Page 113 of Shield of Fire

Eventually.

Chapter

Fourteen

“You need to go to the hospital,” the medic was saying. “I’ve repaired the break but there could be muscle and nerve damage I’m not skilled enough to see or fix. Plus, you need a head scan because?—”

“I haven’t got time for a head scan right now,” I said. “But I promise to get one as soon as I can.”

“The delay could cause permanent damage.”

“Some would say that might be an improvement.”

He scowled. “I’m being serious.”

So was I. “Look, I will get one, but right now, aside from a headache, I feel fine. But our dead man’s partner is out there, and he’s armed with a relic that can bring down buildings. Stopping him is more important now, I’m afraid.”

The medic glanced around as Sgott approached. “Chief Inspector, can you please talk some sense into her? She’s refusing?—”

“I know, and no, I can’t.”

The medic sighed and packed up his kit. “Fine, then. On your head be it, young lady.”

I didn’t say anything. I just watched him leave.

Sgott sat beside me, wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and pulled me closer. I allowed myself to relax into his big body, feeling some of the tension if not the guilt melt away.

“How are you?” he said gently. “Really, I mean?”

I was silent for a long minute. Then softly, brokenly, said. “I just killed him?—”

“In self-defense.”

Yes, and it wasn’t the first time I’d done that. But this was somehow different. All the other times they’d been strangers, people I didn’t care about. This time, it had been someone I’d known. Someone the stupid teenager I’d once been had fancied herself in love with. That had been an illusion, of course, one enforced by Myrkálfar magnetism and perhaps even by the hereto-acknowledged darkness within me—the very same darkness that had rejoiced at his death. Had wanted it. Needed it.

I shivered and did my best to ignore the whispers suggesting that now that darkness had tasted freedom, it would not be put back into its box.

“I could have aimed that knife anywhere, Sgott. I could have maimed him, but I wanted him to pay. I wanted him to suffer. And now he’s dead, and he can’t help us.”

“He’s dead because he raised both a magical and an earthen wall to stop us entering, and it succeeded for far too long. You severed his spinal cord, Bethany, but that isn’t always a death sentence. Had we been able to reach him in time, he might still be alive. That lies on him, not you.”

I knew all that. It didn’t help. Wouldn’t help, not when the demons of guilt in the long nights ahead rose and forced me to remember the last moments of his life. Made me see the impotent fury gleaming in his eyes as he silently raised multiple spells only to have the knife protruding from his neck slice each and every one of them apart. But he never gave up. Not once. Not until his very last breath.

The darkness might have rejoiced in all of that, but I did not.

I’d one-handedly patted him down once he was dead, battling nausea and guilt with every movement, but had eventually found the blacksmithing ruby in the pocket of the coat he’d slung over the hooks down the hallway. I’d been right—there were multiple exits in and out of this place.

Mathi had taken possession of that ruby and was now transporting it back to the council. He’d promised to personally ensure the damn thing was stored correctly this time.

I hoped they did, because I sure as hell didn’t want all this to have been for nothing.

I pulled away from the warmth and security of Sgott’s embrace, though it was damn tempting to stay right there for as long as possible. But as I’d said to the medic, Halak was out there, on his way toward Peckforton, intent on doing gods knew what. “Have you been able to contact Cynwrig?”

I’d tried a couple of times while I was waiting for Sgott and his team to break through, but hadn’t been able to get a signal underground.

“No,” Scott said. “But if anything catastrophic had happened at the encampment, we would have heard about it. Now, let's get you home.”

He caught my hand and pulled me up. But as we were going up the stairs, my phone rang. Hoped flared briefly, then died. It was an unknown number.

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