“There’s choice and then there’s no choice,” Bran said, earning all eyes once again on him.
“What’d you mean?” Kelly asked.
“Every one of us, Alex included, have trigger points. Push them hard enough and we’d do whatever it’d take.”
“You mean like pain?” Kelly prodded.
“That’s the tip of the iceberg.” Each word Bran dropped was like ice shards in the room. “A lot of people can withstand pain. To themselves. But what if the threat was directed at someone they loved? A lot easier to make an impossible choice if it meant a loved one lives or dies.”
Chapter Thirty-eight
If I weren’t as frozen as a turkey the week before Thanksgiving, I’d have jerked at Bran’s words. I hated it, but he was right. I’d done everything in my power to save Van. We all had loved ones, except maybe Mandy, who I’m sure was devil spawn, but that was beside the point.
But what about the rest of us? What would I do to save my family?
Wait, what was I thinking? Van was already dead. My own dad had abandoned me to prison— for life. My other three brothers were so far away from here I doubted they’d be brought into this mess. I was pretty safe.
Except.
Because it was the only thing I could move, my gaze skip-jumped around the room, landing one by one on my fellow teammates. What if someone threatened Kelly? Or Vaughn? Or Jaylene? Stone might be the biggest badass on the planet but he was still human, or mostly human, as far as I knew. And what about the teens in the room? Sabina was vulnerable and while I didn’t know Herc well, he had his whole life before him. Would I be willing to see him sacrificed?
No way. Even Mandy. I might grouse and grumble about her but I wouldn’t let her die if I could save her. Suffer maybe, but only a little.
And Bran?
It was one thing for me to want payback for Van’s death by taking Bran’s life but would I let someone else do the same? If I could shake my head, I would have. If I could have let the tears acid-etching my eyes escape, I would have. Instead, I held myself still enough that even my breaths were minimized.
Bran’s words had slammed the whole room into emotional reactive mode, which could get a person killed faster than lighting the tail of a polder duck demon. And that was fast!
It was Vaughn who jump-started clear-headed thinking. “One step at a time. Before we start worrying about what Alex might or might not do, we need her back with the team. Bran, can you do that?”
He quirked one arrogant brow as if wondering why she’d bothered to ask.
But there’s a world of difference between can and would.
Vaughn didn’t waste any more breath on him. “Good. Next is to create a plan of action. Standing around here is inviting more Weres to attack. Kelly, I need you to make sure Sabina is safe. Can you take her to Ling Mai’s?”
It wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order. Ling Mai might be a PIA but she could protect her people. When she chose to. There was that damn word again. Everything kept coming down to choices.
Vaughn turned to look at the other teen in the room. “Herc, can you get us up to speed with using your weapons?”
“Ah, yeah, maybe one or two, but probably not everyone,” the young man replied. “I don’t have enough ingredients to keep the whole team supplied.”
“One or two is better than none. I’ll volunteer and Mandy–that’ll help us as fighters be on par with the others.” She turned to Stone. “You know of another place safer than this one?”
He nodded, a funny cant to his smile like he couldn’t get enough of his sweetie kicking butt and giving orders.
Vaughn gave him a quick, just-wait smile in return before she turned back to the group. “Jaylene, I want you to update Ling Mai on what’s gone down here and what intel we have on this Zaradian demon.”
“Soon as I figure it out myself,” Jaylene murmured, already heading for the door.
“Mandy, I want you to contact Fraulein Fassbinder, and the librarian if you have to, we need as much intel on Zaradian as possible.”
“Will do.” Mandy followed Jaylene out the door. If Kelly took Sabina and Herc away, there’d be fewer targets here to attack if the Weres decided to try again.
“And me?” Bran asked, as if he accepted directions from others all the time. Not! He was more the giving orders and then giving more kind.
“You? I want you to unfreeze Alex, or whatever you did to her.”
I owe you, Vaughn.
Bran must have translated my second thought, which was I owed him first, in a whole different way as he asked, “You sure?”
Oh, I’d make him pay for that.
“Yes, I’m positive.”
“Then everyone stand back,” he said, stepping back himself.
“Why?” Sabina asked. I’d almost forgotten she was still here. She’d been so quiet except for her eyes getting bigger and bigger. “Will it hurt her?”
Not as much as it was going to hurt Bran.
“No,” he replied, looking me eye to eye. “But I can’t say the same about anyone else in the room.”
And in a blink three things happened at once.
Bran raised his voice, speaking that bizarre language and the spell broke.
I shouted,
“Abeo. Abeo. Abeo.”
Depart. Die. Depart.
And Sabina threw her body between me and Bran, receiving the full jolt of my spell head- on.
Chapter Thirty-nine
“No.” My scream sliced through the room as both Bran and I reached the girl crumpled on the floor. Bran, a split second ahead of me, pulling her into his arms. He didn’t even waste a breath berating me. He didn’t have to, I was doing enough of that myself.
“Did I kill her?” I whispered, past the lump of misery in my throat.
Bran didn’t pay any attention to me, his aristocratic fingers seeking for a pulse. One I could have told him wasn’t there. I couldn’t hear it. Not her blood, not the beat of her heart.
