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I stared into the back of his head with fury.
That’s how I saved Logan. I shielded him from death. But it won’t save Daniel.
“My light isn’t working. I need your help again, like what you did before. I need your strength.”I hated asking him for more. The intense sense of him inside me had been amazing and very private. It was odd to ask him to do it again, but I wasn’t asking for me. I was asking for Daniel.
“I am not enough. We need the others,” he said.
I looked back at Daniel. He was now slumping over the door with his eyes closed. His breathing had become even more clipped. His body trembled beneath my hands.
How could it not be enough? His strength appeared never-ending. What he had given me seemed like raw elemental power. There had to be an ounce of it left to save Daniel.
Gray Eyes now refused to acknowledge me altogether. He bowed his head to his chest, keeping his eyes sealed shut.
Logan kept his gaze on the road. “I don’t know what you did to me in that room, but you can take anything you need from me to save him. Just please, fix my brother, Charlie.”
I watched Daniel’s chest with each harsh wheeze, and concentrated on building my light. I placed my hands on his chest. I thought of the way Logan’s tender warmth flowed into me before, and I started to seek it again—
Gray Eyes ripped my hands off Daniel’s chest. “No. You will hurt Logan. Elskan mín, I will help you save him, but this is not the way. Logan and I together cannot provide the strength needed to feed the Valkyrie. Your aether now is nearly a shimmer of what is needed.”
“I did it before without your help,” I said.
“You also didn’t level an entire compound before you changed me,” Logan said. “Hang on Danny, we’re almost there.”
Changed him? What does Logan mean?
The vehicle jarred to the left as we went off the main road, and Gray Eyes started directing Logan. “Go past where the road ends. On the dirt path to the right. Follow it.”
I had never been here before, but I knew we were close to the water. I braced my body over Daniel, gripping the seat as we rammed a metal fence head-on. It crumpled under the force of the monstrosity we drove.
Daniel moaned. I held onto his shoulders, and he jerked forward.
Ahead, a single dilapidated dock remained with a slanted metal awning teetering over it, threatening to tumble to ruins with a soft breeze. It was definitely an abandoned harbor.
Logan yelled, “Please tell me that’s them!”
A few yards from the broken wooden planks, a vibrant sailboat cut through the murky water. Dark, rich wood shone from the distance against the white hull.
“Yes, following the water. They are bringing her in now.” Gray Eyes didn’t wait for Logan to stop. He jumped out of the vehicle and hit the ground running.
We were still moving!
He sprinted toward the boat. As if a rehearsed dance, two ropes swung out from the sailboat. He grabbed both and pulled the boat into the remaining pieces of the mooring.
I turned to Daniel, watching his shallow pants—his skin almost transparent—splotches of blue grew under his eyes. “I’m going to find a way to save you. I promise.”
I had to. He was hurt because of me. In a way, he was an extension of Logan. Even if these friends weren’t strong enough, I’d find a freaking way to build the light within me.
Logan shut off the engine and raced to the side, carefully opening the door. Daniel slid into his arms. Logan’s face twisted into a grimace that must have mirrored my own. My hands slipped off his abdomen. Gray Eyes appeared by Daniel’s other side.
Silently, they both lifted Daniel and carried his limp body to the water.
I looked down at my bare feet, now covered in Daniel’s blood. It coated my arms and hands. Even my stomach and chest were caked in red.
I fell out of the SUV and staggered to the flimsy dock, following the men as quickly as I could force my feet to move. Splinters plunged into my soles. I wobbled on the rotten wood, following Daniel’s drops of blood to the boat.
Without removing my gaze from the ground, I arrived at the white hull.
I came to the edge, where they had managed to carry Daniel. I lifted my eyes to meet a scruffy, wiry warrior with a large nose, wearing black leather armor matching the gray-eyed man. Instead of silver eyes, his were a rich chocolate brown. His chestnut-colored hair tumbled onto his forehead while long arms reached out for me.
