“Shame,” Terric called to me from a far, far distance.
I wanted more to kill. I was not nearly done destroying. I wanted Eli.
Then Terric staggered to stand in front of me. Blood on his face, bullets in his chest, where his hand was clamped, the glow of yellow-white healing unable to stop the bleeding. His other hand was extended to one side, holding a spell there.
A bruise covered his temple to neck, but his blue eyes were so very, very sane.
“It’s over,” he said quietly, his words resonating in my blood, in my bones, in the core of me where something more than death used to dwell. “Come back to me.”
He put his hand against my heart. Where my heart should be.
Unafraid. Touching me should be his death.
But he was Terric.
He was my brother.
I would be his death someday.
Today was not that day.
“Let it go,” he said, still there, resonating deep inside me, coaxing out the shredded remains of me that was not death. “We will kill him. I swear. But I need you clear, Shamus. Come back to me. Please.” He swallowed, and I could taste his sorrow, his fear. “God, I can’t lose you.”
It wasn’t magic that made me let go of the death I clung to.
It was his words.
It was Terric.
I tipped my head down, fingers splayed to the floor. But I could not force myself to let go of magic.
Terric wrapped his hand around my wrist. Life magic burned strong in that grip.
I released the Death magic. It blasted into the metal floor, melting it, pouring out of me like a rush of blood and fire from my veins.
It took time. A lot of time before I noticed the room had no magic raging through it.
It took even more time before I noticed Davy was gone. The gate he had been dragged through was closed.
We had failed to kill Eli.
We had failed to save Davy.
And Dessa. . . .
I looked over at where she had been, hoping. That she was all right. That Terric had reached her soon enough to heal her. That her spirit had lingered behind for me.
But she was gone. Not even the ghost of her remained.
I was unable to move. Unable to think. The world took on soft edges and retreated so far away I couldn’t feel the floor beneath my feet, couldn’t feel my body, couldn’t feel my breath.
“Are you all right?” Terric asked.
“Yes,” I said, the words dust in my mouth. “I am fine.”
“I need you to help me get Brandy to safety. Shame, are you listening to me?”
He reached out this time and put his hand on my arm. It took me a minute, but I finally realized he was steadying himself with that grip. Leaning on me.
Because he was very, very injured.
The world came slamming back into me.
Edges, pain, heat, odors, heartbeats crashed down.
“There you are,” Terric said, his voice no longer soft and close, but rough and worn as if he’d been screaming this whole time. “We need to get out of here. I can’t. I can’t do this without you.”
His left hand pressed tightly against his stomach. Holding back the bleeding there. He was also supporting a second spell. I had seen him cast it, but I didn’t know what it was.
“You’re shot. Jesus, Terric, you’ve been shot.”
He nodded. “I can keep my insides stable with magic. Think I have about half an hour left before I pass out, and that might be a problem. But hey—the hospital’s right up the hill. If it’s still standing.”
He took a breath, a little too much rattle in it. Licked his lips. “Listen to me, Shame. Don’t drift off. We need to get back to the car. All of us. I need your help with her, because I can’t keep this up forever.”
He turned his head. I looked that way.
The “her” was Brandy Scott, surrounded by an Illusion spell. She stood just a few feet away from us, rocking softly back and forth. She still had her IV bag but didn’t seem to notice it in her hand.
“What. The. Hell?” Too much had happened. I couldn’t put all the events in the right order in my head. “Jesus Christ, Terric. Did you save Brandy? Did you fucking do what Eli told you to do? You could have saved Davy. You could have killed Eli.”
“I . . . wasn’t in my right mind.” The hurt from admitting that crossed his eyes. “All that mattered was calculating the correct outcome. Taking her was the correct outcome. I wanted to save Davy, but the magic . . . it took everything to hold it, manage it through the pain.”
I knew what he was saying. The monster in him had taken over. Life magic had chosen who to save, no matter what he wanted. Heartless. Cruel. Inhuman. He had saved Brandy and not Davy. Not our friend.
“How?” I asked.
“I cast an Illusion to hide her. To replicate her where they expected her to be. They’ll know she’s missing in the next half hour too, if I pass out. Or when the spell fades. She’s our bargaining chip, Shame. She’s how we’re going to find Eli. She’s how we’re going to kill him.”
I stood there. Couldn’t get my brain clear enough to know whether I should yell at him or hug him. That was a staggering amount of magical finesse and strength under any circumstance. But with Void stone bullets digging through his gut, and the rest of the magical bombardment, it had taken incomprehensible skill. I didn’t know anyone in the world other than Terric who could have pulled it off.
“I can’t touch her,” I said flatly. “I’ll kill her between one heartbeat and the next.”
“All right,” he said. “I’ll lead her, but if I pass out . . .”
“No guarantees I’ll catch her, and not hurt her. I . . . can’t.”
I waited as Terric said calm things to Brandy. He put his hand softly on her arm and took a step.
She followed along without question.
Chapter 30
The room looked like a goddamn war zone. I crossed it. Out the blown hatch, and down the hall. I knew the way, but Eleanor was in front of me, making it very clear which way I should go, which was probably for the best.
The warehouse was how we had left it. Except for the eight dead gunmen. They were gone. Krogher, or whoever was behind this operation, had done the work to erase their tracks.
The car was also where we left it.
There didn’t appear to be any traps set on it. Which meant either they didn’t care that we had escaped or they didn’t think that we would.
Terric got Brandy into the backseat and eased in next to her. I stood there for a little too long, trying to decide if I could do this. If I could face living.
“Shame. Please,” Terric said.
I got into the driver’s seat, glanced in the rearview mirror. Terric’s eyes were closed. He was pale, bloody, burned, and sickly green around the edges. His head rested on the back of the seat, but he was in a lot of pain.
“You still with me, Ter?” I asked.
“Always,” he said. “Doctor might be nice, though.”
I heard sirens. Fire trucks, I thought. Coming our way.
So I drove up to the main complex that I had not destroyed. Parked in the garage. Got out of the car. I didn’t
