by C. J. Archer
"I can't leave you!"
"You have to. The fewer of us at the ruins, the less people Quin has to protect. I'll stay back while I speak the spell, but I suspect I need to get closer than his."
She seemed to be considering her options when I spotted Bollard coming out of the house. He waved his arms and ran toward us. He appeared to be holding something.
"Go to Bollard." I gave her a shove that was stronger than I intended. She stumbled but quickly righted herself and ran to her uncle's assistant.
I raced back toward the ruins. Quin now had his sword, and stood between Tommy and the demons. There were eight of them, all snapping teeth and sharp claws. Quin easily carved through two and their bodies disintegrated into a cloud of dust. But just as he did so, another two spewed from the portal, then another and another. They streamed out, a river of otherworldly animals maddened by hunger and confusion, desperate to fill their bellies. And they had their sights on Quin.
I began to speak the chant to close the portal, attracting the attention of two of the demons. They turned feral eyes on me and charged. Quin was quick to respond, blocking them both and dispensing them with two blows, only to have more demons take their place. His brow was slick with sweat. His clothes were shredded and damp with blood, some of it his. I began to fear that being here in our realm had weakened his strength to human levels. There were too many for him to fight off alone, but that no longer mattered. I finished the chant. All would be calm again.
Nothing happened.
The wind continued to swirl and howl like a localized tempest, expelling more and more demons from its eye.
The spell hadn't worked.
Tommy looked to me, confusion and fear warring in his eyes as they searched mine. I shook my head. "I don't understand," I said, my voice high and panicky.
"Say it again," he urged.
I was about to when Quin grunted. He fell onto his knee as three demons lunged at once. They descended on him, their claws lashing at his shoulders, their teeth snapping. Oh God. Quin. Tommy ran to help, kicking one of the beasts out of the way, allowing Quin to rise again and fight off the other two. His sword slashed and sliced, cutting them both down, only to have another two take their place. Tommy helped him as best he could, but he only had fists and feet, and human ones at that.
I began the chant again. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Bollard lumbering toward us. He wielded a knife and I suspected it was Jack’s mother’s, the one forged in the demon realm. I finished the spell, but still the portal remained open, spitting out more and more demons. Soon there would be too many. Why wouldn't the damned thing close? The spell was the right one, according to the title on the page. Had my accent been wrong, or my inflection? Perhaps speaking one word incorrectly could cause the entire thing to fail.
I wanted to ask Quin but he was too busy. A moment's distraction would certainly end badly for him. He needed to concentrate on his task. He didn't appear to be tiring, but it became clear he was heading toward a wall of the ruins. Did he plan to hide behind it to give himself a moment to regroup?
Malborough's head popped up from behind the wall, his lips moving again. Then it dawned on me. Malborough had stopped the chant that directed the demons and was now speaking the words to keep the portal open. That's why my spell to close it wasn't working. It was being overridden by the one already in full swing. He had to be stopped first, and Quin planned on doing just that. But he was struggling to make any headway through the swarm of demons, even with Tommy and Bollard's help. So why hadn't he directed me to do it?
To protect me.
He couldn't do it all. There were just too many demons now, and his progress had halted entirely. I picked up my skirts and circled the fight scene. I was behind Malborough and he didn't even know. I fished the small knife out of my pocket and gripped the handle so hard my fingernails cut into my palm. I could do this. I had to. Perhaps I wouldn't need to kill him, just injure him or scare him.
I blew out a breath and ran at him.
I don't know what alerted the demon. Perhaps it was my sudden movement or the rustle of my skirts, or even Quin's quick glance in my direction. The creature's yellow eyes honed in on me. Its lipless mouth pulled apart to reveal monstrous teeth. It lumbered toward me, surprisingly fast, sending Malborough spinning around to see what it had seen.
"Get away!" he screamed. "Get away from me!"
