Chapter 23 - Rachel
Sweat prickled on my forehead and my neck the second we walked into the cave.
It wasn’t a wet heat like a sauna, but a bone-dry heat during the hottest day of the year in the middle of the desert.
The heat pressed at my lungs and weighed down my shoulders.
Already, I could feel my clothes growing slightly damp.
My heart pounded as I forced myself to take deep breaths. Though I was hellbent on helping Emma, that didn’t mean I wasn’t terrified. My hands trembled as my mind raced, wondering what the hell would happen if I failed. Still, I forced myself to keep going, plunging deeper into the heat.
Nausea that had nothing to do with nerves wrapped around my stomach and squeezed tight, making me grimace as I stumbled. I squeezed my eyes shut.
A gentle hand wrapped around my elbow. His thumb rubbed against my skin.
“Are you all right?” Sam asked.
“Just a bit nauseous,” I murmured as I straightened. I didn’t want him to think I was weak. When I met his gaze, all I saw was concern.
“Do you need to take a breather?” he asked, keeping his voice low.
“There isn’t enough time,” I said.
Sam opened his mouth as if about to argue. He saw my expression and gave a short, curt nod. He squeezed my arm, then released it. He stayed next to me, barely a foot away, like he was tethered to me by a rope.
The cluster of shifters, some in wolf form, others human, continued marching silently through the tunnel, with Elias in the front, not breaking stride.
My brother’s face might have been a mask, but I knew him well enough to know he was bristling with barely contained rage that he was itching to let out at the first chance.
Nothing happened for a long time, long enough that I began to wonder if we were in the right place.
That changed when we reached a large cavern.
A rumbling sound came from deeper in the cavern.
A moment later, swirling sand stung my eyes, and the wraith burst forth.
Its eyes swept across our group, barely acknowledging me. Its mouth curled into a sardonic smirk.
“The wolves have come to rescue their witch,” the wraith said in its gravelly voice, the words coming out as a sneer. “How predictable.”
Elias stepped forward. “This is your one warning, wraith,” Elias growled. “Hand Emma over, and we’ll walk out of here.”
“And then what? You come back to fight me another day, when you have the advantage?” it sneered. “I am smarter than that, wolf.”
“We have the advantage now,” Elias said. “You just don’t realize it. Surrender now, hand over Emma, and we won’t kill you.”
It let out a laugh that grated in my ears. “Kill me? With what magic? You have no way of fighting me, Alpha. Face it. I’ve won. Leave now without the witch, and I’ll let you live a bit longer.”
“Last chance, wraith,” Elias said.
“I think not,” the wraith said. “I’m fascinated to see what trick you have up your sleeve, wolf.”
I stepped forward, knowing my cue without having to be prodded. It looked at me, its head tilted in curiosity. Then it burst into laughter again.
“This little morsel? She can’t even conjure her wolf to begin with. What good is she going to be able to do?”
Before it could utter another word, I raised my hand and let out a jet of flame, aiming it directly at its head. The heat blazed even hotter in the sweltering cavern as the space lit up with the warm, flickering firelight.
The wraith’s glowing eyes widened in surprise and what might have been fear as the jet of light burst toward him.
I thought it would hit him directly in the face.
Instead, the wraith shot out of the way just in time, and the flame slammed into the far wall, scorching the stone with a dark mark that looked like a star.
The wraith looked at the wall, then its head whipped back around to stare at me. It let out a furious hiss.
“Still think I can’t do any good?” I asked.
It bared its teeth, its eyes glinting with greedy interest. “So it wasn’t the other witch who cast the flame that day,” it said, almost conversationally. “Fascinating.”
“Let Emma go, and I won’t turn you into glass again,” I said, conjuring another fireball in my hand, the heat licking comfortingly at my palm, soothing in a way the stifling temperature of the rest of the cave wasn’t.
It snarled, taking a step toward me. The second it moved, I thrust out my hand again, conjuring a giant wall of fire. It wrapped around the wraith, pinning it and preventing its escape.
“Go find Emma,” I told Elias.
The men darted down the far tunnel, everyone except Sam, who stood next to me. I kept my concentration on the fire as the wraith watched.
“Rachel, look—”
Sam’s warning was cut off with a strangled cry.
I turned just in time to see a demon grabbing for Sam’s throat as its claws dug into his flesh.
A moment later, I was knocked off my feet as another demon slammed into me.
