Shouts came from beyond the door.
Asher and Gideon moved like lightning. Launching to his feet, Asher raced for the door as Gideon yanked it wide, and in an instant, they were both gone.
More shouting followed. Scared shouting.
Oh, God.
Grunting with pain and attempting to ignore the way it made my vision swim, I shoved upright.
“Wren,” Liam protested.
I braced myself on a nearby wall and staggered toward the door. Ulysses took a step closer like he wanted to intercept me, only to stop himself—which was fine with me. As I moved, my legs grew marginally steadier. Maybe I just needed to be on my feet to get my strength back. This could work. But when I reached the doorway, I froze.
The guys had said we were in a shop.
They hadn’t mentioned that it’d been set on fire.
Beyond the charred wreckages of displays, Asher and Gideon stood near the entrance, just inside the shattered and melted remnants of the floor-to-ceiling windows that had fronted the store. Burned wires and metal dangled from the ceiling, scorch marks marred the walls, and the smell of smoke was heavy on the air.
“—one block west,” Gideon was saying. “Heading this way. They— What the hell?” He glared over his shoulder at me and the others alike.
“Get her back,” Asher ordered Liam.
Ignoring him, I shrugged off Liam’s hand and continued toward the window. “What’s going on?”
Asher’s jaw muscles jumped, while Gideon just shook his head, muttering something I couldn’t hear while he looked away.
Well, screw him. “Asher?”
“Humans down the street. Rabids may have already gotten their hands on them, but we can’t be sure.”
I waited, but neither man made a move toward the street. “And?”
“Go back to the storeroom, Wren.” Asher’s voice was resigned.
I gaped at them both, baffled. This wasn’t like Asher. Liam or Ulysses either. Hell, even though he hated me, Gideon had still risked his life to keep me and others from being killed by rabids. “But we have to help them.”
“And the minute those rabids see it’s us doing the rescuing?” Gideon replied. “If a single rabid survives and escapes us, they will tell Amalie you’re here and they will come for—”
“So, what? We just let those people die?”
Scowling, Gideon turned away to watch the street.
I stared at the others. “People can’t die just to protect us, guys. Definitely not just to protect me.”
Asher’s face was grim. “If Amalie or Urlfeige get their hands on you, the gods only know how many more people will suffer. Those two did this with just part of whatever connection to the dormants is inside you. If they captured and drained you fully, you would die, and there’d be no telling how far they could extend their reach.” His voice was solemn, but our connection was practically throbbing with how much pain the words caused him. “Keeping you safe is keeping countless others safe too. We cannot risk being seen. You understand that, right?”
I looked away, seething and anguished. Yeah, I got what he was saying, but I couldn’t just let people die.
Another scream came from down the street, closer now.
My hand flexed before I even registered the impulse, summoning my sword from whatever realm it occupied when it wasn’t in my grasp.
A sharp jolt of pain ripped into my shoulder and chest, burning like I’d been jabbed with a red-hot poker and radiating from the dark stain on my skin. Crumpling in on myself, I choked on a cry.
Asher grabbed me. I blinked fast, trying to make my eyes focus past the agony.
“Gods,” Gideon growled furiously. “Could you stop risking yourself for five damn sec—”
A woman ran past, clutching a baby in her arms. She threw a frantic glance over her shoulder, only to catch sight of us hiding in the shadows of the store. Skidding on the gritty concrete, she looked between us and whatever was chasing her. “Help me! Please, you have to—”
Two rabids flew at her in shadow form, like smoke and darkness come to life and radiating a sense of wrongness that made my skin crawl. She screamed as one of them lunged at her child.
“Dammit!” Asher leapt through the shattered window. Shifting into his own shadow form, he slammed into the rabid, ripping through it. Whirling around, he caught the other one just as it shifted back in an effort to attack him, and the creature died screaming as it became ash.
The woman stared at us, shock and horror in her wide eyes as Asher flew back into the shelter of the destroyed store and returned to human form.
Doing my best to look nonthreatening, I held up my hands. “It’s okay. We’re not going to hurt you.”
Screeches came from my left. I risked a swift peek beyond the melted glass window frame.
Rabids were racing down the street at us.
