Her eyes find mine, and she must see the feral light there because her gaze softens with worry.
“We have to go,” I mutter, forcing myself to release her.
I step forward to wrench the picked lock off the cage door and push. It’s old and rusted, and the hinges shriek. Growling again, I shove it open hard enough that it bounces off the outer frame and swings back.
I catch it.
Kick it wider.
Hold it for her.
She ducks through and I follow, my body protesting every step, the bullet wound pulling and my vision doing that tunneling thing again.
I ignore all of it.
We're out.
Bells scans the wings. Left, right, the dark corridor beyond the stage. Her hand drops to her thigh where the knife was strapped, finds nothing, and her jaw tightens.
"Stephen," I say.
She looks at me.
"When they dragged us back. Did you see him?"
She shakes her head. "No. After you… after the corridor, the guards grabbed me before I could see what happened."
"I had him down."
"I know. I heard."
"He shouldn't have been able to?—"
"Rex." She cuts me off. Her voice is flat and certain in a way that makes the hair on my arms stand up. "That fucker is still alive."
I stare at her.
"Iknowhe's alive. I can sense him in here, somewhere." She touches the collar at her throat. The scar beneath it. "I stabbed him in the eye and kneed him in the dick and he got back up and chased me through a basement. You slammed his face into the floor three times and his guards had to peel him off the stone. He's acockroach, Rex." Her gold eyes are hard. "He won't die that easy.”
My lip curls. “Then we burn this place to the fucking ground.”
CHAPTER 37
BELLS
We make it six steps before the first guard rounds the corner.
Rex moves like something that shouldn't be upright. His left hand catches the guard's throat mid-stride, slams him into the velvet wall, and drops him in one swift motion that costs him so much energy he staggers.
I catch his elbow.
His bad side.
Rex flinches so hard his whole body twists. His damaged eye swivels toward me, unfocused, confirming what I've suspected.
He’s blind in that eye. Maybe completely.
"Wrong side," he snarls, pulling his arm free.