Page 132 of Gates of Rapture
“So that’s the way of it then?”Julianna’s eyes were wide.“You wish to redeem yourself?Greaves said you were immersing in water and trying to get yourself clean.But how does that make up for what you did to me?”Her gaze shifted to Grace.“For how that woman stole you from me.”
Leto’s uneasiness grew.
“Julianna,” Grace said.“I beg you to leave.If you do, all will be well and you can continue your life as it is now.”
“My life?”Julianna said, turning slowly to face her.“You dare to speak to me about my life?Casimir was mine, and you took him from me.You have done this, so you must die.”
Everything happened at once.
Julianna’s wrist flicked, and power flared, more power than Leto had ever seen a Second ascender deliver before.He threw Grace to the pavers and stepped over her body into the blast.
Oh, God, he would die.
But at the last moment, Casimir streaked in Leto’s direction, moving with his Fourth ability, protecting Leto as he had promised to protect him.Casimir took the full blast in the abdomen.
The air smelled of burned flesh.
Julianna screamed long and loud, “No.”Her voice echoed around the garden as she ran toward Casimir.
Leto lifted Grace up.She turned to stare at him.“Are you all right?”
“Yes.Casimir protected me.”
She turned slowly in Casimir’s direction.She put a hand to her mouth, then moved to drop down beside him.“Casimir, you must not die.”She began to weep.
Casimir shook badly as he turned to look at her, then at Leto.He nodded.“Good.You’re all right.”His eyes closed.
Leto glanced at Grace.This was what she had meant, the task that Casimir had been destined to fulfill.Leto would not have survived the blast, and the only way Casimir could have been here to act as a shield was if he had taken Grace to Fourth and been changed by her presence in his life.What had she said?Something to the effect that the only way to keep Leto was to love Casimir.
And now Casimir was dying.
Leto knew he had less than minute to change the future if he could.Whatever animosity he had felt toward Casimir a few months ago had died in the past few days.
He touched Grace on the shoulder.She turned to him weeping, but he said, “Obsidian flame.You can do this.”
She straightened suddenly, as though remembering.She reached toward Marguerite and Fiona.Both women came running and joined her on the ground next to Casimir.Thorne and Jean-Pierre moved with them.“I acquired Horace’s healing ability earlier.I want to try it now.”
Julianna was still kneeling nearby and crying hysterically.But a moment later, at Thorne’s instigation, two Militia Warriors arrived and hauled her away, one on each arm.The trio vanished.
She would see prison time for doing harm against a fellow ascender.
***
Grace was trembling as she put one hand on Marguerite and one on Fiona.As the triad had proven during the spectacle event, touching wasn’t necessary, but right now that’s what Grace wanted.She was freaked; she needed to calm down.
But with the touch, the obsidian power rose, vibrating beneath all of them as they sat grouped around Casimir.She split-self, then jumped inside Fiona who, thank God, was waiting and ready.
The amplification of the healing power began, so that Fiona, possessed by Grace, turned and held her arms above Casimir.He was unconscious now, his body still.Grace felt little life in him—but if ever a power had been designed to do the impossible, obsidian flame was that power.
Healing flowed not in gentle waves, but in massive dips and swells so that Casimir’s body floated above the patio pavers.The smell of burned flesh disappeared first.Then Grace watched the organs re-form and the skin knit together.She remembered her own healing in Leto’s cabin, how swift it was because of Fiona’s ability to enhance a power.
Barely a minute later, Casimir’s eyes opened and he rose to his feet.He stared at his hands and fingers.He felt his stomach.He said something, but she couldn’t quite hear him.
“Casimir, what did you say?”
He turned to her.“Patience.”
Grace shook her head.She wasn’t sure what he meant, but then his eyes were wide.He was still in shock.Suddenly he grabbed her and held on to her.She felt that he was weeping.
