BY THE TIME NICK landed, his glazed eyes told me his soul was already headed to its next stop … wherever that was. I stared into them, willing him to come back, to be okay. I had promised him he’d be okay. Without thinking of the danger, I dove for him, disbelief making me stupid and slow.

Malachi jumped forward and wrenched the knives from Nick’s body in time to bury them both in the stomach of an oncoming Mazikin—the guy I’d followed to this house. With a groan, the Mazikin dropped to the ground, curled in on himself. Malachi sheathed the bloody weapons, grabbed my arm, and wrenched me away from Nick. “Go. Henry’s out front with the car.”

I was still glued to Nick’s empty eyes. “But he was—”

“Go!” Malachi shouted in my face, spinning me around and shoving me toward the door.

My eyes stinging, my chest aching, I stumbled out of the house. “We have to—”

“We have to get out of here,” said Malachi as he dragged me toward the street.

I forced myself not to look back as we climbed into the back of the gray sedan. Henry took off immediately, steering competently through the maze of the run-down neighborhood. “That was the nest,” I said between breaths.

“And you went in without waiting for me. For us,” said Malachi in a hard voice. “You failed to follow your own protocol.”

“Those Mazikin will know someone was there,” said Henry. “They might clear out.”

“We can go back tonight and burn it out,” Malachi replied, looking me over. “A daytime assault is inadvisable now, considering we’re one Guard short and our Captain is wounded.”

The injuries from my fall down the steps jabbed splinters of pain up my arm and down my leg. The side of my head throbbed. I buried it in my hands, wishing I could erase Nick’s face from my mind. “We have to be more careful,” I murmured to no one in particular.

“We?” snapped Malachi. He pulled me to him, clearly past caring whether Henry noticed that we were a little more than Captain and Lieutenant. He tipped my chin up and made me look at him. “How badly are you hurt?”

“I fell down the steps. I’ll be okay.” Honestly, I wasn’t sure, but it didn’t seem to matter right now.

“You shouldn’t have gone in alone.” His words barely made it out from between his clenched teeth. “That was reckless.”

A tiny whisper of anger coiled in my belly, but I tried to keep my voice calm. “I texted you. Then called you.”

His cheeks darkened. “I didn’t hear the ring. The shelter was too loud. Tegan felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, and she alerted me. That was my mistake. But it doesn’t excuse yours.”