but it’s already too late.
A single swipe of the blade.
I jerk my head aside. There is a splash of spattering blood hitting the floor and the soft thud of a head striking cement like a ripe melon.
Somehow, I hold the contents of my stomach down. Whoever responds to this scene can’t know we were here. I bend over a nearby table, gripping it with shaking hands, forcing down my gagging.
“Cassidy Morgan.” Arcayos’ footsteps sound across the floor, and then his hand lays gently on my nape. “Are you all right?”
The warmth of his palm soothes me, his voice keeping me from passing out like a complete wimp. I wipe spittle from my mouth and turn to him, willing away the weakness in my knees. Hating that I look so weak in front of this badass, hardened warrior.
“Fine.” I force myself not to look at the head on the floor, glaring at him instead. “Why the hell did you do that?”
“He would have told us nothing.”
I look at his hands. His blade is gone, but his hand is smattered with blood.
Suddenly my head is filled with images of my sister being held in some torturous prison somewhere, a place of hellfire and brimstone, terrified and alone while Hazuldar laughs. I was so close. I had a lead, and now it’s gone. It’s gone because he killed the thing that knew where to find her.
He reaches for me, but I step away.
“Cassidy—”
“Just...” I put my hand out.
His shoulders sag, but he doesn’t make a move toward me.
God, I feel like my heart is about to shatter inside my rib cage.
Drawing a deep breath, I sweep my gaze over the carnage in the room, forcing my focus onto the task at hand. There will be time enough to be angry with him later. “What happened here?”
He sighs. A cool mask slips over his features, stoic, and his hard gaze takes in the room, assessing the bodies. He squats down near one of them and looks him over before straightening, his dark brows drawn down in confusion.
“I do not know. If the demon I just killed was the one who called you, then the others must have come here meaning to ambush you.“
“Were they demons? The others?” I gesture to the bodies strewn everywhere. “Humans work with demons sometimes, right?”
“Yes.” He looks over another body, then comes back to me. “There is no way to know now that they are dead.”
“So they could have been human?”
“Yes. Cassidy Morgan, what are you doing?”
I’ve gone over to the demon he killed and started rifling through the pockets of his suit. “Looking for anything that might tell me where Saffron is.”
“Ah.” He joins me, standing at the demon’s other side. We find nothing except a wallet with no ID or money, one of those silver rings like the one the Jacksons found, and…
I pull out a thin necklace chain from one of the inside pockets of his blazer. A small silver pendant hangs from the chain. It’s a silver unicorn with a sapphire for its eye. I cover my mouth with my hand.
“What is it?” Arcayos asks.
“It’s Saffron’s.” My voice comes out choked.
“So this demon saw her.” His fists tighten and he shakes his head.
I slip off one of my gloves and wrap my fist around the pendant.
Hot, searing lava spills in behind my eyes and images flash.
A girl. I wince, trying to focus on the image, to freeze it in my mind. She’s… floating, as if in unseen water, but in the air. Dark blond hair, as dark as mine but waist length, drifts around her heart-shaped face like pale seaweed. She revolves in the air, and the hair drifts away from her face.
My pulse pounds in my head. The girl’s face is years older than I remember, absent of baby fat, strong yet fragile looking. But she has the same green eyes, the same mouth she always had.
“Saffron…”
Arcayos’ hand lays on my shoulder, but I’m only half aware of it. Cliffs rise up in my mind, high, jagged cliffs. Water rushes in my ears. There is pain. So much pain, like tiny needles stabbing at every inch of my flesh.
Wolves howl and then a scream. A long, pealing scream ripping from my sister’s throat.
Arcayos is kneeling in front of me, gently shaking my shoulders. I gasp, the movement ripping me out of the vision and back into the here and now with a sickening suddenness.
I blink up at him. My face is wet with sweat,