Chapter 63
Jane
The loss of blood tested what little strength I had. The copper tang clung to my tongue as I dragged my fingers across the padded surface, using my shirt to wipe the edges of the sigils I traced onto the door. Its outline shimmered with each new sigil.
I sagged back on my heels, staring at the twin lines of sigils and coordinates written in my own blood.
My chest heaved.
But I was nearly finished, and Reagan was waiting.
I couldn’t move the metal of the lock, but I could will the fabric wedged inside it, stiffening it just enough. I would be able to press the door open. But not yet.
Another faint shimmer licked across the doorframe as I completed another sigil, going over the order again.
My vision blurred, and I took in a deep breath. Almost—
The lock clicked.
Ice flooded my veins. I moved instinctively to the centre of the boxed room, frozen there, staring at the door as it opened. For a split second, I wondered if it was another human sent to finish what the first had started.
It was Cahir, his eyes narrowing as he took me in.
Only then did I realise how I must have looked. My hands smeared red with blood slicking my arm. My shirt bloodied and discarded on the floor.
“What have you done?” he asked, his eyes locking on the bite mark as he stepped inside, leaving the door ajar. The sigils stark, right behind him.
Panic clawed up my throat. He couldn’t take me back to Madden. It was too soon.
Cahir strode right for me, reaching for my arm, his expression tightening as he examined the wound, mouth curling in something close to disgust. “Did you bite yourself?” he asked, incredulous. “Why?”
I grasped at a lie. “I have panic episodes,” I said quietly, feeling my access stir, my anger coating my tongue. “It’s none of your business.”
He glowered. “It is my business because this will make you weaker. You’re meant to be resting so you can give us more information. You’re finally becoming useful.”
I wrenched my arm free and slid along the wall, drawing his gaze away from the back of the door. “I can’t help it,” I ground out. “I’ll sleep now. Just leave me alone.”
Cahir studied me for a long, terrifying moment, his gaze tracking the blood streaking the floor, running down my arms, staining my bare stomach.
Something shifted in his expression, his brows turning flat, the concern giving space to something colder.
“You know,” he said coolly, sending a chill across my skin, “I’ve been thinking about the last time you bled in here. When the human came in and drove a blade into you.”
He took a step closer. I slipped past the bed, putting my back to the wall.
“I asked myself how a human could stab you without alerting your Lord, when you claimed that touching you would do it.” He tilted his head, studying me.
“Is he so possessive,” Cahir went on, advancing, “that he wards you against a warm body but not a knife?” A thin smile curved his mouth.
“I don’t think so. I think you were playing me. ”
I said nothing. His gaze dropped past my neck.
Inside my head, my bird screamed a piercing call, wings thrashing, claws tearing at empty air. Rage coiled tight and bright.
He closed the last of the distance, fingers brushing my neck. I lowered my gaze, forcing myself to wait.
“You didn’t have to lie,” he murmured. “I’m not an animal. I’d make it good for you. Just like your Lord.”
My fists clenched, nails biting deep, but I couldn’t even feel it. That civility they pretended to have was as insincere as it was disgusting.
My bird shrieked again. I drew a slow breath, bracing myself.
“The prized possession of a Mage Lord,” he whispered, leaning closer. “He doesn’t strike me as gentle. And you’re feisty. You like it when he’s rough, don’t you?”
I let him lean in. Let his mouth brush my neck as I exhaled.
“You should run,” I warned, my voice as low as a whisper.
Cahir gave a low laugh.
Remembering what they had taught me, I drove my knee up hard between his legs, feeding all my rage and urgency into it, and followed through with the heel of my palm to his chin.
Cahir grunted and staggered back.
I moved, circling him, snatching my torn sleeve from the floor. I shoved it against the lock and slammed the door shut, sealing us both inside. The frame flared again, brighter this time.
A curse echoed behind me as I focused on the damp sleeve wedged inside the lock, willing it to shift.
But hands tangled in my hair, ripping me back.