I hadn’t meant for this to happen. I hadn’t really meant to even kill Bran, just give him one hell of a jolt, one a full-fledged warlock could take. It’d have knocked him on his ass, but wouldn’t have executed him.
This was all my fault. My choice that backfired in my face. What now?
Wait, there was something. A long shot, getting longer each second that ticked past.
“Please.” I clutched Bran’s wrist, leaving nail bites in his skin, earning the heat of his stare piercing through me. “Can you do it? What you did for me?”
He knew what I was talking about. Once, when a Were killed me, Bran brought me back to life. A gift only the most powerful mages could use. I’d never told anyone about it. Using it now would expose his secrets to everyone in the room. But it also was Sabina’s only chance.
“Please,” I repeated. “She’s just a kid.”
His gaze shifted away from mine, as he shook his head. “I can’t.”
“Can’t?”
My heart shuddered.
Did he really say that? He could save her but was choosing not to? I stiffened, hope replaced by anger surging through me. My voice roughened, razor-edged and caustic. “Can’t or won’t?”
He grabbed my other hand, the one I had started beating against his chest. I didn’t even realize I was doing it. “Can’t,” he said, his voice just as saber-sharp and lethal as mine had been. “I used up too much magic finding you. Stopping you. There’s nothing left.”
How like a warlock. Way to gut a person.
It was my fault. All my fault. I brought Sabina here instead of sending her away. I messed up the magic of the only person in the room who could save her. I cast the destruction spell. Called upon the black magic.
Magic always had a price, but it was Sabina paying my price.
“Noooooo,” the word wrenched from deep inside. “Nooooo.”
Kelly knelt beside me. “Don’t give up,” she whispered, hugging me like I wasn’t a cold bastard of a killer.
I looked at her, aware of how blurry she was. Tears? Nah, Noziaks didn’t do tears. We specialized in pain. Mostly to ourselves and others. Me more than most.
But wait. There was a small something that might work.
“Bran.” I shook him. Hard. “If we join … Can I channel your magic?”
“You mean like when you usurped it before?”
Usurped? Sabina’s skin was growing cold. We didn’t have time for semantics. “I don’t care what you call it. Can it work?”
He looked wary, but then he often did around me. It was amazing how easy it was to ignore that, too. “Hurry. We’re running out of time.”
“We can try,” he said, his voice sounding years older than seconds ago. “But it’ll be dangerous. For all of us but mostly you.”
Who cared? He’d said yes. That’s all I needed.
Brushing the wetness staining my cheeks I stood, towering over Bran and Sabina as I started pulling from Bran’s magic. Making it my own.
“Adeo. Adeo. Agero. Adepto.
Come. Come. Increase. Acquire.”
“Careful, Alex,” Bran whispered. “It’s dangerous. You’ve used too much of your own magic. You don’t have a lot to draw from.”
What did he know? He didn’t care about me. If I just repeated that enough times, I might believe it, too.
Listen to yourself. I’m here with you. You’re not alone. The woman’s voice again. Mom. Who else could it be? Why did she only come when I couldn’t connect with her?
Because you need me.
No, I’d needed her as a child. Now Sabina, barely older than a child needed me. No more distractions.
I steeled my voice as I continued,
“Suscipio. Solvo.
Receive. Break free.”
I pulled words I’d used before, each time causing more problems and misery than before I cast. But I’d run out of choices.
“Singluaris. Praesentia presencia.
Free the power.”
Bran glanced at me, a frown knitted between his brows. Neither of us could speak. It was taking everything we had to weave the magic. I could feel his exhaustion. Or was it my own? His pain. And mine.
He’d told the truth, he really had little to offer. Between us, we might make one okay spell. If that’s all we had then that’s what we had.
A slow rush washed against me. Not like before when I’d have to brace myself against it as I pulled not only from Bran and any other non-human abilities around us. But an eddy was an eddy, it could still pull you under and drown you whether it was hurricane whipped or a lazy-lying pool beckoning the unwary.
I stood statue-still in the nexus of a power vortex that built and built. I didn’t revel in the potency as much as call it to me. Begging and pleading. Promising and cajoling. Save Sabina.
This is who you are. What you’re meant to do.
This time it wasn’t the woman’s voice. It was Bran’s. Unlocking the last ounce of magic rising within me.
I nodded, accepting, biting my lip till I drew blood. I tasted the copper tang and zeroed in. Thrice called, thrice to contain.
“As thou were, so now be.
Thought to image gone.
Image to bind present.
Present to blood let and be.”
I raised my hands skyward, aware of the sound of Kelly inhaling beside me, bracing herself.
Like the psychic vampire I was I tapped into her power, too.
“Vita. Anima. Fides.
Live. Breath of life. Trust.”
But I needed more. I glanced at Bran. Knew what I was asking. Draw enough magic from a magical being and you risked killing it.
He nodded, glancing back at the still girl in his arms.
“Vita. Anima. Fides.”
My arms and legs quivered with the strain, as did my voice.
“Abduco. Abeo. Abstergo.”
Light motes danced before my eyes.
“Undo what I have wrought. Change the unchangeable.
Ash to life. Life to breath.
