Page 65 of Jacinth

“You’re right.” When no voice carried the words to Orion, I cleared my throat and tried again.

On the second attempt, Orion turned bloodshot eyes on me.

“I’ve been dreading the day you successfully killed yourself for years. I thought we were finally in the clear when Jace came along. Don’t make me lose you too.”

“You won’t,” I promised. I meant it.

For my brothers.

For myself.

CHAPTER 44

Orion

I was not goingto lose this family.

Seeing Skyler’s breakdown in the cemetery, and coming home to Niko on the floor, had been too much of a return to old times.

The times before her.

I refused to believe we had gone through this entire experience to finish up exactly where we had started. She had changed us. All of us, and it was time to fight for her.

Niko’s confession about the spell he and Skyler had found—idiots, the both of them; I would have brought them back to kill them myself if they had tried it (I could do that, you know)—had got me thinking.

A loophole.

Would the Fates like it? Probably not, but we wouldn’t know until they came for us.

Was it worth a shot?

Absolutely.

Especially when I already had everything I needed right in the palm of my hand. I let it glow for a moment, feeling the banked power that trickled into my amulet as my body reached capacity.

I would be using a lot of it today.

Stepping out the front door, everything appeared as it always had. Birds chirped in the trees. The chill of the wind heralded the coming of winter. A dog shifted into a naked man mid-stride and marched up the steps of the house next door. I ambled along, truly appreciating Silver Springs, perhaps for the first time since we arrived.

The place was wacky, but charming. The warmth of the people and the obvious strength of the bonds forged by friendship and love spells gone awry was a welcoming embrace for newcomers and lifelong residents alike.

The shriek of the gate as I pushed my way into the cemetery was like a shop bell, announcing to the dwindling number of undead residents that the living had come to call. I took my shoes off and left them at the entrance, as you would at someone’s house, and padded barefoot through the neatly cut grass to a place that felt more like home than the four walls I had just left.

“Jacinth Livingstone,” I read her grave marker.

It occurred to me that I knew very little of her life before. Who had she been? How had she died? Skyler could probably tell me that, but I found I wanted to hear it from the woman herself.

I sat on her grave and allowed my power to funnel down into the earth. It probably looked like some kind of glow worm, or maybe a star. I let my power build, creating something of a beacon. A signal.

“I knew I’d find you here.” The words were quiet, given the state of the conflict we were in.

“I knew you’d come.”

“Did you?” Alisdair wandered closer until he stood before me. His black boots were covered in grass cuttings, as though he had done a great deal of walking around the grounds. He lowered to his haunches, so we were almost eye level.

“You haven’t had the opportunity to gloat. I wasn’t present when you stole our girl and you couldn’t stand not seeing my reaction. What good is victory if it’s not properly witnessed?”

“How little you think of me.”

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