The Council (Darkness #5)(52)

Each breath became laborious. Needles pricked my skin. Magic swirled around me, playful and happy, doing my bidding. Taking my energy to do so. Stealing my life as it worked.

Blackness clouded my vision. Arms encircled me and picked me up. My head lolled on a muscular shoulder.

“Open to link, Sasha. Open to link.”

I weakly tried to push someone away. Barely holding on to the leash. Barely keeping in charge. “Can’t.”

“Open up to link!” Fingers pinched my face. Pads of fingers pushed open my eyes.

An angelic face with a halo of white. Heaven, then? The door to the afterlife?

“Link with me, I know how. Cato showed me!”

Cato?

Toa?

“How did you get here?”

Was that out loud? I couldn’t be sure.

Energy sapped from my body. No more roars, so that was good. If there was, though, would I be able to hear it?

Eyes fluttering, I gave in. I opened up to the person shaking my face. I felt the sticky magic and connected, except… the configuration changed. Parts of the connection bent in on itself, twisting out of the way. Like wires, some joined, but others tied off.

I felt his energy pour into me in a sweet rush. More was coming in than going out; as many magical people as possible flooded the link. It pumped into the spell, quickly. Gratefully.

My vision cleared slowly. My hearing turned back up. Dominicous held me with a dirty and disheveled Toa standing next to him, staring at the growling demon. Its claws clicked one last time before it vanished, a wash of sticky black coating the ground.

“We did it,” I panted, laying my head on my father’s shoulder. “Is Stefan okay?”

“He’ll live. Thanks to you, we all will.” Dominicous kissed my head and carried me out.

Chapter 16

I slept for a long time. My fingers entwined within Stefan’s, I slept as he healed. His injuries weren’t enough to kill him, and his concussion wouldn’t have any lasting damage. Dominicous assumed that he’d tried to break free, but was one man against a great many—he never had a chance, but he never stopped fighting.

The first time he woke up, his eyes trained on my face for a long moment before he said, “You shouldn’t have come for me.”

He got a good slap for that comment. Literally. I slapped him in the face. I didn’t even care that he was hurt; it was that stupid of a thing to say.

His answer was a smile and, “I love you.”

Laughing, I scooched forward and kissed him softly. “I love you, too.”

***

Two nights later—because really, a hurt arm and being tired were my only issues—I found myself striding through the hall with a sulking Charles behind me.

“Charles, aren’t you a little old for the silent treatment?” I waited for a response. I didn’t get one. “I had to do that. Otherwise, everyone would’ve died.”

Empty space where words should go.

“Mage.” One of the warriors in the hall saluted me. Another person nodded as I passed.

The hall in front of me parted of people as I strode through. Like it always did for Stefan. More so than it did for Jameson. The way I handled myself, and how I’d tried to sacrifice myself, secured me a great many votes of confidence. It obviously wasn’t why I did it, but I loved it all the same.

I fit in, now. I had a position, and the respect to go with it.

I could barely contain my elated smile.

“Hey!”

I stopped as I turned a corner in time to see Ann limping up the hall. She still had three bandages, despite the fact that shifters healed at a pretty fast rate. She’d been separated from us early, not being able to hold on to us with paws. She wound up with that smaller demon. Even at a low power level, it gave them plenty of problems.

“Hey, Ann, they let you out?” I asked.

Ann shook her head as she stepped around me. “Hey, loser.”

“I know you like me, so you can quit calling me loser.” Charles didn’t crack a smile.

Ann’s brow furrowed. She looked back at me. “What’s up with him?”

“He’s mad at me for almost dying.”

“Ah. No gratitude.”

“Exactly.” I matched Ann’s laughter. And then laughed harder at Charles’ glower.

“Where we headed?” Ann asked with a chipper voice.

I motioned her on without saying a word. A moment later we turned into a room down the hall. A woman’s still form lay on a bed, arms on her chest, eyes closed. A white sheet covered her from head to toe.

“She killed herself,” I said quietly, looking at the second myth reincarnate. I had every reason to believe there were more of us out there; we just had to find them.

“What?” Ann stared, aghast. “Who?”

“That other lady. The black power. We held her without problem, but when she found out Andris was dead, she shot herself in the head.”

Ann shifted to stare at me incredulously. “Where’d she get the gun?”

“They didn’t frisk her. Zeke didn’t think to tell anyone to—he was worried about assigning magical coverage—and the guards… are idiots.”

A grunt sounded off near the door.

“Sorry Paul, but seriously. She could’ve had anything on her. Like a gun.” To Ann I said, “She took down two people and then offed herself.”