So mote it be.”
I pulled from Bran’s magic and made it my own, amplifying like a tornado funnel amplified wind until I was the still spot in the center, dangerous to everyone around.
Time careened to a halt. My head roared, blood pounding behind my eyes, nerve endings jangling.
Then the room went dark.
Chapter Forty
I had no idea where I was, who I was when the male voice broke against me.
“Alex, merde, wake up.”
Bran. Angry. At me. Again.
I didn’t want to open my eyes. Didn’t want to feel anymore. Didn’t want to always be fighting him.
One time it’d seemed easy. He wanted me. I wanted him. That was enough.
Not anymore.
“Please,” he whispered, so close to me his breath fanned my face.
That wasn’t the Bran I knew.
A groan escaped before I could lasso it back, but it helped me open one eye. Then close it just as fast.
He was too close. Cradling me in his arms. Holding me tight enough I felt safe. When was the last time that had happened?
Then I remembered. Sabina. The spell.
I opened both eyes this time, tried to raise my head, my voice hoarse and raw as I asked, “Sabina?”
“I’m okay,” the teen said, crawling into my vision near Bran’s right shoulder.
“I killed you,” was all that would come.
“And brought me back. So awesome. You’ve got to teach me that spell.”
Not in this lifetime. Or the next one.
I glanced at Bran. Those blue eyes that could suck a woman’s soul dry. My soul. Willingly. “I was trying to kill you,” I mumbled, the truth rustling on my tongue.
“You’re going to have to try harder.” He knocked me for another loop when he released a rusty laugh.
How could you hate a person who knew how to coax a smile from you when you were sure you’d never smile again?
“Next time,” I offered, feeling what little energy I had left ebbing. My eyes closed. I couldn’t keep them open a second longer.
“Will she be okay?” Sabina asked, her voice a decade younger than her years.
“For now,” came Bran’s response as his arms tightened.
“And then what?”
“Then we face battle. Again.”
Why wasn’t I surprised by that answer?
Chapter Forty-one
Next time I woke up, I was in a luxurious bed, filled with pillows and silken textures. Alone.
I could feel my own frown.
Where was I?
Kelly popped into view. She must have been nearby as she smoothed the blankets and tucked me in like I was one of her former kindergarten charges. “You’re safe. Bran found us this place. He’s gone now but he’s been here for hours, watching over you.”
I didn’t know what part of her comment threw me the most. The vulnerability of being defenseless with Bran nearby? The lie that all was now safe? Or the fact Kelly seemed to trust that if Bran found wherever we were all was well?
My head ached trying to sort out the Gordian knots racing through me. I finally latched on to the easiest question first. “How long?”
Kelly’s brows dipped then cleared, making her look as young as Sabina. “You mean since you’ve been out? A good twenty-four hours.”
I lurched upwards, looking no doubt like a rusty robot. Before I could smash two words together, Kelly spoke again. “I know, I know. The Weres still seem to be after you, according to some friend of Bran’s who’s named William or something.”
“Willie,” I mouthed.
“That’s it!” She made it sound like I’d earned a gold star on a test. “Anyway, they don’t know where you are now.”
“Because?” They’d found me before, more than once, so why not now? But those words wouldn’t come either.
“You appeared to have some kind of magic tracking device on you. Bran disabled it
or watered it down or something, so you’re not as easy to find.”
I noticed she didn’t say impossible to find. They would just have to try harder. Given the number of attacks already I’d say someone wasn’t afraid of a little hard work to get me back. Which reminded me.
“Sabina?”
“Oh, she’s safe. Out in the other room. Bran’s been teaching her a few basic magic spells.”
I guess I groaned out loud as Kelly was quick to add, “Nothing dangerous. Just some stuff to keep her mind off of, you know …” She waved one hand in a nervous gesture, unlike her. “… you know, the whole demon, kidnapping, locked in a dungeon thing.”
Oh yeah. Kelly made it sound like a cheap movie with bad graphics, which minimized all the fear and terror. As if.
“So, are you feeling better?” Kels asked, her eyes wide, her hands pleating one another.
Better than what? Death-warmed over? Road kill? Or a weeklong flu binge?
But this was see-the-sunny-side-of-things Kelly so I gave her a stiff nod. Little white lies never hurt anyone. Did they?
“Good. You’re probably starved as who knows how long it’s been since you’ve had anything to eat.”
As if on cue my stomach rumbled like thunder in the distance. But there were more pressing matters. For one, I was buck naked under these fancy sheets. Two, bad guys were still after me even if they were not currently attacking. Key words being current and attack, but that could change any minute. Sabina was still at risk being anywhere near me and Van was still dead.
That quick it slammed against me. I’d forgotten the weight of that grief. That loss. The sheer darkness of it swallowing me.
Kelly sat on the edge of the bed, taking one of my hands that I hadn’t even realized was strangling the duvet cover. “It’ll be all right,” she murmured, doing that kindergarten thing again even as I wanted to scream, which part of this would be better? Van’s death? Bran’s killing him? Someone out to use me to unleash a demon on the world?
INVISIBLE FATE BOOK THREE: ALEX NOZIAK (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) Page 16
