Page 102 of Blood in the Water

My eyes snapped open. Not. A. Fucking. Dream.

“Leona?” She was here. A human person, existing in reality, not in my hallucinations.

“It’s me.” She rested a palm against my cheek. Her thumb gently rubbed over it. So many emotions cycled through her face. I didn’t have the brain capacity to catalog them all. “Finally, you’re lucid. We’re getting you out.”

My mouth was a cotton ball. I licked my lips, trying to understand what I saw. “What’s happening?”

“We’re getting you out of here,” she repeated as she flicked open a butterfly knife—where the hell had she gotten a butterfly knife?—and disappeared from my periphery. The bonds on my wrists and ankles snapped.

“Leona, no,” I murmured, a shock of fear tightening my chest.Come on, brain. Get it together. “You can’t be here. Not safe.”

If Leona was here, she was at risk. Max was everywhere. This was a trap.

“Come on, big guy,” she grabbed my arms and tried to haul me to my feet. I stumbled up, distantly worried my weight would crush her, but she held me firm and steady. “Oh, Cas, you’re a mess.”

“What’s happening?” We hobbled to the stairs leading to the house’s main floor. How had she even gotten inside? I had assumed Max was keeping the whole property on lockdown.

“I made friends. Well, kinda,” she said through gritted teeth as she helped me up the stairs. God, it felt so good to have her near again. To feel her against me, a solid form and not the ghost of an illusion. Was this too good to be true?

“This is a mistake,” I wheezed. My ribs were broken. My head swam. My legs were on fire. Everything hurt. I would only be a liability. “Get out of here while you can.”

“I’m not leaving you behind, dummy.” Only two more steps until we reached the door.

A crash echoed throughout the house. Her head snapped up, and she smiled grimly.

“What’s going on?”

“My friends,” she said as we paused, her hand on the doorknob. Shouts came from outside, followed by heavy footsteps running through the hallway. The door to the basement let out right next to the kitchen, tucked away in the back of the house. If we stepped out there right now…

I shook my head and tried to blink the blurriness out of my eyes, but it still felt like I was wading through quicksand to process everything.

“Leona,” I whispered. My head swirled, and my heart raced. I hadwordsto get out, but my mouth wouldn’t form the sounds. What the hell had Max said the last time he beat the shit out of me?

“Why chase your prey when you can bait it instead?”

Fuck. “Trap. Get out of the house. Now.”

“I’m not leaving you,” she whispered.

More sounds clattered on the other side of the door. My fingers were broken, but if she gave me that knife, I could probably cause enough of a distraction to get her out of here.

Light flooded the basement, blinding me. I moved to put Leona behind me, but my muscles didn’t listen to my body, and I barely managed to grab her arm.No, please.

But beside me, Leona was completely relaxed with a grin plastered on her face.

I looked up. A Shadow with a shock of platinum hair stood at the top of the stairs. Where I expected to feel annoyance, all I felt was a flood of relief so intense I almost stumbled.

“Caspian. Good to see you.”

He was different than the last time I saw him. Like he had lost part of the stick up his ass.

“Wynn.” To my surprise, it was good to see him. My arm tightened around Leona.

He reached his hand to grasp mine and pull me up into the main floor. Three bodies were lined up against the wall, with little red holes in the center of their foreheads.

“Ciel, status?” Wynn said, with his finger pressed against his ear. He paused for a moment and then nodded. “Ryuji has the backyard secure. Let’s go.”

“Oh, stop complaining, Ryuji,” Leona snapped, her finger on her ear. A little earpiece curled around it, partially hidden beneath her hair.