Page 21 of Savage Blood
Roxie kicked my thigh, shooting a blast of pain through my muscles. “Try to escape again, and you won’t get even a drop of water to drink.”
“Barric wants me alive.” I smirked. “You can hurt me, but you can’t kill me, Rox.”
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, a sinister grin pulling her lips apart. “I can hurt her too.”
Cold dread wrapped around my throat like a noose as Enid leaned against the bars in a cell across the hall. They’d unchained her, but the Malbraxis manacles around her wrists keeping her from shifting caught the dim, flickering lights from the lanterns along the stone walls.
Would Saint forgive me for putting his mother in danger?
“I’m fine,” she mouthed, reading the obvious anguish in my expression.
“So just behave, Tate.” The raven—or former raven—leaned forward with a sneer. “You look like shit.”
I laughed and sat up straight, water dripping onto my shoulders and down my back. “And yet, I still look better than you.”
Her fist reared back, headed straight for my nose.
But fireworks suddenly exploded through my insides, and my headarched back, barely dodging her hit. The cell melted into a collage of bright lights, ribbons of scarlet, and shadows, all vying for attention.
My palms slapped the cold ground as I fell forward, my cheek hitting the stones. Lava flowed through my veins, and flames engulfed my flesh, spreading like wildfire in the driest of seasons. The remaining piece of the amulet hidden inside of me infected my bloodstream and organs, slowly stealing my life.
I coughed, and burgundy splattered the stones beneath me.
Just perfect. I was coughing up blood.
Roxie scrambled away so I wouldn’t soil her boots. “How about a little warning before you hack up a bloody lung?”
After the raging fire in my body calmed to a dull throb, I flipped her off. “Stay out of my cell, and I won’t bleed on your boots.”
“Fane wouldn’t think you’re so hot now, would he?” She chuckled and peered over her shoulder at Enid. “Or Saint.”
Enid’s nostrils flared, and if those mystical cuffs weren’t curbing her power, claws would have burst from her fingertips. “I never knew ravens to be so weak that they had to kick someone when they’re down.”
Roxie rolled her eyes. “Mind your own business, lady. You don’t know half the history between us.”
Hell, neither did I. Why did Roxie hate me so much?
A broken shriek burst from Ruin, penetrating the dungeon’s atmosphere like a sharp arrow. “A murder of crows and an unkindness darkened my doorstep. Don’t fret. My potion will make them better. The lad cried all night. So sad. So somber.”
His rocking intensified, and he slammed his head against the wall.
Roxie cursed and marched out of my cell, slamming it closed but not locking it. I wasn’t stupid enough to escape now. I wasn’t even sure I could stand.
And I couldn’t leave Enid.
“Stop that,” Roxie demanded, cradling the back of Ruin’s head to cushion the hit. “You’re hurting yourself.”
His unhinged laugh rang through the grimy dungeon. “A life for a life. A tooth for a tooth. A soul for a soul.” Slowly, the demon’s unfocused gaze swiveled to me. “There’s more than one side to a coin. Flip it over and you might get a devil. The other side could be an angel.”
The moisture zapped from my mouth, and my scalp prickled at the familiar ranting. He sounded so much like me when the Infernal Sol had infected my mind and stolen my sanity.
“Do I need to chain you up so tight you can’t move, Ruin?” Roxie kept her hand on his head, even though he’d stopped banging it against the wall.
“No need, dark raven.” A melancholy smile tugged at his mouth, a tear gliding down his pale cheek. “I’m better now.”
As I swallowed the lump clogging my throat, I crawled back to sit against the wall, cold seeping through my damp shirt. I’d never seen Ruin cry. Who even knew he could?
The hardness in Roxie’s expression evaporated, and she knelt next to Ruin, wiping away that tear. “Good. I—we—wouldn’t want to find you with your skull bashed in.”
