Kit walked down the center of the street, his hands in his pockets and his badge hanging around his neck, the small shield gleaming. His stare was locked on Xanthe.
Choking on a terrified sob, she sank to her knees.
“Isn’t it fun?” His voice was quiet, devoid of humor or snark. “Messing with people’s minds.”
“Stop it,” she gasped, still clutching her head. “Make it stop. Please.”
He halted six paces away from her. “Not so fun when it’s happening to you, is it?”
“Please,” she whimpered.
I pushed forward. As I lifted my last ruby artifact over my head, I murmured, “Ori decidas.”
I pressed the artifact against the back of her neck, and she crumpled bonelessly. As she thudded to the pavement, Kit pulled a pair of handcuffs from his belt. He snapped them around her wrists.
His blue eyes rose to mine. “You okay?”
I belatedly noticed I was trembling. “Um. More or less. Where did you come from?”
“The precinct?”
“Did you …” I squinted. “What happened with Agent Söze and the damnation order thing?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Ignorance is bliss, my friend. You should go find a healer. I’ll handle her.”
“Oh … yeah, okay.”
In too much pain to press him for answers, I left him with Xanthe and walked back toward the intersection. Sound filtered into my ears, gradually registering in my brain.
Gone were the blasts and screams. Instead, I heard raised voices calling to each other and the occasional clank of steel. No more magic flashed, and dark shapes moved about the intersection with purpose. The other guilds had subdued the last of the cultists.
Was it over? Really, truly over?
Xanthe’s three winged demons lay on the ground, headless and macabre. The silver war hammer was still abandoned on the pavement, its crushing end splattered with rain-streaked blood.
My foot landed on something soft instead of the wet, crunchy grit that coated everything. Purple fabric.
Bending down, I picked up the Carapace. It hung from my fingers in a very mundane way, the fabric shimmery and soft like a blend between cotton and silk, but it didn’t glow or sparkle or float eerily. Regret punctured my numb bubble and I spread the fabric out, my shoulder burning.
An almost indiscernible shimmer ran across the cloak, the faint sparkles dancing like midnight stars.
I lowered the Carapace—and blinked as a thick smear of shadows condensed in front of me.
Zak stepped out of the dark nothingness. His leather jacket was tattered, tears in the fabric wet with blood. His face was pale but his eyes glowed with fierce fae power.
Alarm pricked me. “MPD agents are here. You need to leave.”
“I know,” he said in a low rasp. “I just had to make sure you weren’t dead.”
“I’m not dead.”
“Yes, I noticed.” His eyes flicked over my face. “I’ll see you again.”
It wasn’t quite a question, but his inflection lifted on the last syllable, revealing his uncertainty.
I wanted to ask him what he’d offered Lallakai in exchange for the power to defend my guild. I wanted to demand that she release his body and soul from her heartless talons this very moment. I wanted to beg him to cut ties with the toxic fae forever.
But not only did I have no time to broach those questions, but his problems weren’t mine to solve. As much as I wanted to help him, some burdens couldn’t be shared. Lallakai was deeply entrenched in his life, his past, and his magic, and he was the only one who could change that.
I swept the draping fabric of the Carapace together and rapidly folded it. It compacted into an unnaturally small, heavy square like it usually did.
Grabbing his wrist, I pressed the fae artifact into his palm. “I know you told me to keep this, but you need it more.”
“I already told you I can’t use it without sacrificing—”
I tightened my grip on his wrist. “The day is coming when you’ll need it, Zak.”
His eyes narrowed, and I wondered if I was imagining the flash of anger in them that could only belong to Lallakai. He considered me for a moment longer, then curled his fingers over the artifact.
Releasing his wrist, I threw my arms around him, ignoring the flare of pain in my injured shoulder.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you for protecting my friends.”
His arms wrapped around me and, for two long heartbeats, he crushed me to his chest.
“Come visit me soon,” I added, my throat tight. “Hoshi and I will need a new familiar bond and I want you to do it this time.”
“All right,” he murmured.
I stepped back, a hand on his shoulder as I stared up at his face, hoping Lallakai would hear my next words. “If you need help, I’m always here.”
He nodded. The shadows swirled around him, and Lallakai’s transparent wings lifted off his arms. They swept around him and he vanished.
I gulped my heart down, my hand curled around the purple crystal resting on my chest. I needed to find my ruby fall spells—but first, I needed to locate my three mages.
I turned—and there they were. Ezra, striding toward me through the smoke and rain. Aaron followed him, Kai’s arm over his shoulder as the electramage limped. Scorched, scuffed, bloody, hurting, exhausted. But alive.
My knees weakened with relief. I stumbled forward.
Ezra caught me, sweeping me into him. I buried my face in his shoulder, shaking. Aaron and Kai joined us, standing close, and none of us spoke. We didn’t need to.
We were alive. We were together. That’s all that mattered right now.
A quiet disorder filled the intersection. Bits of debris crumbled off the surrounding buildings, their windows shattered, walls smashed, and burst pipes spewing water onto the already drenched streets. The light rain continued to pepper everything, keeping the merrily dancing flames of many small infernos in check.
Mythics from the Pandora Knights, Odin’s Eye, and the SeaDevils hurried among the injured and fallen, calling for healers or helping battered combatants clamber painfully to their feet. Among the rubble, a handful of Crow and Hammer members who’d waited
