Chapter Eighteen
I was numb as the worldnarrowed to this one single moment. Esteban held the knife high, ready to plunge it into Fin’s back. Fin swiped his forearm up in time to intercept the hit and knock the knife to the floor.
I scrambled after the knife, launching myself across the polished hardwood, but I couldn’t find it. My gaze caught on my blood-stained fingers and I couldn’t look away. The Captain’s blood. Harlan, I reminded myself of his actual name. Harlan was dead, and he’d died to save my life.
The echo of Fin’s sadness and the grief battering him had imprinted into our bond when the Captain fell. It was just sitting there, doubling between us as we both internally grappled with his loss.
I would never hear him chide me about my fighting stances again. Nor would I ever get to poke fun at him for being uptight with a stick up his ass. It took several seconds to realize tears poured down my face, so hard I couldn’t breathe through my nose anymore.
I tore my gaze away from my bloody hands and patted the hardwood to find the knife. Whatever cloaked it when it hit the ground worked too well.
I should stand up and survey the area from above. A grunt and a fist meeting flesh forced me to look back at Esteban and Fin, who had fallen over the other side of the bed and now faced off against each other across the room.
Unbidden, my gaze rushed to the Captain’s still form again. No amount of magic could bring back the dead, but I would give it all up if it were possible. I stood and resumed my search. If I found the knife, I would use it on Esteban and end his miserable existence for good. The thought spurred me to work faster, but another grunt turned my focus to the fight again.
A deep gash down one of Fin’s cheek leaked blood over his lips and down his chin. He didn’t seem to care as he took another lunge toward Esteban.
When my hand brushed a sharp edge, I froze. Carefully, I used my fingers to find the curves of the knife until I could safely grab the hilt. Power roared through me.
Oh, this wasn’t just a regular knife.
I slid over the bed, right behind Esteban, and touched the tip of the blade to his neck, under his ear where I could plunge it easily. “Stop moving.”
He stilled, as did Fin on the other side of him. I didn’t care that tears still poured down my face. A wave of sadness brushed my senses, but I glared at Fin to tell him to knock it off while I focused on Esteban.
At my height, I spoke to his shoulder, but I was sure the pointy metal in my hand lended some weight to my voice. “You killed my friend, and you’ve taken so much from me.”
My heart pounded in my chest. A voice in my head demanded I get revenge for the Captain, for Fin, for myself.
I shook my head. “You’re not even sorry you killed people and destroyed lives.”
“Says the woman holding a knife on me.”
Wow. The balls on this guy.“The same knife you were holding on me five minutes ago. The one you just used to cut my friend’s throat. You have no high ground to stand on here. Especially with a knife that blocks healing. Really?”
He kept his eyes locked on Fin, ready to resume their battle as if I never interrupted, as if I was insignificant in the fight between them. One more look at the Captain’s body decided me.
I pressed the tip of the knife into Esteban’s neck, but nothing happened. I pressed harder, but the blade still didn’t puncture his skin.
I removed the knife, and he snatched it from my grasp before I could blink.
“You already know a mage’s blood song weapon can’t be turned against them.” His voice was low, angry, all the soft need he displayed for me earlier erased.
What game was he playing?
I flipped one of my black steel knives out of its sheath into my waiting palm. “That knife might not hurt you, but this one has been calling for your blood all day.”
He blocked my next strike with his knife, but I pressed in closer. I layered my mage magic along the edge of the knife and into my hands, using to strengthen me enough to hold a chance against him.
In the confines of the small space between the bed and the wall, we couldn’t exactly have an all-out fight. I swept my knife out again, which he blocked. I yanked my second knife free and swung both knives at him, forcing him to block with his own knife in one hand and his forearm to guard against the other.
I took great joy in the red line seeping into the sleeve of his white dress shirt. He took one look at the blood and shoved me so hard into the wall all the air got knocked from my lungs. While I was down, he hopped over the top of the bed to take up a position in the main open space of the room. His feet were close to Harlan’s body and a fresh wave of anger surged through me.
“Get the hell away from him!” I said, already climbing over the bed for another attack.
Fin reached him first and delivered a solid punch right across Esteban’s jaw. Esteban stumbled backward, narrowly missing Harlan and teetering into the wall near the fireplace.
It darted across the room towards them. They exchanged blows, ducking and swinging at each other. I hovered on the edge of the fight, waiting for my chance to drive my black steel into Esteban’s gut.
With a sharp kick to the midsection, Fin pushed him back into the wall. Esteban struck out with the knife, but Fin dodged. We needed to get Esteban’s ruthless weapon back out of play before Fin or I took a fatal hit.
Esteban cut across the room as if he were making a run for the door.
I blocked his path. “Oh, what’s the rush? You came into my room and started this whole mess. You don’t get to leave early just because no one wants to dance with you.”
“I came for you, woman. That is all. It’s clear I’ll have to find you when you are alone and take you then.” His words were violent, but his tone lascivious.
Vomit.
