A muffled sound came faintly through the door, and she lurched to her feet, frowning. It sounded strangely like a shout. Another came, this one sounding like more of a hollow thud.
Skin prickling, she hurried toward the door, pulled it open, and—
Found nothing.
The clearing outside was deserted.
“Raum?” she hissed into the blood-red night. There was no response.
She stepped out of the hideout on bare feet, searching around. She hadn’t misheard the sounds of a scuffle, and she was sure that even if Raum was angry with her, he would’ve told her if he was leaving.
Her eyes landed on a dark puddle a few steps from the door. Crouching, she touched her fingers to it, and when she lifted them to her face, she found them wet with a liquid the same color as the sky.
Her heart lodged in her throat.
Hurrying to the cliff edge, she scanned the skies, and her eyes caught on a dark shape in the distance. Long taloned wings were working hard to suspend an awkward burden. It was too far away to see clearly, but she knew instantly what she was looking at.
They were heading in the direction of the lair. Based on the distance, she guessed they’d already crossed the boundary wards.
Murmur had taken Raum. It was the only explanation.
The heart in her throat suddenly sank like a stone.
The temptation was nearly overwhelming to launch into the sky immediately and chase after him, but she forced herself to think rationally. She would only get one chance to rescue him, and she needed to be smart.
How had Murmur found them? Had Naiamah betrayed them? She’d claimed she wouldn’t tell Murmur they were infiltrating his territory, but how good was her word? Strangely, Sunshine’s instincts told her that Naiamah hadn’t lied.
Maybe Murmur had seen Raum when he went to inspect the boundary wards. Or maybe he had scouts searching the land who’d seen them up here.
Whatever the case, he evidently didn’t realize Raum had a companion—proof Naiamah hadn’t betrayed them—otherwise he would have waited for Sunshine to emerge and grabbed her too.
She went back into the hideout, closing the door to seal the ward, and stared around the room at a loss. It looked even emptier than it had a moment ago.
Tears welled in her eyes, and she let them. There was no one here to see her failure. There was no one here to hide her feelings from except herself. This washermess. She had found Raum living his life and forced him to be involved in her mission.
She was a powerful angel. Had shefeltpowerful, she would have crossed to Hell by herself, flown right over Murmur’s wards, and battled with whatever forces she encountered on her quest to retrieve the book.
Raum’s involvement had been all about avoiding the conflict she was so scared of, minimizing the risk that she would have to fight demons. And now, her fears had resulted in him being captured. Now, she had to not only steal the book, but rescue him. And she had to do it alone.
As she should have from the start.
This was supposed to be her test. The Dominations had seen that the book was in Hell and known Sunshine would have to face her fears to retrieve it. But rather than doing that, she’d made a forbidden contract with a demon, bending all the rules to avoid her true purpose.
Well, no more.She was going to prove her worth and do the task set for her. And if she was caught and tortured and drained of every drop of blood, then she would escape or wait for rescue as she had before, and then she would try again. And again.
This was her redemption. Nothing could be more important, not even her fear.
She stared around the empty room, and her eyes landed on Naiamah’s amulets on the table, nestled in the little velvet bag. Her holsters and blades were in a neat pile beside them. Her boots were beside the door, just as Raum had said. He’d even draped her socks carefully over the top of each shoe.
Her heart gave a twinge at the sight.
Nothing was more important than her redemption, she mentally amended…except him.
* * *
Murmur tapped a restless foot,bored with waiting for his prisoner to wake. What was taking so long? He hadn’t hit himthathard.
When at last some moaning and groaning came from the demon trussed up on the wall, Murmur approached, tail snapping back and forth with impatience. He didn’t have time to waste with trespassers, but he needed answers.
