A metal spiral staircase appeared to her right, leading up.
“There she is.”
She recognized Calix’s nasal voice and took the stairs. She didn’t know where they led, but as long as she was running she was still free.
Her breath labored through her burning lungs, and her legs threatened to collapse, but she kept climbing, one stair after another.
Footsteps clanged on the staircase behind her.
“Get her,” Ashe bellowed. “If she gets out, Asmodeus will find her.”
She was heading out. She had to be.
“Keep going,” Xerxes said. “We are close.”
A rough hand fastened around her ankle and sent her thumping into the metal staircase. Pain exploded from her knees as she hit the stairs.
“Got you,” Calix snarled.
Eddie reached into a place she’d didn’t even know existed. “No, you don’t.” With everything she had, she ripped Calix’s hand off her ankle and shoved him back.
Calix’s eyes widened before he careened back down the stairs. As he barreled into the pursuers behind him, screams, shouts, and thuds followed.
Eddie was moving again. She couldn’t feel her left leg, and she dragged it behind her. The door loomed suddenly in front of her, and Eddie lurched for the handle. It turned under her palm, and daylight blinded her. Her eyes watered. The smell of air and growing things almost brought her to her knees, but she stumbled forward.
“Get her,” Sophia yelled. “The hounds and I will deal with the demons.”
“Eddie.” Strong arms lifted her and cradled her against a chest. Honey and musk. Shade.
The door crashed open, and Xerxes and Cronus launched themselves at the demons spilling out of the door.
A blur of white wings and shining light shot past them and engaged the demons.
But Eddie was rising. Wings beat the air in a steady whump, whump, whump. Wind battered at her eardrums, and her clothes flapped around her limbs. She shivered, and Shade’s arms tightened around her, tucking her closer to his body heat.
“Shade?”
“I’ve got you, Eddie. I’ve fucking got you.”
Sounds of battle came from below them, and Eddie struggled against his hold. “My hounds.”
“They deserve this,” Shade said in a voice colder than the wind beating at her. “Let them have their vengeance.”
Shade had forgotten the sweet agony of emotion as he cradled Eddie in his arms. His powerful wings beat the air, putting distance between them and the place he had rescued her.
In his arms, she felt tiny and breakable. She’d lost a lot of weight, and she clung to him in a heartbreakingly un-Eddie way. But by the fire of hell, she was alive and with him. After all these weeks of searching, he finally had her.
Through their bond, he felt the hounds rip and sunder the demons who had pursued Eddie. Sophia’s savage thrill as she handed out vengeance for both of them warmed his soul. He basked in their gory delight as the hounds and Sophia took their revenge on the beings who had held Eddie captive. As much as he wished he could enjoy the bloodbath with them, getting Eddie safe took precedence.
He buried his nose in her dusky hair and inhaled the rich, floral scent of her. Roses and cloves, and so dear to him it felt as if his heart would explode. Soon he would need to let Wrath and Dee know that he’d found her, but he had these precious minutes when she was his alone.
“Shade?” She stirred in his hold.
Hearing her say his name, even in that broken whisper brought tears to his eyes. The cold wind whipped them away as fast as they formed. “It’s me, Eddie.”
“You found me.”
“Always, my love. I will always find you.”
And then Eddie began crying. Each sob and tear ripped through his flesh and bone like the hounds’ teeth. He would give his immortal soul to spare her this pain.
He, Sophia, and the hounds had been circling this area for days, the hounds catching hints and glimpses of her, but then having them disappear again. Only the hounds’ steadfast conviction that she was here and Sophia’s quiet but unwavering support had kept him waiting and searching. He hadn’t slept in over a week, and neither had they. And their vigilance had paid off. He and Sophia had been running a routine sweep with the hounds covering the ground beneath them when suddenly Eddie’s signature energy had surged up to him.
Like one being, all four of them had zeroed in on her location.
The sight of her pelting through that hidden door in the rock face had stupefied him for a moment. Thank hell for Sophia, because she had not hesitated, and her swift action had propelled him into motion.
Eddie’s sobs subsided to the occasional shudder, and she shivered in his hold.
“Not long now, sweetheart, and I’ll stop and get you warm,” he said, his voice rough with the emotion he could not contain.
“Shade?” She sniffed.
“Yes, Eddie.” Not in all his years had he enjoyed hearing his name spoken by another being quite as much.
“I think my leg might be broken.”