Fin snuck up behind him. Esteban spun away in time to miss both Fin’s fist and my knife strike. Power zinged along my nerves and I resisted the urge to gather it up, hold it until I needed it.
Then it hit me. Fin was fighting Esteban with his fists, but he hadn’t busted out his magic once yet. And his way worked more reliably than mine did.
What was he playing at?
I shoved my magic into the fray, trying to freeze Esteban in his tracks, allowing Fin to get a hold of him. My magic washed over him, and he shot me a smirk as he parried with Fin.
After my last attack, he’d put up some kind of shield to protect himself. It was the only logical explanation, and something I should have been doing for myself.
But why hadn’t the Captain or Fin?
I waited for Esteban and Fin to swing back around to me. My body hummed with the need to sink into a fight and lose myself. Let all this rage and anger burn off in a victory.
I tried to step forward, but found myself locked in place. A glance from Fin answered the question before I even asked it. The bastard had used his magic to keep me out of the way. Not in my head, like he did last time, but by confining me into a small square of the floor.
I fought against him, shoving at his magic with my own, all the while blasting him with my anger over the choices he made for me. He didn’t get to choose his own revenge over mine.
I grabbed both fae and mage magic to shove at his cage. Why would he do this to me again? We’d connected on a whole new level, and this fresh betrayal cracked something open, something toxic and hateful, in my chest.
We wouldn’t be able to come back from this.
A shimmer of regret filtered down the bond, but I was too angry to do little more than slap it away.
Esteban lunged at Fin and caught him across the arm with the knife. The wound welled up, dripping blood onto the hardwood.
“Why the fuck aren’t you shielding yourself?” I called out to him. Despite my cage, I didn’t want him to die.
Esteban answered in a singsong voice. “Because he’s draining himself, shielding you, little one.”
The news set me back. I gaped at Fin and focused my magic to view the shimmer in the air. How intricately Fin has woven his magic to block any attack against me, magical or physical. The effort taxed him, and yet he fought with Esteban single-handedly.
My old insecurities reared up. Did he not trust me to handle myself? I’d shown repeatedly since I came back that I would consider my actions before rushing into choices. Maybe I hadn’t spent enough time thinking before I gave Fin all of me.
Another wave of longing hit me and I sent back my betrayal. It hit him hard enough to cause him to stumble. Esteban struck, shoving the knife into the side of his body until the hilt met his already blood-soaked shirt.
When he pulled it free, he let Fin slip to the floor in a heap.
My heart stopped and pain screamed through my soul. “No!”
He wiped his knife on his pants leg to clean it. “Having her here while we fought was a good decision. I never considered how distracting she would be for you. I suppose I should be grateful.”
He crouched by Fin, who swiped out at him. It was a meager effort at best. I could already feel Fin’s magic cage weakening around me.
When Fin closed his eyes, the world went quiet. The entire room echoed with the intensity of it. Like walking through the silence of a snowstorm—raging yet symphonic at the same time.
As the last of his power dripped away, I surged out of the confines of his cage to Fin’s side.
Propping him on my lap, I held my hands over the wound. “If you die right now, I will fucking kill you, Fin. You do not get to avoid the absolutely hideous fight we are going to have when this is all over. You idiot, I can protect myself.”
Esteban hovered over us. “Time to go, little one. You’re coming with me.”
His magic wasn’t as subtle as Fin’s. Esteban’s power grated over my skin, demanding and consuming in its wake.
I shook it off, blocking what I could with my interwoven powers. “Fin, stay with me.”
Esteban pressed harder into me and something snapped inside me. The watch I’d stolen from him appeared in my hand, and I flipped it open. Before Esteban could react, I focused enough to freeze the world around us.
Sixty seconds.
Esteban froze, mid step, heading towards me. As long as Fin stayed frozen, maybe he wouldn’t bleed out on me.
“Little One,” Esteban called, though his mouth didn’t move.
It sounded eerie through the power of the watch.
Fifty-five seconds.
It hadn’t been a minute yet, but his hand twitched, as if he were shaking off the effects.
Despite being frozen, he called out to me through the magic. “Zoey, Little Zoey. We’re going home, and I promise I’ll treat you way better than Fin ever could.”
“Fuck you,” I whispered.
Fifty seconds.
I had mere moments left to figure it out and save Fin’s life. Losing him wasn’t an option. While I wanted to bash his head into a brick wall for his stupidity, if he left me, I didn’t think I would survive it.
A pulse along the bond caught my attention, and I left Esteban’s frozen form to inspect Fin. “What are you trying to tell me?”
Another pulse, but it felt too faint to catch the emotion he tried to impart with his waning power.
“Damn it, Fin,” I said, leaning forward to press my hand into his chest. “Talk to me. I know you can do it.”
“Zoey,” Esteban called, louder now.
Forty seconds.
The second hand ticked, each tick feeling like a strike to my frayed nerves.
One final pulse shimmered down the bond and then it went silent. This time I caught more than a feeling. This time I caught the words I never got the chance to hear him say. “I love you.”
Thirty seconds.