“You have a problem.” Hugh shrugged off his cloak and hung it on a weapon hook in the wall. “You know who I am. You know what I can do. I’m here for her.” He nodded at me. “I won’t leave without her. I won’t let you shoot me. You could try locking me in, but your walls can’t hold me. And containment isn’t really what you had in mind, is it?”

Hugh unsheathed a gladius. A simple, ancient sword, with a straight double-edged blade, twenty-five and a quarter inches long, two and a quarter inches wide, weighing barely two pounds. Simple and brutal. The sword that carved the Roman Empire out of Europe.

Diana hunched her shoulders, whispering under her breath. Towers eyed him warily.

Above us the wendigo screamed again. Something thumped, followed by hoarse human cries.

Hugh hefted the gladius and turned the blade, warming up his wrist. Towers’s eyes narrowed. Hugh held the sword as if it were an extension of him, as if it had no weight. He was intimately familiar with it. He must’ve used it so much for so long that if he closed his eyes, he could probably reach out and touch its tip, because he knew exactly where the blade ended. I knew he could, because even in absolute darkness I knew exactly how long Slayer’s blade was.

“Get me out of this cage,” I growled.

“Shhh,” Hugh said. His eyes were hard. “Just watch.”

He shrugged, stretching, and nodded to the knights. “If you want me, you’ll have to come and get me.”

“Don’t,” I said. “He’ll kill you.”

Diana pulled a slender saber out. She held it like she knew what she was doing, but Hugh was in a class of his own. Fire dashed from Diana’s hand onto the blade, coating the saber in flames.

“A flaming sword.” Hugh shook his head. “Come on. Let’s do this.”

“Wait,” Towers said.

Diana shot forward, bringing her saber up for a thrust. It was a good thrust, well aimed and fast. Hugh met her halfway. His gladius slipped into her side almost on its own. He spun her about, clamped her to him, her back against his chest, and held the blade covered with her blood to her throat. It took less than a second.

Argh. I grabbed the bars. Magic burned me and I let go.

“Tell me, Kate,” he said, his voice casual. “When Lennart is on top of you and you’re waiting for him to finish, do you ever think of me? Just to spice things up.”

Diana rasped, gasping for breath. Her side bled as her body pumped her lifeblood out of the wound.

“No,” I ground through my teeth. “But when I feel down, I picture killing you and it cheers me right up. It makes me giggle.”