Rose’s eyebrows shot up at that, and she hurried off to find Lana. Adrian and I settled into helping the injured. I tried to warn him again to use caution with his magic, but it wasn’t easy. All he could focus on was the suffering around him—and how he wanted to fix it. He set into healing, using his spirit generously. He at least started with the critical ones Dimitri had pointed out. As for me, I began doing what I could with basic skills in the hopes that Adrian would see he didn’t need to use spirit on everyone. I patched lacerations and gave water. I even gave pep talks. Most of the patients were conscious, and I worked hard to keep up a good bedside manner, assuring them all would be well. Every so often I’d pause to check on Adrian.

Mallory was among the injured, and she and another guard were pretty bad off, having lost lots of blood. Mallory also had a number of broken ribs, as well as some internal injuries, according to Adrian’s read of her aura. A Strigoi appeared to have taken a chunk out of the place where her shoulder and neck met, and blood pooled from the wound, despite attempts to bandage it. She was one of the few unconscious ones, and it seemed hard to believe she’d been swooning over Rose and Dimitri only a few hours ago. Adrian made her his first priority, restoring her to almost complete health. I was glad for her but winced at the power that must have required. Wordlessly, he moved on to his next patient.

When he was halfway through her healing, Rose hurried up to me. “I sent someone to Olive. But you need to come with me now—upstairs. The Alchemist is about to come in.”

I finished the bandage I was applying and gave one more warning to Adrian about caution. He nodded at me, and I wondered if he’d even heard my words. But there was no time to linger, not with an Alchemist about to walk in who could potentially undo all Adrian and I had done to win my freedom. My heart raced as I followed Rose up to the second floor of Lana’s cabin. I breathed a sigh of relief as we reached it. It was little more than a loft, but it kept me out of sight from those below. Unfortunately, it kept me away from what was happening downstairs as well.

“Rose,” I said as she started to go, “you’ve got to make sure Adrian doesn’t—”