He had stopped chanting. I quickly resumed the spell to close the portal. His face turned white, realizing his error. Not only had my chant taken over from his, but he was between me and the demon. The creature kept coming, its attention now on Malborough, the closer of the two of us.
He gave a strangled cry then flipped the pages of the book in his hand. He stumbled over some strange words as he resumed his chant. The demon switched its focus to me, under Malborough’s direction.
It came straight for me. Its teeth gnashed in a starving frenzy, and globs of saliva dripped from its mouth. My stomach dropped and I wanted to throw up, run, and scream for help. Fear squeezed my chest and turned my voice hoarse. I trembled all over, barely able to keep my grip on the parchment. But I continued to chant; I had to finish it. If I did not, the portal would continue to spew out more creatures and my friends would die. Quin could not hold off many more, barraged as he was by dozens already. It was a simple mathematical equation, the result being our deaths.
"Cara!" Quin’s voice was panicked. He seemed to gather more strength from his fear and slashed through two demons in quick succession to clear a path to me.
But he could not reach me in time.
The demon ran past Malborough as if he weren't even there and headed straight for me. I steeled myself as it raised its massive claw to swipe. At the last moment, I ducked and rammed home the knife in my right hand, straight into the soft belly of the creature.
It screamed in pain and reared backward, stumbling over its own feet. I hadn't killed it—I couldn't with only an ordinary blade—but I'd injured it enough to give myself precious more seconds.
I finished the spell just as the creature got to its feet again. Behind it, the black, swirling well of the portal snapped shut.
Malborough suddenly stopped. He seemed unsure whether he should continue with the chant to control the demon or the one to reopen the portal. He swore as Quin dispensed with demon after demon with renewed energy. His sword seemed to have taken on a life of its own, flying through the air as if it were a living entity. Malborough flipped back through the book's pages again, cursing over and over.
The demon hesitated. Awareness flared in its eyes where before they were cloudy from Malborough's control. They weren't clever creatures when they first came to our realm. They needed to feed their ravenous appetite to regain their wits. This one seemed to become aware of two things at the same time. Firstly, that it was separated from its group, where danger lay in the form of Quin, and secondly, that I possessed a weapon that had already harmed it, whereas Malborough did not.
It charged at him. I shut my eyes the moment it sank its teeth into Malborough, but I couldn't block out his screams. I forced myself to reopen my eyes and maintain awareness of my surroundings and all of the demons. Many of them now swarmed the ruins, all centering around Quin, Tommy and Bollard. But at the sound of Malborough's screams, some peeled away from the main group. They must have sensed an easy meal. Malborough fell silent, but the other demons still came. I backed away.
Quin said something to Tommy and Bollard, and they left the main fight and chased after the creatures heading toward me. They mowed most of them down without any problem, and the last two stopped to feed on Malborough.
Bollard turned them to dust with Jack's knife and Tommy limped over to me. One of his eyes was starting to close over and his right arm hung loosely at his side. But he was alive. I flung my arms around him, and then Bollard, when he joined us. He handed me the book and I clutched it to my chest.
Together we watched as Quin dispensed with the final
demon. He slumped to one knee near the pile of dust, leaning heavily on his sword.
I ran to him and caught him in my arms as he swayed. His chest heaved with labored breathing and he was covered in blood from head to toe. I didn't care. He was alive. We all were.
I began to cry.
"Cara," he murmured, wiping my tears away with the pad of his thumb. "My brave warrior."
I copied his gesture and wiped away the blood on his face. His bright blue-green eyes blinked back at me, swirling with an intensity that sent my heart soaring. Every nerve ending sizzled with burning desire. I ached for his kiss, his touch, and saw that ache echoed in his eyes as they turned smoky. He captured my face in both his hands and his eyelids lowered.
"St. Clair," came Tommy's sharp voice behind me.
Quin let me go as if touching me stung him. He swallowed heavily and dragged his hand through his hair.
