Page 92 of The Aether

Moving to Morcant, Damian gripped the wrist with the knife, hauled back, and hit him with the force of a battering ram. His head snapped back with a crack. Neck broken, his head lolled to one side and any sign of life drained from his eyes. That Morcant would stay dead was a pipe dream, but it gave Damian working room.

“Can you decimate his soul?” Castor asked somberly.

“I can try. If it’s sewn to his body, as I suspect, it will take more than my magic.”

Easing the arm with the knife away from Sabrina’s throat, Damian shoved Morcant away from her. His body fell against the wall and slid down to rest next to another.

Vivian.

Vacant eyes stared through him at nothing.

Stomach churning, he ripped his gaze away and cradled Sabrina’s youthful face between his large palms. “How long has your mother been that way?”

A single tear escaped down her creamy cheek.

Too long.

“I see.”

Inside, his heart crumbled to ash and his broken soul howled its grief. Outside, he remained stoic. He didn’t have a choice.

Unable to disguise the anguish completely, his voice was raspy when he asked Castor, “Who’s there with you?”

“Rorie.”

Christ alive!

They needed either the Healer or to use the services of the Death Dealer, like Damian had planned to do for Vivian, but Trevor, like the rest of their crew, was a human statue. The whole goddamned situation was like a Jenga puzzle. One wrong block removed, and the entire thing would crumble. But where to start?

“Beastie, tell me what I should do.”

“I can hold it longer, Papa.”

“You shouldn’t have to. Mack and Fintan have it covered. I’ll send the Siren to—” Prepared to address Narissa and Jordan, Damian shifted as he spoke, immediately discovering their movements were locked, too.

“How?” he muttered to himself. They hadn’t been there initially when time was halted. They shouldn’t be party to the effect. “And how is it possible those two can hold it for this long?”

It defied reason.

“The Goddess,”Sabrina’s voice whispered through his mind.

Closing his eyes, Damian sent out feelers through the base of the tunnels and upward, through the building. Oddly, he felt no human life above their level other than his three team members.

“Uh, Beastie? Where are the humans?” He pointed up.

“I sent them to the docks, Papa.”

“Sent them, as in mentally instructed them to go?”

She gave a slight shake of her head.

The blood drained from his face. Lightheaded, he croaked, “Please don’t tell me you teleported a building full of people in the middle of the afternoon.”

Sabrina crinkled her nose and dropped her gaze to her dusty shoe.

The Fates would kill her for certain.

CHAPTER32

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