Page 19 of A Lost Light

Dyre brushed past us to get to the hallway, muttering something about getting some spell supplies and books to take with us. I don't think I was the only one who noticed that his cheeks were colored with a bit of purple, like a faint imitation of a deathly blush.

Once Dyre vanished around the corner at the end of the hall, Andy turned back to me and arched a brow. “You okay?” she asked, direct and annoyingly perceptive as always.

I glared. “Why wouldn't I be?”

She just continued to stare at me, and I felt all of my old defenses crumbling away. “It was… strange. And I behaved like an idiot. I was pathetic. I have no idea why he is so kind. It's disgusting.”

She silently laughed at me. “See?” she finally huffed out. “I told you he was good people. No one wanted to believe me.”

I studied my claws. “You might, possibly,maybebe partially correct.”

Then I did the hard thing and forced myself to be serious. “I don't know why I feel drawn to him. But things went… further… than I am used to. And it was good. It was awful and embarrassing, and I want to erase myself from existence. But I didn't self-destruct. I didn't panic.” Too badly, anyway. “And no one died. It was good.”

I finally met her eyes again, a bit afraid of what I might see there. Would she be hurt that I had kept her at a distance, but let Dyre have this much of me? I hadn't meant to. It had just felt right this time. Probably because of how patient and understanding Andy had been with me all this time.Gah. Feelings. I hated them.

The gray eyes that met mine were full of understanding, and Andy seemed nothing but genuinely happy for me. “I'm glad you felt that comfortable, Aahil,” she said, and there was no lie to be found in her words. “These things move at their own pace, and in their own time. I'm not mad at you for choosing Dyre, if that's what you're worried about. I don't own him. Or you. Or anyone in this damned monstrosity of a house. I only want us all to be happy.” She sighed. “And I know we've all been kind of wrapped up with Elijah.”

She didn'tsayany more. But I got the gist. She knew I was feeling left out. I would never live this down. I nodded, unable to form words past the stupid lump in my throat.

Reminding myself who I was, I straightened my spine and pushed off the door frame, pulling Andy down to me for a soft kiss. “I am trying,” I murmured against her lips. “I am trying to be a better person. To be awholeperson. But it seems this is more work than I had anticipated. I don't know how anyone does it. The world should, by all rights, be filled with nothing but crazy people. It's far too much work to stay sane.”

She kissed the tip of my nose, then my forehead. “I know,” she said wryly. “It fucking sucks trying to figure out who you are and what you really want in life. Let alone what's right and wrong. That, I can fully relate to.” Stuffing her hands in the pockets of her jeans, she nodded her head at the hallway where Dyre had disappeared, toward the stairs. “Wanna go practice fucking shit up using unstable stolen magical artifacts?”

I grinned. “Absolutely, witch. Lead on.”

Chapter 10

Andy

Itook a deep breath and glanced at the people around me. It was hard to believe that for most of my life, I had felt so utterly alone. My boring life before the bestiary seemed distant and faded now. And it was all because of the weirdos currently standing beside me, in an open plain at the foot of a mountain in a far corner of Magea.

I loved them all, damn it. And now we were about to go fucking around with something we shouldn't, playing with magic that could end up getting us killed. All to save the fucking useless world from itself.

It didn't seem like a fair trade to me. If it were up to me alone, in my more bitter moments, I would say that any one of my partners was worth a million faceless people. But that sounded a little too selfish—a little tooLovell—for my tastes. So, here we were, about to experiment with a couple of powerful magical artifacts.

I shifted the wide strap of the carrying case across my shoulder and surveyed the scenery. The heavy box that contained the amplifier was slung against my hip, while Dyre carried thenullifier. Both artifacts were encased in wards and protective magic. It seemed the angels had built on the containment magic Dyre and Sunny had created for the SA the first time the nullifier was briefly in our possession. While the orbs were in their cases with the lids shut, there was hardly a trickle of magic from them. But once we opened the boxes and essentially switched off the wards, we'd be playing with fire.

Bella had chosen the meadow where we currently stood for our little experiment. She assured me—using more of her ridiculous code—that we were at least a hundred miles away from civilization here, in the center of territory owned and guarded by a clan of fae who werenotsympathetic to either the SA or the witch supremacists. We would be as free from prying eyes as it was possible to be. And if someonedidhappen to scan the area at this exact moment and notice a massive magical surge, they would probably chalk it up to fae nonsense. Which would hopefully give us long enough for us to scamper back to the relative safety of our little pocket world.

“Okay, how do we wanna do this?” I asked, as if I wasn't terrified. I had come up with averycrazy way to use the nullifier and the amplifier in tandem—in theory—but we had agreed that we should probably get a feel for how they both worked individually before we started asking for trouble by combining things.

Dyre moved out into the open area, the tall grasses and wildflowers swishing against his long legs as he took the strap off his shoulder and found a good place to set the box he carried. “Let's start with the nullifier,” he said evenly, a scientist in his element. The necromancer loved fiddling with strange magic. It was kind of his whole… schtick.

I left him to it, taking myself well away from him and the nothing bomb. I had experienced that thing the first time we borrowed it from the angels, and again when the SA used itagainst us and nearly murdered us all. I wasn't in any rush to feel that powerless again, thanks.

Finding a relatively flat spot in the grass, I plopped down, holding the box with the unopened amplifier on my lap. One thing we had all agreed on—these babies never left our sight. Someone was to have a hand on the artifacts at all times. It would just be too fucking easy for some SA or cult asshole to dart in out of nowhere and grab them. Even here. They had a habit of popping up like a zit on my left butt cheek whenever I least expected it.

The others joined me as Dyre crouched down in the grass, intent on his task. He murmured the release words and carefully unlatched the box that held the nullifier. The effect was immediate. I could see it even from a distance. Dyre's dark aura dimmed to almost nothing as the nullifier stripped away most of his magic. Only the age and power of the evil being lurking inside him allowed him to keep even a tiny portion of his magic. And I had a feeling that the longer he was in contact with the artifact, the more that little bit of reserve would leak away.

I curled my fingers into my palms, my nails biting into the flesh. I did not want to think about what would happen if Sunshine's magic disappeared completely. It was the only thing keeping Dyre alive… though I still wasn't sure if Dyre knew that…. Maybe I should tell him? But Sunny wanted to leave him that last bit of dignity. I would have to just trust that the wraith knew its own limits.

“Oh.” Elijah's voice wavered as he sat down suddenly, his ass finding the ground with far less grace than he was capable of, the glow of his wing branches dimming.

Yeah, another potential reason for concern. The necromancer's magic was also what was keeping Elijah alive. The angel held a hand to his chest as if he was willing his heart to keep beating. I tried to ignore how different he looked with everypassing day. But it was hard not to notice, even in a situation like this. Elijah was taller now, his body slowly morphing over the days, leaving him with broad shoulders that tapered to a narrow waist. His brown hair had slowly turned a stunning shade of shiny gold. And his handsome face was chiseled perfection. Would his body revert back to its natural state, leaving nothing of Elijah behind if he lost his connection to Dyre?

I tore my eyes away from him and stuffed down my stupid, maudlin thoughts. “Dyre! Close it up or get out of range. You're freaking me the fuck out over here!”

He stood and brushed back a few long tendrils of hair that had escaped the braid he wore today. His stride was slow and even as he made his way over to us, but I thought maybe the speed was to hide how wobbly he felt. “You know the rule,” he told me and the others. “Someone needs to be near the artifact at all times.” He grimaced. “And we need to know how it effects each of us, so we can be prepared. Who wants to go next?”

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