“Of headaches?” Kyrian asks.
“Of magic.” Autumn wrinkles her nose. “They shouldn’t have helped.”
“But they did.” I step closer, trying and failing not to hover over Autumn. Fortunately, she just ignores me as she redoubles her concentration, interrogating Rowan with one rune after another, all sketched in water over bare skin. A line of symbols at Rowan’s ribs, one at each temple, one in the hollow of her throat. The symbols multiply until Rowan looks half-scribed with light, a map of glowing veins etched across her skin. I count breaths, then stop because Rowan’s don’t come steady enough to match.
At last Autumn murmurs something too quiet to catch, brushes her damp thumb across Rowan’s temple, and the last of the light seeps away. My body stills as she lets her hand fall to her lap, focus shifting from Rowan to me.
Kyrian steps up to my shoulder, and so does Logan, shifting back to his fae form in a flash of light. “Have ye figured it out then?” he asks.
“Yes.” Autumn nods. “In short, this girl commandeered more magic than she could control or withstand. The excess never dispersed. It’s blazing inside her, drawing on her life to survive and attacking her in return because it has no escape.”
“But you can release it?” I say.
“Not without killing her immediately." Autumn’s gaze softens, which makes my heart stutter. Whatever she is about to say next won’t be good news. “The magic will keep attacking her until it runs out of fuel to sustain itself. And since it feeds on her essence?—”
“- it only runs out of fuel when she dies,” I finish for Autumn as ice slithers all through my veins. “What if you use me? Connect us in a way that lets me share the load.”
“Then Rowan dies and you die,” Autumn answers without missing a beat. As if she'd known I’d ask. “There is too much magic for even you to ground safely.”
My upper lip curls away from my teeth. “You can’t know that for certain.”
“Yes, actually I can.” Autumn stands, dusting drops of water from her pants. “You’d be amazed at how many things one can know when one calculates them.”
“And you’ll be amazed at?—”
“ -what if it's three?” Logan says, cutting me off.
“Three what?” Autumn asks.
“What if it’s not just Kai sharing the load, but all three of us?” Logan steps forward. Prowls actually. “Can she survive if all three of us connect to her?”
Autumn frowns. “Theoretically.”
“I’m in,” Logan says without hesitation.
“As am I,” Kyrian and I say together.
“Stop.” Autumn puts up her hand, palms out, sparks playing about her knuckles. “Let’s clear a few things up. This isn’t a simple relay of energy. You wouldn’t be carrying her power like water in a bucket. You’d share her current, your body a pathway for her very lethal magic.”
“But she would live?” says Logan.
Autumn bends in her fingers until only two remain up. “Second, a connection like this isn’t temporary, reversible, or tidy. It’s a bond. A merging of life essence. The new pathways would be permanent.”
“How do we do it?” I ask.
Autumn gives me a glare and holds up a third finger. “Third, I can’t begin to predict the long term effects. What happens when you walk in different directions? Will you tolerate a league of distance? An ocean? A foot? How long will a fae’s essencetolerate mingling with a human’s? What of your draken bonds? And, frankly, what happens if one of you dies?”
Kyrian opens his mouth but Autumn points her finger at his chest before he can utter a word. “And lastly, even split four ways, this magic is dangerous. It may kill all four of you. Or change you in ways none of us can anticipate. And there will be no way of turning back if you discover you don’t like it after all.”
She lets her hands drop, the sparks vanishing like mist. Silence stretches, the pounding of my heart so loud in my ears I can barely think over the sound.
“Do you now see why this can’t be done?” Autumn says all too gently.
Logan scratches the back of his head. “Actually, ma’am, I was just waiting for you to run out of fingers to count on.”
Chapter 22
Logan
