“You don’t have to do that,” she said.

I looked down at her and just frowned. That hardly deserved a response.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because I want to protect you.”

She scowled up at me. “Well, I want to protect you, too.”

The corner of my mouth tugged up in a smile. “Too bad. I’m bigger.”

I stood between her and the door. She tried to move aside, but a deafening explosion rocked the room.

My head rang as I glanced toward the wall where the door was meant to be. It looked normal, the stone totally undamaged.

“Damn it.” My voice sounded odd inside my head.

Carrow pulled me back against the wall just as the second explosion hit. It came more loudly than the first, or so I thought. My ears were still ringing, but the blast had made my ribs vibrate.

Dust billowed toward us, and I blinked, squinting. It faded to reveal a hole in the wall right where a door might be, roughly a few meters square.

Cordelia hurtled through the opening, her eyes bright. Guards incoming!

I darted across the room, my hearing gradually returning. As I neared the hole in the wall, I caught sight of a large man stopping right in front of it. I reached through and grabbed the front of his shirt, yanking him through the hole.

He shouted and thrashed, and I pulled him all the way into the room, then lifted him up and snapped his neck. Bones popped, and he went limp. I threw him aside.

A second guard climbed through the hole, his hand glowing with green magic. He threw it toward me, and I dodged, barely managing to spin out of the way. It crashed into the wall, sending a painful shockwave of dark magic blasting into me.

I yanked him to me. His palm was beginning to glow again, a second blast powering up. I didn’t give him a chance. Instead, I snapped his neck like I had the other and tossed him aside.

Carrow watched me with wide eyes. “That was…”

“A bit much?” Generally, I tried not to kill my opponents. Here, however, there wasn’t time to fool around with grappling. We needed answers, and if Silviu found us, we’d have no chance. The guards had made their choice when they’d agreed to work for him. It was Carrow’s life or theirs, and the decision was easy for me. I looked out the hole in the wall, searching the hallway beyond. It was empty. I gestured for Carrow to follow. “Come on.”

I climbed out of the room and reached back for Carrow. She scrambled out behind me, and Cordelia waved from within the room. Call me if you need me. I have a date with Luke and Laura. They’re getting hitched.

She disappeared.

I turned, then headed down the hall, Carrow at my side. We hurried through the dark halls, down staircases and past empty rooms.

Footsteps sounded from up ahead, and I pulled Carrow into a room on my right. It was empty save for a desk and a chair. Not even a single book decorated the place.

We tucked ourselves back against the door, breath held.

The footsteps grew nearer, and I tensed, ready to fight. My skin prickled with awareness, and my breath slowed, my vision sharpening in the way it did when my beast went into stalking mode.

The footsteps passed.

Carrow sagged against me. “Thank God. Let’s go.”

I leaned out and inspected our surroundings. “It’s clear.”

We sneaked out into the hall and continued our way to the very depths of the castle. Centuries had passed since I’d been there, but I still recalled every stone of the place. It had haunted my dreams for years after I’d left.

We passed two groups of guards, both of which were easy to take out. Though they had been hired to stop intruders from reaching the seer, no one ever broke into Silviu’s castle. No one would dare.

The first group was nearly asleep at their post, propped against the wall where two hallways intersected. They faced away from us, and Carrow leaned close to whisper in my ear, “Don’t kill them.”

I nodded, though I still wouldn’t hesitate if things became dicey. They didn’t, though. I used my unnatural speed to race up behind them and knock their heads against the wall. One after the other, they slumped against the stone.

Carrow made quick work of binding the first, and I did the second. Soon, we were on our way. The next group of guards was positioned at an intersection similar to the last pair, but they were more alert. Their gazes snagged with ours as soon as we came into sight. Both were tall men with broad shoulders and dark eyes. Their magic smelled of sulfur. They raised their hands and hurled two blasts down the hallway.

I dove low, Carrow doing the same, and the magic plowed overhead. It scraped along my back, feeling like the cuts of a thousand knives. Agony flared, and my vision nearly went black. It was only through years of training that I stayed on my feet.

After the magic passed, I hurtled toward them, fear for Carrow giving me extra speed. They stumbled back, raising their hands as magic began to glow faintly around their palms. They’d need a few more seconds to charge up fully, and they wouldn’t get them.

I lunged for the first, breaking his neck. As I tossed the body aside, pain flared at my shoulder, the distinctive feel of a knife plunging deep.

