I suck in a relieved breath. “And the others?”
“I created a shield around them.”
My jaw drops into an O. “You did that while fighting?” The amount of power that would require… I always knew Caden was strong. It is why my father had me marry him, but that level of magic – No, the ability tocontrolthat much… My hands fist as shame fills me. I barely tapped into mine, and I lost control nearly instantly.
He nods. “Which is why it flickered from time to time, allowing a few to break free.” His face grows grim. “But Iwouldn’t have been able to keep that up for long.” When he cups my cheek, I lean into his touch. “You saved us, Sau.”
I swallow and glance away briefly before looking at the space between us, but he is so close, I can’t inspect him thoroughly. I do catch the smell of blood though. My heart twists. “I nearly killed you,” I whisper.
“You did no such thing.”
My heart breaks at his lie. I want to believe him, but the memory of his scream, that horrible, twisted cry of agony where he believed he was going to die… I hear his mouthed, “I love you.” His acceptance of that, his want to protect me from my own guilt even as he sufferedbecause of me…
But before I can open my mouth and tell him just how much he means to me, that I love him too, more so than even before, the door bangs open and the smell of copper hijacks the air.
“Myers!” I shout as he staggers in, one hand clutched to his side, soaked and dripping red. But even if his palm managed to stop the blood from leaving him there, heiscovered in a dozen more wounds. A bite on his shoulder. Claw marks across his chest. A knife still embedded in his thigh.There isn’t an inch of him free of blood.
“I know...you don’t know how to control...your magic,” he says as he drags one foot in front of the other. Caden stands and hurries to him, catching him just as he falls. “But I figured...might as well try...on a dying man.”
“No!” I scramble out of bed, my muscles moving on pure adrenaline despite the screaming aches building all over my body. “You’re not dying!”
“Sau,” Caden cautions as I draw near. “You could make it worse. I’ll get Louise.”
The woman who failed to save my brother after he lost his arm.Myers might have all of his appendages still, but I can’t believe he’s in any better shape than Luther was.
“No,” I say as I drop to my knees beside them and holdmy hands out over his side. “She can’t handle this…”
“You’ve never done anything like this.”
“I healed my tongue.” I don’t know if I actually did. If it was me or Caden reattaching all that was severed. But I have to be able to do this. I was toldeveryonewas okay. I know Caden meant just thosewho’d been inthe kitchen, but I want him toalsohave meant Myers. He is the last of Caden’s family.He is my family too.
He stares at me, and I will him to believe in me. I need my husband’s support in this, though I will do it without. Myers is fading quickly. I can feel his life leaving him, feelhis body shutting down as the blood rushes from him in so many places.
So many…
Too many...
I can’t do this.
I jump at the feel of Caden’s hands on mine. He holds them both, and I only then realize just how much they’re shaking.
“Breathe, my sweet Sau,” he murmurs, his voice calm and showing none of the panichammering away in my chest. “Feel the magic inside you. It’s strong, and it’s a part of you. Just like your breath, it fills you, but it moves like a phantom dancing beneath your skin.”
I swallow as I turn my concentration inwards, trying to feel it moving. At first I don’t feel anything other than the rapid thudding of my pulse and the ticking clock that is Myers’ life. Panic explodes at the thought of him bleeding out while I play savior. This isn’t the time to be learning. I open my mouth to shout for Louise when Ifeelit.
That quick two-step in my chest, a flashy twirl that demands my attention.Don’t call her. Use me.
Pressing my lips together, I concentrate on following those footsteps down inside me. It is like...feeling a breeze inside a cave you have been lost in for hours. That slightbrush against your skin, raising hairs even though you’re not quite sure if the wind is really there. If it’s real, or if it’s just hope. It is that shattering of a broken heart. That desperation to win the bet. The gut feeling that something is wrong. All abstract things that aren’t physically firing across your nerves but you feel all the same. Magic is like nothing I can properly explain, but it feels likeme.
For the first time, I embrace it, joining it in its waltz rather than simply throwing open the floodgates and letting myself get sucked up in its current.
My hands start to glow with a bright light, and Caden straightens as he holds me. I can feel my power seeping into him, feel the wounds he’s hidden under bandages and a change of clothes knitting together beneath dried blood. I gasp as an acidic taste of...infection?...fills my tongue and churns my stomach.
He tries to pull away, guiding my hands to his brother, but I twist my wrists to lock my fingers with his. That tentacle secreted a poison inside him. It’s filling his blood, pumping through his heart, killing him without him even knowing.I latch onto it, my body shaking.
“I’m fine, Sau.”
I ignore him, knowing he’s not.