor’s. When I reach him, I kneel on the ground in front of him, staring into his bleak blue eyes.

“Ellis,” he croaks, his hand reaching out and hesitating.

“She’s alive,” I say. “I think she just used too much magic.”

It takes all of my will power to hand her off to Sterling. He takes her with shaking hands and presses her tight to his chest, his entire body seeming to deflate when he sees her chest moving. But then he looks up, and his eyes land on Cade.

I take Cade from Connor, cradling him in my lap like a child. He was breathing in the warehouse, I made sure of it, but I need to double check. Placing my hand on his chest, I feel a steady thump under my palm as his heart beats. The last bit of tension inside of me eases.

“What happened?” Sterling asks, looking at the bloody shirt clinging to Cade in tatters.

I pull it aside and graze my fingers over his heart where the bloodiest part of his shirt had been. I couldn’t see it in the torture chamber, surrounded by Ellis’s flames, but I can feel it. A slightly raised patch of skin, no bigger than a bullet. My throat dries and I press my fingers to his neck, needing confirmation again.

“I think …” I swallow, the dryness in my throat causing my words to scrape all the way up. “I think he got shot.”

Just saying the words causes my heart to pound. Under my fingers, his pulse thrums. There is no denying he’s alive. But that is definitely a scar on his chest. A bullet wound he hadn’t had before we entered that building.

I squeeze my eyes shut. “Somehow, Ellis healed him. She was laying over him. Her flames were burning so fiercely.” The image of Cade looking dead on the floor flashes in my mind, and I snap my eyes open.

Behind me, the building crumbles. Wood splinters and metal groans. And Ellis’s fire continues to burn.

I sit in the chair I pulled up to the edge of the bed and watch over the two people I love the most in this world. If I take my eyes off of them, panic creeps in, stealing my breath and making my heart race. What if they stop breathing when I look away? What if their hearts stop beating? It’s irrational, but the part of my brain that controls rationality has fled, leaving only the primal, possessive part of me.

“Cole picked up Agatha, they’re on their way.” Sterling drops into a chair on the opposite side of the bed, heaving a sigh as he rubs his hand down his face.

Neither of us has changed or cleaned up. We’re both still wearing torn and bloodied clothing, mine singed and turning crispy along the burnt edges. Downstairs, Allie fusses over Connor and Drew, making sure they aren’t hurt. After a quick assessment that Ellis and Cade were alive, I kicked her out of the room. The monster inside of me is too close to the surface, and I’m liable to lash out and hurt anyone who gets too close to my two loves. I think she recognized that and instead of arguing, has decided to distract herself with caring for someone else.

I’m exhausted. Every bone in my body aches. Every muscle overused. Moving requires too much effort when my body feels as if it weighs thousands of pounds. My eyes burn and it’s difficult to keep them open. I just want to curl up in bed with my loves and sleep for years. But even if I didn’t have that irrational fear of looking away from them, I wouldn’t be able to close my eyes.

The image of Ellis laying atop Cade, protecting him, mourning him, is too fresh in my mind. Her eyes when she’d looked at me were haunted, devastated, and completely full of despair. In the moment, with adrenaline coursing through my veins and my instincts roaring to protect them and keep myself safe, the fear had been dulled. But now that I’m no longer moving and my brain has free reign to think about everything, that terror fills me.

---