Page 127 of Rose and Shadows
“But with you spending so much time working with Sylas lately, you’ve picked up a great deal more knowledge in that area.”
He lifted a shoulder.
“A Blood Trace. That’s the other way,” I stated.
“Something that won’t even be entertained beyond theoretical state.”
“You’re about logic, not emotion.”
“Correction: Iwas.I’ve struck a much better balance now.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Sylas wouldn’t want this, sweetheart.”
“It could find him without any of the rest of this.”
“Technically, yeah. But it would also alert Morien, which could cause a knee-jerk reaction that could severely harm, if not kill, Sylas. Not to mention, to perform this spell it would have todraw from your unborn child’s blood. Even with you to absorb the toll of such a spell, it’s still brutal. You’ve seen it performed on Lazriel and he can take an inordinate amount of pain. We’re not just dealing with you here, it’s what the child can take before… before the damage is irreparable and even fatal. The risk is too high.”
“There’s no way to do it without it being so brutal, to shield my baby?”
“No.”
He wasn’t telling the whole story.
Which meant, there might be, but it would require experimentation, which was a danger in itself. And I’d never allow a child of mine to be experimented on.
“You don’t want this either, you wouldn’t allow this, so why bring it up?” he asked me.
“Like we said, it’s not just us who will come to realize this is an option.”
His gaze softened. “You won’t be forced into anything, the baby neither.”
A flash of blue hair caught my attention before Nyx rushed out, headed toward us. “Damn fucking straight it won’t,” he said, almost seething with it. “The number of us powerful beings anyone would have to go through to force that… there’s no way in hell.”
I smiled out at him and he came to me and wrapped his arm around me.
“There’s always gonna be crisis situations like this, situations where the stakes are sky-high. But there has to be a line when we make decisions in the midst of the madness,” Kai spoke. “If we cross those lines, we betray ourselves, we lose our humanity, and nothing and no one is safe or sacred. That’s an unacceptable state of affairs. It’s not about doing whatever it takes, consequences be damned, just because we can with thepower and knowledge we hold—it’s making the hard choices as to when we shouldn’t. When we should pull back and hold the line.”
“Wow,” Nyx breathed. “I can’t imagine you saying this a couple of years ago.” He grinned. “Proud of you, brother.”
“Live and learn, right?” Kai looked out at me, determination flaming in his eyes. “Sylas is one of the hardest motherfuckers in the entire supernatural world to put down. We all know this, it’s just getting lost in the chaos surrounding us, in the stakes attached to his kidnapping. To permanently put down a necromancer of his caliber… even with Morien in the picture wielding black magic and Celestial power… Sylas will be far from helpless.” He tapped his head. “It’s not just his power, because, yeah, that could be compromised right now. It’s his mind.”
“And his insane level of stubbornness—and arrogance,” Nyx cut in, offering some light humor in the face of it all.
Kai’s lips quirked. “Well, there’s a reason why he and I hit it off so well.”
A small laugh escaped me. “Yeah.”
Nyx eased from me and asked Kai, “Ready to get back to it now? You’re calmer.”
He was reading him.
Kai nodded, his gaze flicking to me. “We just both needed a reality check and a moment to step outside the intensity. Yes?”
“I’m good.Thrynewill be here soon and I’ll have them working the Dark Fae angle.”
“Very good,” Kai said. “You’ll keep busy working on your elixir to heal Darethor?”
“I will. And the grimoire you gave me when we got here is helpful in figuring out how to draw out the damage safely. Something I can use my abilities to do… the storage issue was the problem.”
“Once I’m done with this, I’ll give you a hand. If you need it. The way I’ve heard it, especially after what you were able to achieve atSanctum Sands Beach, you’re capable of a great deal, especially when it comes to magical workarounds.”
