He embraced me, planting a wet kiss on my cheek as he did.
“This night will be over soon, then.”
“Cirian, Azrael, I need your help.”
Our attention turned to Bastien as he lingered over the anima stone.
“My magic is too depleted to give him all that he needs. Since he’s already got the other two stones, I need you both to spare as much as you can. I want to make sure there’s nothing preventing us from bringing him back right now.”
We moved into position, Azrael over Tobias’s chest, while I took his opposite hand, my palm pressing against the cool surface of the gem.
“As much as you can,” Bastien repeated, the sweat on his brow rolling down.
A tether appeared, drawing down from my chest to connect to the hand I used to hold his anima stone. I turned on the tap of my magic, allowing it to pass through the connection. I nearly yelped when I felt the first brush of his consciousness against mine, those lingering bits of his magic that I had called back from the Ether.
This was really happening. Tobias was about to be returned.
Nothing else mattered.
I pushed every bit of magic I could from my veins, wringing it out like a sopping cloth till the tether that ran between us glowed like the sun, blinding in its brilliance.
“That’s it!” Bastien exclaimed, releasing his hold on Tobias’s hand and bending his fingers into a sigil that he passed over the body, his lips forming the words of our salvation with practiced ease.
A sputtered breath was the first sign of life. Then I could feel it—a pulse coming down the tether—a connection long overdue.
His eyes fluttered open, blinking away the months of slumber as his chest expanded with the rhythms of life.
“Tobias!”
I knew not which of us spoke his name first, but each of us continued where the other left off, singing him an appellation chorus that echoed one another till our throats were parched and our tears had run dry. We reached for him, with grasping hands and grieving hearts, and relief that washed over me like a summer rainstorm.
“You’re going to crush me if you keep on,” a hoarse voice came from beneath the jumble of jubilation.
Removing myself from that tangle of limbs and fabric, we each retreated enough to let Tobias breathe. Azrael cradled his back, helping him up into a sitting position. He wouldn’t stop grinning, his gaze drifting back and forth over the lot of us.
Tobias was actually here. The months filled with his absence had stretched far longer than certain years of my life. But the end of that torment had arrived, at the hands of those who loved him most.
“It’s good to see you all,” he spoke, his voice splintered from his long rest. “Especially in the flesh. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get the chance again.’
“You should never have lost faith, Tobi,” I teased, trailing my fingertips down the outline of his arm. “One way or another, we were always going to wake you. Did you think we’d let you go so easily?”
“I knew not the obstacles you’d have to overcome,” he admitted, lips curling in a sheepish grin. “Nor the price that would have to be paid for starting the Second Awakening. But my heart rejoices, knowing that you three have made it through stronger than before.”
“Guess I’ll just be shoving off then,” Lynette piped up, once again attempting to stand and nearly falling from the table. “You don’t need me hanging around to bring down the mood.”
Tobias craned his head, his sights falling on his sister for the first time.
“Lenny,” he muttered, eyes glistening with moisture. “Thank you for waking her, too.”
“Do not praise us yet,” Bastien replied. “She was more trail run than anything else. We had to make sure that the concoction wasn’t going to outright kill you.”
“Except that was exactly what it did to me,” Lynette retorted.
“You came back, didn’t you?” I questioned.
“Let’s not get bogged down by semantics,” Bastien interrupted. “We need to get you two back to my flat before Wilhelm grows wise to us.”
Tobias’s expression shifted towards confusion. “Wilhelm doesn’t know about you waking us?”
