back to life, cutting her in half. She was five months pregnant, and her enlarged stomach took a horrible scraping from one of the blades as she squeezed past it. Sebastian took her hand and helped her out onto the narrow circular ledge surrounding the intake fan. He touched her bleeding stomach to heal her, and she couldn’t help smiling at the soothing warmth.
“No rungs out here,” he whispered. “About a five-foot drop. I’ll catch you. The spotlight’s coming back already.” Sebastian dropped to the ground below.
When he was ready, Mia pushed herself off the edge, landing in his arms. She looked up at him, feeling for a moment the deep affection that had existed between them under Alise’s spell. She was having his child.
Whatever she felt in that moment, she felt it alone. He stood her on her feet, already looking for their next move.
“The warehouse,” he said, pointing to the long brick building against the western wall of the base. A pair of S.S. guards flanked the door. “There’s a road that forks off toward it. I think there must be a side gate there. Probably safer than trying to go out the front.”
“If there’s a gate, there will be more guards,” Mia whispered.
“You stay here,” Sebastian said. A slanted corrugated tin panel stood over the intake vent, blocking rain and snow from above, but also creating a pocket of shadow, further darkened by the coal smoke from the ventilation system’s furnace exhaust. She thought might be able to hide from the spotlights if she kept herself small enough. “I’ll deal with the guards first and signal you when it’s safe,” Seth told her.
“Are you sure?” she whispered, but he was already running, avoiding the spotlights. She heard a distant clink of metal against concrete, and both guards at the warehouse turned their heads towards it, away from Sebastian’s approach in the shadows. She heard it again, and a third time, and the guards raised their pistols in that direction.
Mia realized what was happening—Sebastian had pocketed the screws he’d taken from the vent screen, and now he was flinging them, one at a time, to create a distraction for the guards as he approached them in the darkness.
Sebastian crept up to the warehouse and jumped on the closest guard, stabbing him in the throat with a key grasped between his middle fingers. The other guard turned to see his comrade staggering toward him, blood gushing through the hands at his throat. Sebastian was pushing him forward, using him as a shield while the other guard began shooting. Sebastian shot back, using the pistol from the stabbed guard’s holster. The guard fell to the ground. He’d taken them out, but now every spotlight rushed toward the sound of gunfire and found Sebastian.
Sebastian crouched low and shoved open the warehouse door, ducking aside as bullets rang out at him. He fired back as he crawled inside.
Mia shivered as she listened to shouting and gunshots inside the warehouse, unable to see anything within. She did see a number of guards on foot, running toward the warehouse with guns drawn. Sebastian was trapped, and she didn’t know what she could do about it.
Then Sebastian raced out of the warehouse door, blood-spattered and cackling like he’d lost his mind, leaking from a bullet wound in his side and another that had torn a chunk from his leg. He held a machine gun now, and he blasted a spray at the guards converging on the warehouse, momentarily scattering them.
He didn’t come back for her, but ran hard toward the front gate, as if trying to attract everyone’s attention. The spotlights followed, and he turned and opened fire at them. He hit one, and it flashed and burst into flame.
The scattered S.S. men regrouped and chased after him, while more armed guards ran at him from the gate. They shot him up and down from two sides, the bullets chewing him up, and he shot back until he toppled over. The guards surrounded him and kept shooting.
Mia shuddered. She knew Sebastian could heal fast, but no one could survive what the guards were doing to him, blasting his head and torso with dozens of bullets at close range. He was gone, just like Juliana. Mia was alone, except for the small baby still growing inside her.
She only saw one option—go to the warehouse and see if she could make it all the way outside. If he’d cleared the way for her, leaving no guards behind,