"Mr. Beaufort has asked me to protect Cara from you. I cannot ignore his request. I'm sorry," he added, sounding genuinely apologetic.
He held out his good hand to me and I took it. I stood and so did Quin, avoiding my gaze. Sylvia and Langley joined us. She pushed her uncle's chair across the lawn. Her face was streaked from her tears, but she was smiling, mostly at Tommy. Langley signed something to Bollard who answered with a nod. They exchanged relieved smiles.
"You're alive," Sylvia said, starting to cry and laugh at the same time. "Everyone's alive and well."
"Except Malborough," Langley pointed out.
She shuddered and turned away from the scene of the mangled, half-eaten body.
"Who was he?" Quin asked.
"Lord Frakingham's son and heir," Langley said.
"Lord Frakingham sold the house to Uncle August," Sylvia explained. "Douglas—Lord Malborough—never accepted it. He believed the house should belong to him. This is just the last in a long list of despicable things he's done to try and get it back."
I circled my arm around her waist. "At least it's over now. He won't be troubling you again."
Langley sighed. "I'm not going to enjoy explaining this to Lord Frakingham. How did Malborough get the book?"
"Garrett's widow told him that her husband visited Lord Alwyn, twenty-two years ago, before he came here with the other members of the society," I said. "Lord Alwyn was in possession of the book but didn't know it. Garrett and the society already had the parchment." I held up the scroll. "He must have followed the same line of investigation as we did and searched through the society's library to find any mention of the book in other texts. It's likely he recognized Alwyn's family symbols in the same book Quin did, setting him on the path to Lord Alwyn's library. Once he found it, he must have memorized some of the curses contained within it, including the one that made me ill."
"What a relief," Sylvia said cheerfully with a nod at the book in my hand. "You can find the counter-curse and be well again."
I nodded and walked across the lawn toward the house with them. If anybody thought it odd that I didn't respond, they didn't say. Speaking the counter-curse now would mean saying goodbye to Quin. The administrators would call him back to Purgatory. Not speaking it, however, meant he had a chance of snatching it and removing it from my possession altogether. Neither option sounded particularly welcoming.
I wasn't yet sure if I could trust him, despite everything he'd done to save us. A kernel of doubt lingered, made worse by the fact he wouldn't look at me. I couldn't make out what he was thinking behind his hooded eyes.
"St. Clair," Langley said as we rounded the side of the house to enter through the courtyard out the back. "Thank you. It's because of you that we're here now."
Quin nodded. "Your thanks are appreciated, sir. But I am the warrior, and fighting off demons is what I do."
It was the second time that he'd said as much and it sounded equally forlorn as the first. I frowned and willed him to look at me and explain, but he did not.
"I want to offer my thanks too," Tommy said. His face was pale from pain and loss of blood, but he managed a small smile. "It's been an honor to know you, sir."
Sylvia too gave Quin a smile. "Farewell. We do appreciate all that you did here today and over the past several days. Cara is very special to us, and you've saved her life. Thank you."
"He's not going just yet," I said before he could say anything. "He's much too filthy." It was a ridiculous notion that he couldn't return to Purgatory covered in blood, but neither he nor the others pointed it out. Sylvia's smile turned pitying.
Quin wouldn't bathe in the privacy of the bathroom, claiming all the blood would ruin the tub. Instead, he scrubbed himself clean in an empty stable stall while I sat on a stool on the other side of the doors. His shredded clothes couldn't be salvaged so Fray, the Frakingham driver, and the stable lad were sent to retrieve the luggage from the side of the drive.
Bollard refused to clean up while I was present and Tommy was too injured to perform the task alone, so they trooped inside the main house like battle-weary heroes returning from war. I heard Sylvia speak to either the housekeeper or maid, who'd begun wailing hysterically. Her crisp but sympathetic tones set tasks for everyone in the household, from fetching Dr. Gowan and Inspector Weeks to boiling water and preparing wound dressings.
