“Lie down,” instructed Caine. “You’re walking like you’re in agony.”

She pulled off her boots, wincing as she bent over. Nice of him to notice. She lay on the soft bed, barely able to restrain the tears welling in her eyes. “I am in agony. And what about you? You’re covered in blood.”

“I was shot in the neck, and the rest is from the glass.”

Her stomach clenched. “Shot in the neck? Why aren’t you dead?”

“I can’t be killed that easily, not unless it’s a hawthorn stake.”

A hawthorn stake—so that was why Malphas had been weakened. Her sense of relief at their escape was crushed by the weight of guilt—not just because of Malphas, but the friends she’d left behind. “What about the others? What if Josiah and Randolph punish them for what we did? We need to get back there.” Miranda probably looked exactly like her, and Josiah would be sadistic enough to act out his most depraved revenge fantasies on her.

Caine eyed her with concern. “You need to calm your breathing. You won’t heal as well if you’re panicking. We’ll save them, but I need to heal you first. And then you can tell me about your plan. Open your shirt, please.”

She unbuttoned the front of her shirt, grimacing at the pain when she moved her arms.

Caine brushed his hands over her sternum, chanting in Angelic. His aura seeped into her skin, soothing away the pain. He trailed his fingers lower, lingering lightly over her broken ribs and lung, before they moved to her neck and face, lanced with shards of glass. With each stroke of his fingers, the pain began to ebb, leaving behind only a dull ache in her muscles.

“Is there anything else?” he asked, his eyes roaming over her body.

“That’s it. Just soreness.”

His gaze met hers. “I didn’t realize how bad it was. You had five broken ribs.”

“You let him torture me.” She sat up. “Why didn’t you stop it?” She wasn’t quite sure she wanted to know the answer.

“There were two reasons.” He spoke quietly, gently picking up her hand. “One—the Brotherhood believed that iron chains were enough to bind an incubus. I didn’t want to dispel that myth. If they believe iron alone can hold us, it works to our advantage. That meant I had to wait until it looked like you were the one to break us out—until you very ingeniously found a way out of that chair. And the other was simply that Josiah’s interrogation gave me valuable information. I now know what’s important to him and to the Brotherhood. I know what he knows about us, and what he doesn’t.”

“Sounds very practical.” She pulled her hand from his grasp and drew her knees up to her chest, hugging them. “Is there anything he could have done that would have spurred you to action, or would you have sat there and watched him murder me as long as you got the information you wanted?” She wasn’t sure why she felt so betrayed. He’d never promised her anything more than an uneasy alliance. Like he’d said. They weren’t friends.