Page 59 of Tarnished Embers

“I know it hurts, baby, but we need to stop the bleeding,” I tell her as her brows furrow, tying off the makeshift bandage and then ripping another strip of the sheet to bind her other arm.

My fingers are stained red by the time I’m done, and they’re shaking so badly it’s a wonder I managed the last knot. Taking a deep inhale, I slide my arms underneath her, picking her up as gently as I can. She still moans in pain, and my soul fractures at the sound, but I feel less frantic now that she’s bandaged up.

“It hurts so bad, Cas,” she whispers brokenly, her voice shredded, no doubt with the amount of screaming she did last night. Screaming that we didn’t answer. Odette isn’t the only one I can’t forgive. I include myself and the fact that I’ve failed her so badly in there too.

“I know, Cinders, but I’ll make it better, I swear,” I murmur, pressing a soft kiss to her head before striding towards the door. “Open the fuck up!”

I kick the door hard for good measure, ignoring the flash of pain that races up from my bare foot.

“What the fuck?” a deep male voice asks from the other side, and my blood fucking boils. Her guards will also pay for letting this happen to her. Anyone who was complicit dies.

The door swings open, but before he can do anything I’m pushing past him and racing down the old creaking staircase. I ignore his shout, too focused on getting Ember the help she needs. My heart pounds inside my chest, sweat dripping down my spine with sheer terror. I can’t lose her.

There’s a door at the end, and I don’t even bother trying the handle, just kick it with my foot, watching as it splinters off its hinges before crashing into the hallway beyond. The thudding footsteps behind me let me know that Odette’s guard followed us down, but I don’t give a fuck. He can’t take her from me, I’ll kill the motherfucker if he tries.

I vaguely register how fucking close she was this whole time, my jaw clenching with how near she was to us yet so out of reach. We thought we were keeping her safe by not trying to get to her, but we damned her instead.

“Prince!” I scream as I stride down the hall towards our wing. He rushes out of his room, the twins with him, their eyes wide and the whites showing. Then they stop when they spot Ember in my arms, and by the way Prince’s body jerks like he’s been shot, I’m guessing he saw her injuries too. “Call a fucking ambulance!” I yell over my shoulder, realizing that he was the one who told us that Ember was in the attic, the day Odette locked her away.

Fucking Odette has never given us phones, and as we only had each other it was never an issue. It’s just something else she fucked us over with, but Ember’s jailer can make himself useful and get her the help she needs.

The gruff sound of the guard’s voice filters into the hall moments later, and a small measure of tension leaves me knowing help is on its way. Prince and the twins run up to me as I keep going, not stopping until I’m in her room and lying her down on the bed.

“Oh, Little Sis,” Oct breathes out, tears making his eyes sparkle as he crouches on her other side.

“O–Oct?” she asks, but it’s barely a sound, and my chest tightens.Where’s the fucking medics?

“I’m here, baby. Kit and Cas too, Prince is getting help,” he says, brushing her hair from her face. I hear Prince talking to the guard outside of the room, but I can’t take my eyes off her almost lifeless form. My pulse roars in my ears at the blood, which is matted in her hair, his hand shaking as he hovers over her like he doesn’t know where to touch her that won’t cause her pain.

“They’re on their way,” Prince says as he strides into the room, his eyes on Ember lying in the bed, who is still looking far too pale. His inhale is ragged, his fists clenched around his phone as he stares at our lifeless soulmate. “She’s gone too fucking far this time.”

I know who he’s talking about. Odette. The monster that we’ve been forced to call mother for too long.

“She has,” Kit agrees, his own voice a husk of what it normally is. “And she will pay the price.”

“Agreed,” Prince, Oct, and I say together just as sirens wail in the distance.

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

“HALF A MAN” BY DEAN LEWIS

PRINCE

Iwatch the rise and fall of her chest as the beep from the heart monitor fills the hushed silence of the private room. I breathe in time with her, knowing that I’ve failed her more than I’ve failed anyone else before and wishing that my heart would just stop beating.

That would be too easy though, too light a punishment for the sins that rest on my shoulders. So I stand sentinel, my brothers around her as we watch and wait.

Odette somehow got the ambulance to take Ember to a private hospital, and it’s the only thing I’m ever going to be grateful to her for because the care has been incredible. Well, the second thing I’m grateful to her for, the first lying in front of me, sedated to give her some rest.

Cas and I rode with her, the twins having to ride with Odette as Davis drove them here. The old driver stopped them before they left though, telling them to call him if any of us needed his services. He told them his loyalty is with Ember, not Odette, and then gave them his private number.

As her legal guardian, Odette is here but is in the waiting room. I think even she didn’t want to push us and insist that she be in here with Ember. It’s given the guys and I a chance to talk, and we’ve decided that with the obvious injuries from her assault, we need to confess all to the cops when they turn up.

The door opens and I expect it to be police officers, but instead, the doctor who has been overseeing Ember’s care walks in.

“How’s our patient?” he asks in a hushed tone, walking over to her chart and taking it off the end of the bed.

“Same as before, doctor,” I reply, Kit’s hand tightening around her much smaller one as he holds it from his position next to the bed. Fuck, she looks so fragile lying here, white bandages wrapped around both forearms, her purple bruises stark against her pale skin. “When will she wake up?”

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