With everyone occupied, Quin and I were left alone in the stables. Not even Tommy seemed to recall his duty to protect me from the warrior.
I listened to the splashing of water as Quin washed himself. I didn't need to see him to picture the straps of thick muscles across chest and shoulders, and his ridged stomach. It would seem the memory of his masculine perfection would remain with me for quite some time, even after he was gone from my life and this realm.
His sharp intake of breath had me rising from the stool, but I quickly plopped back down again as I heard the water splashing once more. I wanted to inspect his injuries but, of course, there would be no point. They would most likely heal quickly once he'd returned to Purgatory.
I clutched the book closer to my chest. I should look for the spell to break Garrett's curse, but couldn't bring myself to even open the book's plain wooden cover. I would. Soon. Just not yet.
Fray returned with a towel, shirt and trousers, then left again, plunging us once again into silence. We had experienced many tense moments together of late, but this silence was denser than the rest. There were so many things I wanted to say to him, yet I voiced none of them. I was afraid; not only of his reaction, but of mine. If I begged him to kiss me, what powerful emotions would we unleash? I would never be able to close them off the way the portal had been sealed. What if he pushed me away instead? How could I hold my head up through my shame and heartache? Even worse, what if he pried the book from my hands? He could do it easily enough. Such a betrayal would devastate me.
The splashing stopped and I listened as Quin dried and dressed. Then there was total silence in which the only sound was my own breathing. I bent over and peered under the stall doors. Quin was sitting on a dry patch of floor, leaning back against the wall. His eyes were closed and his head tipped back. Water dripped from the ends of his hair onto his bare shoulders. He clutched his scrunched up shirt in his fist as if he'd been about to put it on but decided against it and slumped to the floor instead. The smooth planes of his face weren't as hard as they had been during the fight, but were now pinched and pale.
With the blood cleaned away, I could take stock of his injuries, at least on his right side. Scratches marked the flesh on his arm, from wrist to shoulder. A purple bruise darkened his jaw and a cut sliced through his lip. Worse than all of those were the three deep gashes across his chest. A demon's claws had struck him, and the wounds still bled.
I ached to go into the stall and see to it, but I didn't dare get too close to him while we were alone. There was no telling what might happen between us, or what he might do.
"Are you all right?" I asked, straightening.
Several beats passed before he answered. "Aye." He came out of the stall and I s
aw that his left side fared as badly as his right.
I felt sick. "Oh, Quin."
He looked down at the claw marks on his chest where the blood began to congeal in droplets. "I didn't want to stain the shirt."
"Come to the house. Sylvia will dress the wounds for you."
"You can do it." His gaze held mine for a long moment. I felt like I was falling into their depths, sucked in by the compelling force of Quin himself. Then his gaze dropped to the book.
CHAPTER 15
I tightened my hold on the book and stayed out of reach. Quin did not try to force it from me, but I knew from the hungry way he looked at it that he wanted it. I was quite sure he wouldn't take it before I spoke the counter-curse to cure myself, but I would not give it to him after either. I would ensure that he didn't leave Purgatory through any means other than official ones. The administrators would release him when he'd completed sufficient penance. Going against their wishes would be unwise if we didn't know the consequences.
"You haven't spoken the curse yet," he said simply.
"No."
The next most logical questions would be to ask me why, but he didn't. He simply nodded. "It would be difficult to explain my sudden disappearance to the servants."
It wasn't the reason I hadn't spoken it, but it was one I could cling to when asked.
I strode out of the stables, glancing back over my shoulder every three steps to see how close he followed behind me. That intense green-blue gaze connected with mine each time, as if he could hypnotize me into giving the book to him.
Doctor Gowan was just arriving through the front door as we entered through the rear. He was brought into the kitchen where the others had congregated. He inspected Tommy's arm first, and his grave face told us what we dreaded to hear before his words did.
