The bitter taste of fear flooded Warren’s mouth as he piloted the barely functional boat out of the cavern. Gods, this thing had better make it to shore. He could barely keep his eyes off Esha’s collapsed form, though every time he looked at her, something inside him twisted painfully. Dragging his gaze from her, he forced himself to focus on the water. Getting her back to Mull was the only way to ensure her safety.
When he cranked the engine up to full speed, the bow rose in the water. A growl escaped his chest when he saw seawater tinged red trickle from beneath Esha’s prone form.
Faster. He pushed the boat to its limits, flinching every time a large wave smacked the bow, and with it, Esha.
A mile from shore, with the boat failing due to the damage to the hull, he checked his phone. Finally, cell service.
“Cadan,” he said when his second-in-command picked up. “I need you to send a healer to the village of Dunessan. Esha is wounded. We’ll land in ten minutes.”
“Aye. No’ a problem.”
“The best, Cadan.”
“Aye, I know.”
Despite the cold air, sweat trickled down his back as he piloted the boat toward shore. Blood still seeped from beneath Esha. Her face was stark, whiter than he’d ever seen it, and even her red lips were chalky.
As he beached the boat, he squinted through the starless night, looking for the healer sent by the university. There was no one. No one there to save Esha. She was immortal, but that only meant stronger. Age and disease wouldn’t kill her, but grievous injury could, especially if it was magical.
He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t. He rush
ed to the front of the boat and swept Esha up into his arms. A crumpled envelope was still clutched in her fist. He pried it out of her hand and stuffed it into his pocket.
There had to be a mortal hospital somewhere on this island. Though it went against the laws of their kind to alert mortals to their presence—and taking an immortal with freakish healing abilities to a mortal hospital would definitely do so—he didn’t care.
She was cold in his arms as he cradled her, shielding her against the whipping sea wind. Though he tried not to jostle her as he stepped upon the shore, a weak moan filtered through her lips. When he looked up from her face, he caught sight of a shimmering patch of air that marked a portal about to open. Thank gods.
Within seconds, a healer stepped through. Gods damn it, she was young—didn’t look to be any older than a teenager. This was the being to whom he was supposed to entrust Esha’s life?
“Are you Warren?” she yelled in a lilting voice.
“Aye,” he said as he strode toward the Range Rover with Esha in his arms. The girl met him at the back door. “Open it.”
She did. With her help, he carefully laid Esha upon the back seat, shifting her so her wounded back didn’t press against it. The sight of the angry red gashes made his stomach lurch. He’d seen far worse, but it was the fact that they marred her flesh that bothered him.
“What happened to her?” asked the healer as she laid her palm gently on Esha’s side.
“Attacked by an enchanted stone wall. It formed a great claw and swiped at her. Are you old enough to be doing this?”
The healer slanted him a glance and said, “I’d bet I’m older than you are. Appearances are deceiving.”
The healer climbed into the back with Esha, wedging her small form in the gap between the backseat and the front. “We need to get her somewhere warm and dry.”
“Aye,” Warren said, and within moments, he had the Range Rover back on the main road.
“What about the boat? Isn’t it Cadan’s?”
“I’ll buy him a new one. How’s she doing?”
“Poorly. How far to shelter?”
“About thirty minutes to Cadan’s house. There’s no decent shelter between here and there.”
He tried his damnedest to avoid potholes and bumps in the road, but every time Esha moaned, it cut through him like a blade of fire. A deer jumped into the road. When he swerved to avoid it, Esha’s damned feline yowled as if it could feel her pain.
“Do something for her, damn it,” he said.
“I am. Just get us there.”