We hurried to the first open door along the next hallway, shoving Melinda and Fin inside as Helix and I took up sentry outside the doorway.
I let out a long exhale, clearing my head from all the fear and worry of the last few hours. Helix led the attack at the next round of bad guys. Maneuvering was difficult in the narrow hallway, and we both had to stick to knives for each strike.
Several of the goons fell, but more came down. One of them got past me as I parried a strike from another.
“Fin,” I shouted.
He easily took the goon out and left him in the pile of his friends, prepared for another wave. I couldn’t split my attention to him. A red line of fire across my cheek proved my point. I fought the guy off and Helix finished him. We’d been pushed back toward the doorway. If many more of them attacked, we wouldn’t be able hold them off here.
I touched my cheek where blood poured out of the cut. It was only an inch away from my eyes. I’d gotten lucky.
“We have to move. This spot isn’t defensible if they keep pouring men down here,” I told Helix.
He turned my chin and studied my cheek, which I jerked from his grip with a scowl. “I’m fine. We need a new plan before more guys come down. I don’t think we can get that door open before we are attacked again.”
“You’re right.”
Fin and Melinda poked their head out the door.
I waved toward them. “What about that door? Can we hunker down and let them batter themselves out?”
Helix shook his head. “I don’t know. The point of the layout of this place was to ensure the upper doors closed and gave us enough time to open the hatch and get out.”
I rushed to the hatch, moving a goon from on top of it. “Let’s start it and if we can keep making progress then eventually, we can get the hell out of here.”
Helix handed me a set of keys and I glared at him. “Really? Did you really think this through when you set this up?”
“Zoey,” Fin warned.
He was right. Grumbling at Helix and his apparently poor planning on the hatch wasn’t going to help.
“Match the numbers,” Helix said, his tone as sharp as his knives.
I recognized that bite as anger toward himself and not me. They’d never had to try their plan so he didn’t realize where the roadblocks might have been.
I started on the keys, but only got one lock undone before more goons came out of the hallway. I slapped the keys into Fin’s hand and rushed forward, grabbing the knives out of the sheaths of my thighs as I went.
Helix and I worked together to cut down three more guys. They didn’t even seem like they were trying. Both Helix and I were good fighters, but this felt too easy.
I turned to call out to Fin. The first wave of magic tingled across my senses. “Shit, we need to get into the room and lock the door. The magical goons are coming now.”
“How do you know?” Helix asked.
I headed toward the door with Helix on my heels. “I can feel it. Like a vibration in the air.”
The vibration grew stronger as I slammed the door and locked it behind me. Leaning against the door, I sighed.
Fin stepped forward and rubbed the cut on my cheek. “Are you all right?”
I nodded. “Yes. I just hate being trapped like a rat in a cage.”
He used his shirt to wipe the rest of the blood away and Melinda passed him a bandage over his shoulder. “You were lucky that guy didn’t take out your eye.”
He spread the bandage over the cut and smoothed the edges while he met my eyes. A world of emotion swam there. Once I would have shied away from the intensity of that look, but now, I cupped his cheeks in my hands and kissed him gently, still holding his gaze.
We stayed that way a heartbeat longer, feeling each other. Even with the bond dead inside my chest, his skin under mine felt perfect. I knew without a doubt, even if we didn’t have this magical guide locking us together, we belonged to each other. It was something I’d likely have to remind myself in the future over and over. For now, it bolstered me just knowing he was here and caring for me, as I did for him.
Melinda touched Fin’s shoulder, drawing our attention to her. “If he comes, or if it looks like he’s going take me again, I want you to kill me.”