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“What do I have to give you?”
We had almost reached the stairs into the castle, and he offered me a hand to help me over Parker’s fallen body.
“You must know a power this great doesn’t come without cost. You will begin to lose control of it rather quickly. Though you’re a strong woman, even you cannot wield it without giving up a part of yourself. The longer you use it, the more it will take.”
“That’s fine.”
“Understand what you’re agreeing to. By the time the sun breaks over the horizon, there will be little left of what you once were. You begged me in the past to restore your monsters to you, but this will gobble
up all that makes you special.”
He was going to take my vampire and werewolf from me, as he once had. I’d been left human then, but I was still me, even without the two halves of myself. If he was saying I’d be human at the end of this, it was a price I was definitely willing to pay.
“Fine. Take it. I don’t need it.”
“No, you won’t.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “What’s the second part?”
“I want your pretty sword.”
My hand went to the handle, and I withdrew it from its scabbard. The weapon felt light and warm in my hand, something I’d come to think of as an extension of myself. The sword and I had been to hell and back together, and she’d saved my life countless times.
“Take it.”
He shook his head. “I cannot. Not as it is. You’ve tainted it, poisoned it with the blood of the dead. But beneath the curse you’ve put on it, there is still a wondrous item, and I want to bring it back among its people. You will need to restore it.”
“Okay. How?”
“There is but one way to give a blade like this a new lease on life. And it will only work once all your vampire power has been leached from you.”
I clutched the handle and pointed the blade to the ground. “Which is?”
“The filth you’ve coated that sword in, it’s not of the sword’s doing. The sin is all yours. And if you are going to restore the sword, you must purge your sin from it.”
“How?”
“Tonight, after you’ve saved your city and my power has left you, the sword must be cleansed. And it can only be cleansed by the blood of its master.”
My breath hitched up, and my immediate instinct was to cut off his head and take my chances with the necros on my own. I didn’t need his help this badly, did I?
For clarity’s sake, I asked, “Just some of my blood?”
He shook his head. “Tonight, as darkness fades to day, you must bleed out your life on the sword. If you want my help…you’re going to have to die for it.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hadn’t I told myself it was worth any cost?
I’d made up my mind before hearing Aubrey’s pitch, and now that I knew what he wanted, how could I back down? Maybe I hadn’t agreed out loud, but I’d decided for myself I would do what it took to protect the city and those I loved.
Aubrey wasn’t asking for me to give up Desmond or Holden. He didn’t want me to sacrifice anyone else. He was asking simply that I give up what was mine and mine alone to give.
My life for the city.
One life for everyone else’s.
It was worth it.
