The Witch Born to Smoulder (Inferno Book 4)

and a towel.
‘Can you manage?’ he asked.
I nodded, and he made us tea while I changed as fast as my shaking hands would allow. When I was finished, he returned with a blanket and a hot drink.
‘I can’t stay here. I need to go back…for my family,’ I said.
And just like that, my self-composure unravelled, leaving me raw and exposed.
‘Orpheus is going to kill them,’ I said. The truth, once spoken aloud, confirmed my deepest fear. ‘We’re all they have. We need to go help them.’
Jet put down his medical supplies and caught me in his arms as I tried to walk back towards the cliffs. I tried to push away from him, but he held me tight.
‘Let it out,’ he said so kindly that something inside me gave way.
My resistance crumbled and his arms stayed wrapped around me as I cried a river of tears – never having felt more vulnerable and helpless than I did in that moment.
When I calmed, Jet didn’t let me go. ‘Right now, you’re injured and exhausted. We need to clean up your wounds and then you need to sleep. But I promise you, on my life, that we will do everything in my power to save your family.’
More tears sprang to my eyes. I found my voice – it belonged to me, but there was an edge I hadn’t heard before as well. ‘And then I’m going to kill that son of a bitch. Orpheus won’t know what hit him.’
Jet’s body went taut beneath mine. It was the last thing I remembered before falling fast asleep.
When I woke, I felt as though I was being stung by wasps. I sat up, swatting at my body, but there was nothing there. I was dressed in one of Jet’s oversized tracksuits. I was in his bed, inside his tent. In a flash, I remembered all that had happened the day before and that in this very moment, my parents, Elijah and Violet were being held by Orpheus. I cried out into the stillness.
Within seconds, Jet stood at the entrance to the tent, his dark gaze flickering over me as though searching for injuries.
I gazed past him and, with a start, noticed by the softening light that it was well into the afternoon.
‘You okay?’ he asked.
‘My family… We need to go back.’
‘And we will, when you’re strong enough.’
‘I am strong enough,’ I said, stumbling as I tried to get out from the tent.
‘Easy does it,’ he said, helping me to stand.
‘What’s wrong with me?’ I pulled back the oversized jumper to reveal infected-looking cuts up and down my arms.
‘Shit,’ said Jet, immediately going to his first aid kit and taking out more creams. ‘I cleaned these up last night. They…shouldn’t look like that.’
Fragments of memories from the night before came back to me, and my face heated as I remembered Jet laying me on his bed and then checking me over, cleaning up my wounds.
I leaned forward, placed my hands on my knees.
‘It’s okay, Eva – we’re just friends. I didn’t perve on you, if that’s what you’re worried about.’
‘I know, and I’m sorry for dragging you into this mess. I can go back alone.’
Jet snorted. ‘You hardly dragged me into anything. Without you and your family, I would have died a long time ago. I owe you all…everything.’
He placed an array of ointments and dressings on the table beside me.
‘Jet, I don’t know what I would have done without you.’
Fresh tears flooded my eyes as though the scabs covering my psychological wounds inflicted on me by Orpheus had been gouged open.
He crouched down in front of me until his brown eyes found mine. ‘Care to talk about it?’
All that happened last night flashed brightly before me, making my heart race and anger course through my veins.
‘I…can’t. Not yet.’
Jet nodded, but deep lines etched his forehead. ‘You can talk to me, trust me.’
I took a steadying breath. ‘I know. It’s just too raw.’
Jet passed me the ointment. I sat down and set about smearing it on the multitude of infected cuts and scratches covering my arms, chest and face.
‘I can’t believe those creatures did that to you,’ said Jet.
‘They must have sensed I’d lost my family. They knew it was their best chance of getting to me.’
I began to shiver as I remembered the beings; they had no life, no love, no connection. ‘If you didn’t arrive…they would have succeeded. I’d be their Fire Queen.’
I closed my eyes, trying to calm my cyclonic emotions.
‘I won’t let anything happen to you,’ said Jet, placing his hand over mine. ‘Whatever happens, we’re in this together, okay. But right now, you need to eat.’
Jet passed me a sandwich that made my mouth feel as dry as cardboard.
‘Come on, there’s nothing to you.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, staring at my uneaten sandwich.
‘It will help you get stronger so we can go back for your family.’
‘We need to go back tonight. There’s simply no possible way that I can stay here while they’re in jail…waiting to be executed.’
Jet’s face paled until he appeared as white as the clouds hanging low in the sky.
‘We can go back soon, together. But you’re not strong enough today. And besides, we don’t have a plan.’
Heat flushed my body, which was tinged with a fever. ‘It’s best you stop bossing me around. I can and will go back tonight, and you don’t have to come with me.’
Jet mumbled angry words under his breath as he stood. He strode back and forth, hands behind his dark head of hair. ‘If we go back tonight, we’ll be sitting ducks. Those foul creatures won’t waste any time attacking again. And even if we make it to the mainland, Orpheus will be waiting for us.’
‘I don’t care,’ I said, sounding like a completely different person. I placed my uneaten sandwich on the table beside me. ‘I can’t sit here, eating a bloody sandwich, knowing what is happening to my parents.’
Jet stopped pacing. ‘Can you at least give it a day