I spun around.

The other guard had stabbed me. He held the bloody knife in one hand and swung his other fist at my face, but I grabbed his hand and yanked him toward me, spinning him around and cranking his head to the side. His neck popped, and he went limp.

I threw him to the ground and turned to face Carrow, my heart thundering as fear chilled my skin.

She lay on the ground, her back covered in blood. Only then did I realize that my own back was sopping wet. The pain burned, and I knew the wounds wouldn’t heal as quickly as they once would have. Maybe not at all.

Whatever was in the guard’s magic, it really had cut us deep. Carrow had been unlucky, and the blast that had hit her had been traveling lower. It’d torn her up.

Fear turned my blood to ice as I raced to her, dropping to my knees. My presence seemed to rouse her a bit, and she groaned, trying to push herself upward.

My heart raced, fear like I’d never known filling me. “Don’t move.”

She hissed and lay still, her cheek pressed to the stone, her skin pale. Red blood coated the ends of her hair.

I grabbed her bag and dug around, searching for a healing draft. They all looked the same, though. I didn’t understand Eve’s labeling system the way Carrow did.

I raised my wrist to my mouth and bit deep, my fangs piercing the skin. Quickly, I held my wrist under her mouth, cradling her head so that her lips pressed to my skin. “Drink. It will heal you.”

I hoped. My blood might be worthless by now, all healing ability gone. But it was worth trying. “Please, Carrow. You must.”

It took her a moment, but finally, she did as I commanded. She drew on my wrist, my blood flowing into her. Pleasure shot through me, so inappropriate given the circumstances but impossible not to feel.

It was like the sensation unlocked something inside me, and suddenly, I could smell her blood.

There was so much of it, and the beast inside me roared. Hunger gnawed at my stomach, and my fangs hurt in my mouth. My throat felt parched, and the creature inside me struggled to break free. To fall on Carrow and drink her blood.

No.

I fought it with everything I had, clenching my jaw and turning my head from her. I stopped breathing entirely, letting my lungs burn and my heart pound.

This will pass.

It had to pass.

Slowly, it faded. My head swam. I drew in a shallow breath through my mouth, desperate for air.

I resisted.

The last thing I needed was for the beast to return.

Finally, Carrow withdrew her mouth. She moaned and pushed herself upright. I turned to her, clenching my fists, knowing I couldn’t touch her.

More than anything, I wanted to help her up.

But I couldn’t risk it. While she was covered in blood, the beast was too close to the surface.

“Are you all right?” I asked. “How do you feel?”

She rubbed a hand over her pale face. “Like hell.” Her gaze met mine. “And I’m not sure that worked very well.”

Damn it. As I’d feared.

She rose to her knees and turned. Her coat was torn, revealing wounds that gouged the skin of her back, slowly seeping blood. If they’d healed, it hadn’t been by much.

“My blood is no longer as effective,” I said, concern piercing me. Grief that I could not heal her. “Mortality is creeping up on me. Do you have a healing potion?”

“Yes. And at least now I’m strong enough to find it.” She dug into her satchel and removed two small vials. She handed me one. “Here. For your wounds.”

I took it, hating that I couldn’t heal her. As I drank it down, I felt my wounds heal. I loathed that I could no longer do that on my own, loathed even more that I couldn’t heal her.

Quickly, she uncorked the vial and drank.

I stood and stepped backward, my hands clenched into fists as I tried to force my fangs to recede.

“Are you all right?” she asked. “You look…off.”

I nodded sharply. “Fine. But keep your distance. I…can’t be trusted right now.”

“You just tried to save me, though.”

“I did, yes. Though I failed. And the beast inside me…he still wants you.”

She swallowed hard, her eyes going dark as she nodded. “I understand.”

She pulled off her bloody, ruined jacket and moved to throw it aside.

I held out a hand. “No. We can’t leave traces of our blood here. Too dangerous. We don’t know how Silviu will use it.”

“Good point.” She shoved it into her bag.

I searched the ground where we’d fallen, looking for signs of our blood. Our clothes seemed to have soaked up most of it, thank fates. There were a few small, quickly drying specks that would be of no use to Silviu.

“Let’s keep moving.” I turned to head down the hall.

We walked swiftly and silently, passing the bodies of the guards without a second glance. We’d need to be quick to find the seer, but once we had, the magic in the seer’s cavern would prevent us from being disturbed.