next instant. Time was up. Rune grabbed Teresa and flashed them both inside.
Moonlight slid through an open window and washed the narrow room with a silvered glow. Crocheted doilies dotted the surfaces of chairs and tables. Candles burned in scarlet glass votives, their flames creating dancing shadows on the walls. The scent of charred fabric scarred the air.
“Oh, God.” Teresa pushed free of Rune’s grasp and dropped beside the old woman lying crumpled on the floor.
“Tía Carmen?” she whispered.
Rune quickly swept through the small apartment, assuring himself that the intruder was gone. Magic lingered behind, though, a trace energy that felt as dark as it was powerful.
“Rune, she’s alive!” Teresa’s voice, strained with fear and what could only be tears choking her throat, reached him and he was at her side in an instant.
The old woman was the mirror image of Teresa’s grandmother. The same wise eyes shone with patient stoicism, though the pain she felt had to be monstrous. Her left arm had been burned—in the same way Elena’s body had been back in Sedona. Rune knew now that their enemy—whoever that might be—was in Barcelona.
“Teresa …” The soft, breathy voice came from her aunt and Teresa bent over her, talking quickly, quietly.
“Don’t speak, Tía Carmen. Please. Be still. You’ll be all right.” She turned her gaze up to Rune, her eyes silently pleading and demanding that they save her aunt. “We have to help her. Please.”
She needed him and he wouldn’t fail her. “We will try. Together.”
Taking Teresa’s hand in his, he laid their joined hands gently atop Carmen’s burns. The old woman winced and hissed in a breath, but otherwise lay still.
“Concentrate,” he said. “Let your magic rise and focus it on your aunt.”
Teresa closed her eyes instantly. A look of intensity came over her face as she breathed slowly, deeply, searching for the center of her power. Rune felt her strength join his and their combined magics swelled between them. He called on the fire and focused all he could on easing the pain and healing the flesh of the woman who meant so much to his woman.
Carmen jerked beneath their touch, moaned once, and an instant later lost consciousness. Pain and fear had claimed her and she slept through the last of the healing ritual. Rune kept watch on her while the magic and the fire combined to soothe the burns and heal her injuries. Moments later, he said, “It is done.”
Teresa’s eyes flew open and she looked first at him and then at her aunt, examining the now-unblemished skin on her arm. “She’s all right? She’ll be okay?”
“She will,” he said. “We were lucky to get here in time.”
“Lucky,” she repeated, staring down at her aunt. She brushed aside a stray lock of graying black hair from Carmen’s face, then let her fingertips trail along the old woman’s papery cheek. “She was hurt because of me. Just like my grandmother died for us.”
“Teresa—”
“You saved her, Rune.” Her beautiful brown eyes filled with tears as she looked at him and Rune felt the slam of her emotions churning through him. “You saved her for me and a thank-you just isn’t nearly enough.”
“You owe me nothing,” he told her.
“I owe you everything.” She ran her thumb over the back of his hand. “You didn’t just give me back my aunt. You showed me who I was. Supported me. Helped me. Trained me. You’ve been there. Always. I want you to know what that means to me.”
Rune pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in the curve of her neck. He inhaled the scent of her and let it wash through him like a powerful blessing. This witch, this woman, had become everything to him.
Her voice came soft against his ear as she said fiercely, “I’m tired of death, Rune. I want this finished.”
“And so it will be,” he swore, pulling back so that he could look into her beautiful brown eyes. “We find the Artifact and this is finished.”
She nodded and looked down at her aunt again. “Can we leave her?”
“She will sleep and be better for it. Whoever did this won’t be back—they’ve gotten what they could already.” Cupping her cheek, he turned her face up to him. “The only way to ensure her safety is to finish this. Finally.”
“Yes,” she said, reaching up to cover his hand with her own. “I’m ready, Rune. With you, I’m ready.”
Rune carried Carmen to her bed and Teresa covered her with a quilt