I’m fucking not.
No, he said, a tad impatiently,but by merging, I can wrap incorporeal shadows around your form. It should allow you to get closer without either sensing you.
I hear a “but” in that.
Once youareclose, Orion, thanks to the demon he is bound to, will feel your presence. You will have to react fast.
I sucked in a breath and then nodded.What do I need to do?
Drop all your shields.
Atticus, I can’t?—
I am aware of your inner darkness. It cannot hurt me. Drop your shields.
I hesitated, then one by one, dropped my shields until there was nothing to restrain the darkness. She stirred lightly, but the pulse of life was absent where I was currently hunkered down, and therefore there was nothing to draw her forth. That would change once we got into that room. Orion and Tane might be shielding their magical outputs but their life forces would be flaming hot, even if one was dark and one was light. That didn’t matter to my inner darkness, of course.
And that scared me.
I might no longer be the teenager who’d unwittingly drained away the life of her boyfriend during intimacy, and my control was far deeper—far stronger—these days than it had been back then, but I still feared the nakedness that came without shielding.
And yet, what choice did I have?
None, because Atticus’s being swept into mine, a warm and reassuring force that was also resolute and unyielding. His being might be very familiar, but it was filled with so much magical strength that my innards quivered in awe. I’d always guessed he was powerful, but what I felt now suggested he’d likely been one of the most formidable witches of his era. My inner darkness stirred ever so briefly, then quietened as a thick wave of disorientation swept over me. Sweat broke out across my brow, and my eyes lost focus. I blinked several times; the disorientation growing stronger as a weird sense of displacement crept through me.
It is the incorporeal world stepping into your state of being,Atticus said, his words a soft whisper that nevertheless rattled loudly through my brain.It will cease in a moment.
In the other room, Tane was saying, “You intend to kill her no matter what I do, don’t you?”
“I think we both know it is more than justified. But you can take some peace in the fact I grant her an easier death than you granted my family.”
“Nonsense. I?—”
“I have talked to their souls,” Orion cut in harshly. “I know what you did. Where is the final runestone?”
“Release my daughter, and I will give it to you.”
“You say that like you have any choice in this matter,” Orion said. “Like you could alter the outcome here as easily as you have altered so many other?—”
He didn’t finish. A thick wave of magic erupted, all but setting fire to the air. Orion’s magic responded, thick and heavy with corruption.
Now, Atticus whispered.Sneak in and keep to the left, following the wall around.
I obeyed, my grip on the knife so damn fierce my knuckles glowed. Though the room was shadowed, magic spun like lightning through the air, silver and blood-red flashes whose threads didn’t quite light the shadows I padded through. I could see surprisingly well, but maybe that was due to Atticus’s presence in my mind.
The two of them continued to fight, neither one giving way to the other. But even from where I was, I could see the smile touching Lanie’s lips and realized then Orion was merely playing with the other man; he was intent on stretching the moment out, drawing Tane’s strength away before he brutally cut him totally down and let him suffer.
I had to get to Monica before then.
I continued on, moving quickly but as quietly as possible, my gaze on the supine figure whose blood slowly dripped into a bucket. With my shields gone, her life force should have been a luminescent silver fire that shone so brightly it was almost blinding; instead, it was a dull gray that barely even flickered. There wasn’t enough blood in that bucket to be the cause; it was likely Orion’s use of her as a magical battery. Either way, death was stepping ever closer.
I had to get to her. I might not be able to save her, given how low her lifeforce now was, but I had to at least try.
I hurried on, ducking under the deadly flashes of magic and doing my best to avoid the various bits of litter scattered across the warehouse’s concrete floor, until I was level with the table that held Monica.
To get closer to her, I would have to get closer to the two men and the deadly shards of magic that continued to cut through the air.
Atticus, you need to leave my mind. I need you to run interference if they turn their attacks on me.
