I reached across the doorway and gave her a hug, holding her tight for just a moment. “I’m holding you to that. I expect to see your ass in London, ASAP.”
“I love you too, Rylee.”
Lips tight, I turned away and ran after the others. The castle was completely engulfed in deep red flames. They looked like what a child would draw, blood red and towering above us. From time to time as we ran through the castle, they dipped toward us and Pamela fended them off.
“Who would light the castle on fire?” Frank asked as he jogged beside me.
It was a good question, and I was pretty sure I knew the answer. “Orion. If the castle is on fire, how do we close the doorway?”
Erik grunted his agreement and I knew I was right. Not that being right made me feel any better.
The main entrance in and out of the castle onto the open plane burned hotter than the rest of the flames around us and a niggling fear bit at me. None of us had even considered this might be a trap, a way to end us all in one fell swoop. “Pam, tell me you can get us through there.”
“If I can’t, no one can,” she whispered, as she flung her hands toward the flaming gate. They groaned and leaned outward, leaving a small gap, just big enough for us to run through.
The group bolted for the opening, but again, I felt the pause of one of my people. Pamela stood, sweat pouring off her face. “Go, I’ll be okay and Liam will need my help to get the wolves through.”
I wanted to tell her not to take risks, to just be safe and get her ass back to us in one piece. But it was advice I would never take myself. I settled for something more subtle. “Don’t dawdle.”
Her lips twitched and I turned my back on her to run through the gate. The heat singed my face, tightened my skin and made me sweat like, well, like I was running through a furnace.
Leaving my family behind was not something I was comfortable doing, but the last few months taught me I couldn’t do it all. I had to let each of those close to me do the things they were designed for, much as it killed me to let them go into danger.
I just hoped I was making the right choice.
Chapter 17
WATCHING RYLEE AND the others run through the gate left me feeling … funny. That she trusted me enough to leave me on my own was an amazing high. But being left on my own within the castle reminded me there were demons just waiting to snatch me again. The fear of being kidnapped haunted me, made my blood freeze.
I spun and ran back toward the doorway where Liam would come through. Second floor, end of the hallway. The flames weren’t as bad there since I’d already pushed them back. Which was good, because the door to the mine shaft wouldn’t open when I got to it.
“No, don’t be a wanker,” I whispered, jerking on the handle, yanking it hard. Nothing. Despite the heat from the flames around me, a chill slid down my spine. I couldn’t wait anywhere else, which meant I had to sit here and fend off the fire until Liam, or Berget, opened the door. Sound didn’t travel between the doorways, so I could knock all I liked and no one would hear.
I hadn’t told Rylee the fire was more than magical. It was alive. There was some sort of entity running it, making it push hard against me, testing my boundaries even as I held it at bay. I swallowed several times, trying to get saliva flowing. My mouth was parched, dry and hot, like I’d been sucking on desert sand.
I put my back to the door and stared into the flames. Using a technique Milly showed me, I put a barrier between me and the flames. Like a wall for the fire to hammer at, it gave me some relief. Yet I knew it couldn’t last. The barrier drew off my power, like I was a battery feeding it. There would come a point where I couldn’t hold it any longer, when I had finally run out of juice.
“Hurry, Liam,” I whispered as I slid to the floor and put my hands on the warm stone. “Please, hurry.”
The ride to the mineshaft proved difficult only because the wolves would be naked if they shifted to their human forms, since they couldn’t retain their clothing like he could, and without clothing they’d freeze in the air. Blaz grumbled the whole way about claws digging into his hide.
You are lucky I like you, Liam.
He just snorted. “Luck has nothing to do with it. You like Rylee, and that’s enough.”
Blaz echoed his snort. True.
The dragon spiraled down to the edge of the mineshaft and the werewolves jumped off Blaz’s back in unison. And then the second problem Liam hadn’t really considered presented itself. There was no way to get the wolves down the mineshaft. Sure, he could have them shift, but they just weren’t strong enough for shifting multiple times, and some of them were still healing from the battle with the other guardians.