The amount of blood and carnage Flick had seen since leaving the Linden estate was a comical contrast to the occasional papercut she’d dealt with before. She focused on putting one foot in front of the other. For Arthie. For the girls and boys locked in that cage. For taking down the Ram.
“Which way?” Jin asked.
“Straight ahead,” Flick said as Matteo pulled the storeroom door closed behind them. The five of them moved with a fluidity Arthie would appreciate, quick and soundless, outside of Flick’s hem whispering with her every step.
Flick led them through corridors and shadowed walkways until they reached a large hall, the one where she’d seen that calendar, and felt her heart drop.
It was not empty.
“The cage is in the room just on the other side,” she whispered.
“Past an awful lot of men,” Jin murmured.
“We can handle them,” Laith said.
“Give me the keys,” Flick said. “I’ll get to Arthie and the others.”
Jin glanced at her, concern etched into his features. He clearly wanted to do nothing of the sort, at war with not wanting to treat her any differently. She saw Matteo’s discreet nudge, his nod, and then Jin reluctantly handed her the keys. He met her eyes, and though he said nothing, she heard his words:Be careful. Stay safe.
Flick didn’t know if she imagined more than that in the heat of his gaze.
He adjusted his grip on his umbrella, pulling a knife from his coat and turning to the hall full of the Ram’s forces. “Wait until they’re distracted.”
With a nod, Laith moved first, tearing like a whip into the room, felling four in one smooth dance before he was noticed. Shouts rang out. Black-clad figures leaped to attention, weapons drawn, but Jin and the others were faster. They rushed in, the Athereum vampires using their size to their advantage while Matteo clawed his way through. Jin threw up his umbrella as a shield—and a guide—drawing men to his knife as Laith did the same with his gauntlet blades. Men fell. Knives clashed. Somehow, Matteo kept his shirt clean.
Flick wasted no time. She raced across the hall, breath held to listen for any sign of the Ram on the other side. She heard nothing but muffled cries and sobs. The girls and boys. Were they still human or had they been turned?
It took three tries before Flick found the right key in the heavy ring Laith had pilfered, doing her best to ignore the pain still throbbing through her arms, weighing her muscles with infuriating fatigue.
With one last look down the hall, Flick turned the handle, and the door creaked as if in warning. It took several seconds before Flick made sense of the sight in front of her.
Her heart halted, stuttered, and despite her every attempt to remain quiet, she could not. She screamed.
51JIN
Jin ducked as the whisper of metal sang by his ears. The machete swung for him again, arcing toward his nose. He threw up his arm, knowing he couldn’t move fast enough, bone-chilling dread washing through him before the man dropped like a sack.
Laith was standing behind him, blades dripping blood.
And in that split second, Jin’s limbs froze as a new sound rocked him to his core.
Flick’s scream.
“Go!” Laith shouted. Jin didn’t need to be told twice. He ran from the fight, slamming his umbrella into the knees of one more attacker before he tumbled into the hall. Flick was frozen at the door. She was unharmed, which meant Arthie—no.
Jin refused to finish that thought.
He pushed past Flick, and his brain registered everything in parts. The cage was even more sickening in person, as wide as the ones the circus sometimes flaunted with trapped tigers. Blood drenched the silver rods and the floor around it.
Girls and boys were inside, begging through bindings around their mouths, reaching out between the bars. The Ram was nowhere to be seen, but Arthie was there.
Oh, Arthie was there, all right.
Seated in the middle of the cage. Coated in blood.
“She’s—she’s—” Flick stammered.
“She’s alive,” Jin assured her. He didn’t know how his voice sounded as stable as it was. “Give me the keys, love.”
