Page 779 of Coal Hearts

Looking past him into the room where a billiards table waited along with dart boards, chessboards, and so many other games, I spied the reason for all the blood.

A Master I didn’t recognise lay in the middle of the carpet—his face caved in thanks to the billiard ball used to smash his skull apart. The black eight ball sat in a pool of gleaming red, streaked with evidence of its involvement.

Kirk’s hands shook as he stepped toward me, his gaze beseeching, broken. “Help me. Help me bring her back.”

I flinched as he crashed into me, slamming me into a wall. Water hissed over our shoulders, raining, always raining. “Suri. She left me. She’s hiding. But...we’re fighting back. She can come home now. I’ve made it safe for her. See?” He grabbed my cheeks, smearing me in the Master’s cooling blood. “Help me find her, Ily. Please.”

My heart cracked all over again even as nausea rushed up my throat.

God, his mind had snapped. How many others had snapped too? We might lose today or win today, but none of us would walk away from this without lifelong, soul-crippling scars.

“It’s okay, Kirk.” I squeezed his forearms, my skin slipping on his. “Just let me go, and we can—”

“Do you know where she is?” His fingers tightened on my temples.

I winced as he added yet more pain to all the rest. A flash of light-headedness made me sway. “No. But if you—”

“You’re hiding her from me. You’re all hiding her. No one will tell me where she is!”

“Kirk, stop—”

“No, you stop!” He pressed his nose to mine, snarling right in my face. “Tell me where Suri is and—”

“Kirk.” A masculine, familiar wonderful voice. I looked around Kirk’s slim shoulders and sagged in relief.

Peter.

Not dead.

Alive.

Vibrant and alive and...different.

He stepped out of the smoky, raining gloom. Back in his rightful place as shepherd of the jewels, his fingers wrapped tightly around a sword from the armoury. His linen trousers singed in places and blackened in others. Soot dabbled his chest while his handsome face no longer looked kind and protective but ruthless and vicious.

He reminds me of Henri.

Stepping toward us, he held the sword facing downward, but his chest flexed as if ready to swing. “Suri is dead, Kirk. And you will be too if you don’t let Ily go.”

A switch flicked in Kirk’s barely functioning stare. He blinked again and saw reality instead of nightmares. “Oh God. Oh fuck.” Ripping his hands off me, he reeled backward. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay—”

“I have to find her.” His face blanked again, and with a blood-curdling scream, he charged through the smoke and vanished deeper into the fortress.

Peter stepped close and touched my throat, making me jump. His power from before faded a little as his shoulders slouched. “You’re drenched in blood, jaanu.”

I threw myself into him.

I hugged him ever so tight.

He hissed between his teeth as my arms lashed around him. “Gently, Ily. Gently.”

Breaking the hug as quickly as I’d given it, I ducked around him and choked. “Y-Your back.”

Scowling, he turned to face me, preventing me from seeing the twenty lashes he’d earned because of me and my stupid mouth.

“I’m so sorry, Paavak. I didn’t mean—”