A tear trickled down my cheek. “What if –”
“Don’t chicken out on me now.”
I wanted to elbow him in the gut. He sensed it and tensed, but I felt him smile against my ear. “I’m the healer, remember?” he said. “Trust me.”
That’s right. He was the healer. His overbearing caveman act had made me forget that he was born to do this. Relaxing into him, I tried to do as he asked. With each piece of Basil’s soul that I released and bound with my magic to Skander’s body, I thought of a memory that I would always attribute to him.
That second when I’d open my bedroom door for the first time and Sophie had come out screaming with him at the end of a pair of tongs. The nights I’d stayed up sleepless and he had taught me to work on my blood magic. The time he stood up for me when Kai was being a jerk. How he tried to look after Nanna when we found her. While I bound his soul, Kai’s green magic repaired Skander’s body.
I almost jumped out of my skin when Skander’s chest rose and fell for the first time on its own. His wrung neck untwisted. I bit my tongue to keep from gagging. And then there were no more pieces of soul left. I hoped I’d gotten them all, but I couldn’t be sure.
I was so weak that I couldn’t get up on my own. Even still, I resisted it when Kai slipped his arm under my knees.
“I can –”
He ignored me. My eyelids drooped. “Sophie,” I said. She came up and clutched my hand. “Your parents.”
“They’re okay.”
“The Council?”
“They seem to be intact.”
“Damn.”
I wasn’t sure whether she was laughing or crying. My eyes closed.
44
I was so tired of waking up in the infirmary. Somehow my life had become a revolving nightmare of injury and pain. When I blinked back the grittiness, I came face to face with light brown eyes that still shocked me. Skander’s face. My immediate reaction was a startled gasp followed by the near construction of a protection circle. It was the way those eyes peered at me with a familiar curiosity and…wonder…that had my hand stilling.
“I can’t get used to it either.” Sophie slotted her fingers into mine. I wasn’t sure if it was for comfort or to stop me lashing out. The bemused smile on her face said it was probably both. The room was crammed tighter than a city train station platform. Sophie’s parents were there as well as Diana, Jacqueline, Cassie, Charles, Luther, and Professor Mortimer. There were also two Nephilim guards backed right up against the walls of the room. Through the glass I saw another guard leaning against the door outside. Whether they were here because of me or because of the vessel that had once been Skander Rameros was the question.
I noted the absence of Kai even as I couldn’t take my eyes off the stranger in the armchair beside my bed. My mind tried to wrap around the notion of a transmutation of souls. Then it tried to puzzle out the notion that I had made this happen. I swallowed hard. My throat was drier than a sun-soaked desert.
“Maybe we should give you two a minute,” Nora said. I opened my mouth to stop everyone from leaving me in the room with a serial killer. My jaw snapped shut when Skand – Basil’s slim shoulders curled.
Sophie leaned in close. “Kai’s in the next dorm healing some of the wounded. I’ll let him know you’re awake.” I touched my nose where I’d effectively punched myself while Giselle was in my body. It was completely healed. Sophie was the last one out. She closed the door softly behind her. Nora had made a forceful motion at the guards who both eyed me and Basil before they reluctantly left as well. He cleared his throat. I let my gaze settle on anything but the dark stubble on his chin. Inside, I was freaking the heck out.
“I’m still the same person,” Basil said. His voice was jarring. Basil’s doll voice had a slightly uptilted British accent. Skander’s words rolled off his tongue in a Spanish tone. I actually couldn’t figure out which I liked better. It was far more sophisticated than what I considered to be my harsh Australian accent.
“Lex.” The way he said my name made my face crumble. It was like we were strangers. My vision disintegrated in a wave of hot tears. When I heard the leather groan like he was about to get up to comfort me, I curled into the foetal position and covered my head with my arms. Thankfully, he knew better than to touch me. The tears slid down my face until my cheek was mashed against a damp patch of mattress. My chest contracted as I tried to come to terms with the fact that I’d bound his soul into a dead man’s body.
“I’m sorry,” I sniffed. Even though I wasn’t sure why I was so emotional, I just couldn’t stop crying. In my mind, I saw a pair of depthless blue eyes set against yet another perfect face. Azrael’s mouth was a grim line as his cowl wavered against his angular face. He stood beside the banks of a silent river, his expression closed over. The water in the river was dark. It lapped at the shore but made no noise. When I looked down into its body, it appeared like the cresting curl of serpents. Looking back, I knew now they were souls he was ferrying.