It sat on my chest, claws pressing against my throat but not breaking the skin.
The flames holding back the wraith vanished, and it came to loom over me, eyeing me with interest and fascination.
“Perhaps I’ll simply add you to my collection,” the wraith said.
One second, the demon was pinning me to the ground, the next, I could breathe again as its weight was wrenched off me. Sam had barreled into it, ramming the iron blade into the demon as he pinned it to the wall. The demon twitched once, then stilled. Sam turned to the wraith.
“You’ll have to get through me first,” he growled, stepping in front of me as I got to my feet.
The wraith chuckled. “That can be arranged.”
It sped toward Sam, pushing him to the ground with whirls of sand. It reached out, arm outstretched to grab Sam by the throat.
While the wraith was distracted, I flung the fireball at it, this time aiming it at its chest. It moved out of the way again, but not fast enough. It let out a grating, furious howl of pain as its arm transformed into glass.
I grinned, but that joy was short-lived as I watched what unfolded. The wraith slammed its arm against the wall. The glass exploded. And I watched, helpless, as a long, sharp piece pierced into Sam’s stomach. I froze, barely able to believe what I was seeing as Sam stumbled and fell to his knees.
“Oh, God,” I moaned.
To the side, the wraith laughed.
“Either save him or kill me,” it said. “The choice is yours.”
I glanced at the wraith, who watched with a smirk. Before I could conjure another ball of flame, it darted to the tunnel, disappearing.
I bit my lip as I looked from Sam to the tunnel, then back again. The monster had been right. I could go after the wraith and maybe kill it for good, or I could save Sam.
It wasn’t a choice. I couldn’t let Sam die.
For all his faults and all his infuriating qualities, I loved him.
I might have been trying to deny it to myself for a long time, but I couldn’t anymore.
I loved him, and I was going to do everything in my power to save him.
Because I couldn’t imagine a life without him.
Praying that none of the others would hate me for what I was about to do, I darted forward toward Sam, ignoring the wraith.
“It’s all right,” I muttered, stroking his hair.
Without thinking about it, I jerked off my jacket, getting it stuck on one arm in my haste to get it off, then wrapped it around the wound, pressing down.
I wanted to pull the shard of glass from his body, but I had read somewhere that you shouldn’t remove it because it would make them bleed more.
But what if it breaks off? A voice asked. You need to get it out of there in case it moves around and pierces something.
An idea came to me. I crawled up to his face, hating how pale he looked, and I brushed back a lock of hair from his forehead.
“I’m going to do something, and it’s probably not going to be pleasant,” I muttered to him.
His hand raised to my arm, then cupped my cheek. “It’s okay,” he muttered. “I trust you.”
I squeezed his hand, unable to speak as a whirl of emotion swirled inside me. A lump formed in my throat.
He sucked in a breath as I slid the glass from his stomach.
“Hold on,” I muttered. Then, praying I was doing the right thing, I held my hand over his stomach and began cauterizing the wound.
Sam cried out beneath me, but he held still, chest heaving as I closed the wound.
I worked as quickly as I could, but it still felt like a lifetime before I was able to fully close the wound.
“Done,” I said.
Sam didn’t answer, but he squeezed my arm as he continued panting.
Footsteps thundered behind me. I whipped my head around to see Elias barreling into the room with three other shifters. They looked around wildly until Elias’s attention locked on me.
“Where is it?” Elias asked.
I swallowed as tears welled in my eyes and a lump formed in my throat. He was going to hate me.
“It got away,” I said. “I’m sorry, Elias. I…I had to make a choice.”
He glanced down at Sam for the first time, then at the bloody piece of glass on the floor, and comprehension dawned on his features. He didn’t chastise me. He didn’t tell me I had overreacted or was stupid.
“You made the right one,” Elias said. “What happened?”
“The wraith. I turned its hand to glass, but it broke it, and then one of the shards…” I trailed off, gesturing at the bloody piece of glass next to me.
“How’s he doing?” Elias asked, coming to crouch next to me to look at Sam.
“Bad, I think,” I said. “I cauterized the wound because I didn’t want it to bleed more, but I’m worried it might have pierced something inside, and if it did, then maybe I ruined everything, and now he’s going to die, but I—”
Elias’s hand went to my shoulder. “It’s okay, sis. Breathe. We’re going to be fine. I promise.”