Page 7 of Ignited Spirits
I clench my jaw as I try to stuff my heartbreak down. My heart already feels all mangled and bruised from losing Archer the first time. I don’t know how I’ll survive it happening again, but I just have to hope that he’ll wake up.
Doing my best to ignore the consequences of healing Archer trying to swallow me, I push to my feet. I look around at our ragtag bunch that looks almost as exhausted as I feel.
Other than Hades. He looks good as new, the jerk.
Scrubbing my hands over my face, I ask, “So, now what? What’s our plan to find and murder Lua?”
Bishop purses his lips. Shaking his head, he walks over and stands toe to toe with me. I get lost in his blue eyes, swirling with emotion, for a long moment.
He breaks the spell when he opens his mouth. “We aren’t making a plan right now. You need to rest and recover after all the magic you just used.”
I glare up at him. “No, I don’t. What I need is to find Lua and stop her.”
He grinds his teeth before gritting out, “That can wait.”
He wraps an arm around my lower back and hauls me against him so I can’t walk off. A part of me I refuse to acknowledge lights up at feeling Bishop pressed up against me.
“No, it can’t.” I half-heartedly shove at his chest a few times, trying to get him to let me go. It doesn’t do anything other than make him more annoyed with me.
“For fuck’s sake, Isabel. Why are you allergic to resting for even a moment?”
“Because I don’t want to think about everything!” I scream at him. “Because the more time she has, the more likely she is to take all of you from me.” My voice breaks. I close my eyes, as ifI can hide from the fact that tears are dripping down my cheeks yet again.
Bishop startles me when he forks his hand through my messy and grimy blonde hair and pulls my face into his hard chest. His other hand snakes under my shirt, and he rubs up and down my back. I fist my hands in his tee, using it to ground me.
“Shh, sweetheart. I’ve got you,” he whispers against my hair as I try my hardest not to break down. At least, any more than I have.
“I’m not worried about me,” I rasp into his shirt. “It’s everyone else I’m worried about. She’ll hurt all of you if I don’t stop her.”
A hard body presses up against me from behind, sandwiching me in comforting warmth. I know it’s Luca before he even speaks. “We will find a way. I swear to you, wildcat. But you can’t make smart decisions when you’re so exhausted, overwhelmed, and had the shit day we all just had. With an opponent like Lua, we can’t afford to make questionable decisions. The best thing for everyone is if we all rest before we do anything.”
As much as I hate it, he’s right. We underestimated her last time, and that got Archer killed. The only way we stand a chance against her is to find some way to be a step ahead of her.
I open my mouth to respond, but a groan comes out instead as I feel a searing pain across my chest. With what little strength I have, I shove Bishop away from me to avoid getting blood on him.
To my surprise, he moves back without a fight. His eyes harden as he sees the bright red gash across my chest, matching what Archer had.
Clenching his hands into fists at his side, Bishop asks, “Do you have enough magic?”
If I had the energy to laugh, I would. There’s no way I have enough magic to heal my heart getting pulled out of my body. Not a whole lot I can do about it at this point, though.
I can’t force words out through the pain that’s making it hard to focus, so I settle for shaking my head. Bishop swears under his breath, and I hear someone moving around to the side of me, but I can’t turn my head to look, because my stomach is sliced open.
I do my best to swallow the scream that rips out of my throat. It comes out as a choked whimper that causes Bishop’s face to contort in fury.
Behind him, I can see the normally calm Cain tugging at his hair as he helplessly watches me.
Collapsing to my knees, I hug my arms around my middle, like that can keep my insides from spilling out.
“Here.” Levi kneels in front of me and holds out the jug filled with water from the Styx. I just blink at it, too dazed to understand what he wants. His mouth twists down in a frown. “Can you open your mouth for me, little raven?”
Not having the energy to nod, I simply open my mouth.
Cupping my chin gently, Levi tips my head back and pours some of the water into my mouth. Like last time I drank from the river, the water tastes kind of like orange cream soda.
Once he’s given me a few sips, Levi pulls back.
I have a second to enjoy the feeling of more magic flowing through my veins before it feels like someone is shoving a bunch of burning hot knives into my chest. I can’t help my scream when I feel the blood vessels in my chest rupture as something forcefully tugs at my heart.
