Ellie.
Even from there, he could see the gun barrel she had trained on Ciara Costas.
Ellie had forced Mrs. Costas to stop the fighting? Stopping the fighting was something Ellie would have risked her life to do, but capitulating didn’t seem like something Ciara would have done. Not even with a handgun at her temple.
It wasn’t. Carter barely had time to form the opinion when he heard a loud grunt, almost a shout, a cry of surprise. He spun towards it, a wave of sickness slamming his gut, knowing already whose voice it was.
Sean. Sean stood there, both hands on his belly, blood pouring out. Next to him stood Nosizwe who, even as Carter spun to look, was shifting back from her Impundulu form into her human self. He caught the quickest glimpse of blood on a bird’s beak, and then Nosizwe stood there, wiping blood from her mouth, almost glowing with triumph.
“Backstabbing bitch,” Sean ground out. Carter’s gaze assessed his boss’s wound as he dashed towards him.
“You shouldn’t have let your wife throw you off guard,” Nosizwe sneered. “All’s fair in love and war, Sean. You know the saying.”
They’d been up against each other when the song drifted into the chaos, temporarily calming it. Beneath Ciara’s spell, Sean had stopped just long enough for his rival to take advantage of the situation. And gut him, like she’d gutted Ellie down in the Pit. Sean’s hands were pressed to his belly to hold in his entrails, but it didn’t take a doctor to see that he wasn’t going to make it. Unless…
Carter, who had been double-teamed during the fight and separated from Sean, now ran towards his boss. Could he do it? Could he get Sean to the otherworld, where there was magic, healing magic? If only the unicorn shifters were here, but they hadn’t been at the compound earlier today when Sean and he were choosing who to bring tonight. Sean didn’t have a chance unless Carter could figure it out, could get him to the other world, could find the healing water, could…
He pushed through the crowd gathered around the dying man and sank next to his boss. Sliding a hand under his head, he said, “Hang on, Sean. Hang on. We’ll get through this.”
“How?” He heard Nosizwe’s laugh from somewhere above him. “He’s done for and you know it, Ballis. He knows it too.”
Sean’s eyes were full of hate, but there was resignation there too. “Don’t…let…her…win,” he groaned, clutching at Carter’s shoulder. “Don’t.”
Carter had never seen such raw hatred, ever, from anyone.
“Jackson…not…to—to Ciara,” he went on. Blood trickled from the corners of his mouth, soaking his beard. “Her cap…don’t…let her...”
A weak cough choked off whatever he’d been trying to say, but Carter could guess the gist of it.
“Stop,” he told Sean, who was still clinging to life. “You’re not going to die here.”
Sean smiled, or tried to. “Carter…man c-couldn’t have had…better…like a son…”
Like a son…
Hot tears crowded Carter’s vision, but he angrily dashed them away with a knuckle, looking towards the Stones. He hadn’t been able to open them before. Maybe he hadn’t used enough blood. He’d slice the vein over his heel for Sean like he had for Ellie if it would work. He could try it. He could—
“Carter.” His head snapped up at a familiar voice, a hand on his shoulder. Ellie stood there, a look of shock and horror and also a little sadness on her face. “You need this,” she said, carefully drawing the sword from his belt where he’d jammed it when the onslaught started. Earlier, he’d had to make a split-second decision, and that decision was that he could fight better as the Talos than trying to wave some magic sword around. He’d hastily secured it, then forgotten about it. Now Ellie tugged it free, placed it in his hands.
“I get it now,” she said. “The Stones let you open them before because you had to get into that world to get this. To get the other Stone. Remember? The one the angel gave us that brought us back home? I have it here.”
From her pocket, she produced the miniature Stone, an exact replica of the much larger ones. He’d left it at the detective’s house with her, not thinking much about it. Now Ellie offered it to him, along with the sword.
“Also, the Stones opened then because that’s what you wanted—to save me. You didn’t really want to open them tonight. You were being forced to. That’s why the magic didn’t work. I think there was something else, though. I think these are the key pieces that you’ve been missing. The final two Stones that everyone’s been searching for. Only they’re not actually Stones, like people have believed for centuries. They’re these. That’s why the other two Stones were never found. They were still in the other world. Nosizwe was right that putting the Stones together and using your blood would do something. It did. It led to finding these.”
He stared at her offering—the sword, the miniature Stone—trying to compute what she was saying while his brain was consumed with Sean lying there, bleeding out.
“The blade has writing on it, the same writing as the Stones,” Ellie explained. She touched his chin, forcing his gaze to hers, forcing him to re-direct his focus. “I bet if we put it with the Stones we have here, it would be the final piece of the entire puzzle.”
Hope lit a flame in his chest.
“Take the sword and open the Stones,” she urged. She gestured towards Sean. “Maybe it won’t be too late.”
That was it. That was all he needed. Carter sprang to his feet, grabbing her hand.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“I’m not leaving you here,” he growled, pulling her along. She didn’t resist, but they’d only managed a few steps before Nosizwe stepped into his path, intercepting him.
“You’re not doing this,” she said.
Carter resisted the urge to shift into the Talos and gift her with a haymaker. Send her reeling. Rip her head off. Tear her
