King Cave (Forever Evermore, #2)(161)

Elder Harcourt grunted again, his wrinkled face contorting in discomfort. “I touched her when she was a babe.” A pause. “I left the knocker for her to find.”

I blinked. I had no clue what that — being touched as a babe — really meant, although, I didn’t believe it was meant in a corrupt way. I also hadn’t known he had met me as a child.

Antonio’s gaze swung over our heads, and Elder Merrick voiced quietly, “Truth.”

Elder Harcourt gasped. “You saw some of this, Antonio.”

“I saw her choice to save him!” Antonio shouted. “Not how! It was a damn blackness. I didn’t see her hurt!”

“You saw it correctly,” Elder Harcourt whispered, his own eyes beginning to glow.

Antonio stiffened then sluggishly lowered Elder Harcourt to the ground. “You had better not have f*cked with her future. You know how the last time played out when someone screwed with time.” He dropped the golden web holding Elder Harcourt.

It seemed all of the Elders stiffened at that comment.

Ezra smiled at Elder Harcourt. With fang. “And I will personally kill you if she even flinches in pain.”

Elder Harcourt wiped his brow and smiled cheerily. “Ah, Ezra. I’ve touched you, too.” I saw Cahal freeze next to us even as Elder Harcourt stated happily, “I know your path as well as hers. I know how to stay off your hit list.”

Ah, it meant he knew our future. Wonderful.

There was a tense silence, then Antonio muttered, “Oh, f*ck off, Richard. I need to figure this out.” He turned back to the image of me freeze-framed: me straddling Ezra, vial in my hand. “What the hell is the black?” His head cocked, studying the image.

Elder Harcourt moved forward, his wrinkled hand rubbing his chin. He pointed at Ezra’s ashen image. “Death.” His finger swung to the vial. “Life.” He blinked, his hand falling to his side. “Oh.”

“What?” Antonio asked instantly.

“Someone else I once touched,” his gaze fell to the floor, “I remember…” He sighed, glancing back to the liquid. “That’s the individual’s willingly-given life.”

“Black magic?” Antonio asked, but immediately shook his head. “No. Willingly given. And otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to get it in here.” He worked his shoulders, and I noticed through my blinking that the action looked remarkably like what I did to remove tension, noticing it only for the first time. “Who the hell is the Mage that went with that knocker?”

Elder Harcourt slightly hesitated, then whispered, “Clarice.”

Everyone in the room stiffened, including Ezra under me. As my eyes fluttered open and shut, I had the insane thought that I should probably pick up a history book and study. Ezra actually started to remove me from his lap, shouting, “Tell me again why I shouldn’t kill you right now?”

“No, no.” Elder Harcourt waved a quick hand. “Clarice didn’t harm her.” He blinked, and a funny smile painted his lips before he turned back to the image, oblivious to how Cahal had to slam a hand down on Ezra’s shoulder to keep him seated. “Play the rest, Antonio. There has to be more.”

“I cannot believe you sent her to Clarice,” Antonio muttered, rubbing his forehead before flicking a finger. “I’m thinking Ezra’s got the right of it, and you should be dead.”

Elder Harcourt only shrugged his shoulders.

Ezra stilled as the image came to life again, quickly holding me close and resting his head on mine. He saw me chug the vial, barely keeping the liquid down, then murmur the words. He stiffened as Antonio cursed. Watching my hand glow and hold him down, the image actually getting blurry as my vision dimmed, his breathing faltered just as heavily as mine.

“Let go,” Antonio whispered to the image. “Break it, Lil.”

But I didn’t break it. I hadn’t wanted to. They watched as I continued to give more of myself, giving everything I could to Ezra. The image only cut off when Bindi hit me with the candlestick, her infuriated face the last the image showed.

Silence descended on the room.

Antonio’s chest rose, fell heavily. He glanced at me once before he started pacing the room’s littered floor. “Ezra, search her. See if she has the knocker on her.”

Ezra’s palm moved from my chest, and instantly, I once more felt the rattle of death inside me. Oddly, it didn’t hurt. It was just a bizarre sensation, knowing what it was. I had knocked on death’s door, and death was knocking back. Kind of fitting for how this all started.

“You can’t be serious,” Cahal stated, even as Ezra laid me on the bed and began searching me.

Antonio shot him a special look. “And if it was Ezra in this situation?”

Cahal’s lips thinned, his eyes finding his son. He didn’t speak again.

“Don’t,” I wheezed, “have it.”

Ezra stilled over my boots. “What?”

“She,” I sucked air, “took it.”

He braced his hands on either side of my legs, his glowing green gaze slamming to Antonio. “What now?” He paused. “Can’t I give some of,” his fist rubbed against the middle of his bare muscular chest, “this back?” I wheezed, and he blurred, rapidly lying beside me, his hand back on the center of my chest and giving me peace.