Wounded(27)

He lifted his eyes to mine. “You cannot be her. She was to be pure of heart, the last of our bloodline.”

A chill swept through me. “I don’t know about pure of heart, but what do you mean the last of our bloodline? I am the last of the Blood of the Lost. Is that what you mean?”

His eyes widened and he slid back against the wall. “The Blood of the Lost. That is what we are known by now?”

Shit, he was like me, the ones who’d created the veil. “I guess so. But what did we start out as? And how can I be the last if you’re here?”

His smile was pained. “If you do not know, you do not need to know. The Blood of the Lost is a fitting title. And you are the last, if that is true, because I am not really alive. I have been dead for a thousand years.”

Frustration made me bold, and I stalked to him, holding my sword out. “What. Am. I?”

“You are a being that has the ability to create as well as destroy. Your power is miniscule next to those of us who are of pureblood.” He shook his head from his position on the floor. “If your blood hadn’t been so diluted, I would have recognized you right away.”

“You’re not even going to try and be helpful, are you?”

A laugh trickled past the blood on his lips. “It isn’t a matter of being helpful. At some point you may discover the truth of your family history. But it doesn’t truly have any bearing on what you must do. You must stop the demons. So go and do what you were born to die for.”

I stepped back from him as my blood chilled for a second time. “I’m not going to die. Orion is.”

His smile slipped and I didn’t like what I saw on his face. “Yes, he will die. Of that you must be right, and I pray to the gods you are successful. Go. Before he knows you are here.”

A cry slid up the stairwell, one filled with pain. Milly. I didn’t look back at the man who may or may not have been my past, as I ran toward my friend. The doorway’s spell knocked me to my knees and I struggled to breathe as I hit the stone floor. Again, the snowflake burned, searing my chest. Milly had set it up so I would gain immunity from demons through the hoarfrost demon’s poison—though at the time I’d thought she’d just been trying to kill me. Apparently it was still working in my favor, helping my natural immunity keep me safe.

Book in my arms, sword in my hand, I ran down the stairwell to the level below and the small landing. Milly still leaned against the wall, but Talia was between her legs, hands on her knees.

The necromancer glanced up at me. “We only have minutes before he’s here.”

“Please tell me you mean the baby.”

Talia shook her head as Milly let out a cry and then bore down. Shit, this was not good timing.

I dropped to a crouch by Milly’s head, putting the book at her side. “Milly, you can do this. But you have to push the baby out now.”

Her green eyes were filled with tears as she blinked up at me. “You’ll take my baby with you. Protect him from Orion.”

I nodded, stroking her forehead. “I promised to, didn’t I?”

She bit her lower lip and a sob slipped out. No more words came from her, no more cries.

“I see the head,” Talia said, her voice soft.

Licking my lips, I did something I never wanted to do.

I Tracked Orion.

His threads blazed with darkness that circled around me and his voice whispered inside my head. You are here?

I didn’t answer him, just worked out how close he was. A hundred feet at best.

I shut down the threads to him with a deep shudder. “Hurry, Milly. You have to hurry.”

There was going to be no choice here. I stood and faced the stairs that curled up to us. Orion was coming and I was going to have to deal with him, at least long enough to get me and the kid out.

I pulled my whip loose, wishing I had my crossbow with me. A distance weapon would have been particularly nice. A cry shattered the air, the sound of a baby’s first bellow.

“Shit, your kid’s got lungs.” I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder, seeing the baby pressed against Milly’s chest, wrapped in a swath of her red dress. Something slammed into my upper body and drove me back. I tumbled ass over head until I was up against the stairs leading up to the top doorway.

Orion stood looking down on the three of us. He was as big as I remembered him, muscular, completely bald with red eyes that pierced me and made my blood chill. “Three little pigs, did you think you could escape the big bad wolf?”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Milly clutch the baby against her. “You can’t have him, he’s innocent.”

Orion threw back his head to laugh, a move I’d seen him do before. I took advantage of it. I snapped my whip out as I thought about Milly, about her love for her baby, about my desire to protect them. In that moment, I let the anger go, and embraced my heart and all it knew.