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~13~
Nic felt itthe moment Gabriel snapped.
He’d been doing so well—astonishingly well, given the sheer enormity of the pressurized magic erupting from Selly—but even the most powerful wizard had their limits, and Gabriel hit his with crashing finality.His mental presence vanished like a quenched flame.He sagged into unconsciousness, slipping from her grip, his big body tumbling boneless to the floor despite her effort to hold on to him.
As she fell to the floor beside him, calling his name, reaching for him along their bond, magic gusted around them, formless and without boundary.In it, she sensed moonlight and water, fiercely pulling at each other, and scents of the swamps and marshes, the wild things clawing for survival.
She patted Gabriel’s cheeks, his dusky skin sickly pale.“Gabriel,” she urged.“We need you.”
Dimly she was aware of Asa and Jadren shouting.Then Laryn’s stern face was before her, Laryn gripping her arm hard enough to bruise bone.“Lady Phel!”she yelled above the magical din.“Snap to!We need you.”
“Gabriel needs me,” Nic gasped, utterly shattered by the gaping abyss where Gabriel’s magic had been, as if he’d infiltrated even the marrow of her bones and then been brutally ripped out again.
Laryn slapped her, not hard, but shockingly sharp.Nic gaped, then growled in rage.That was it, she’d show this bitch once and for all that—
“Get a grip,” Laryn shouted, shaking her by the shoulders.“Selly’s magic is raging wild, venting through Lord Phel without control.Jadren is offering to take over, but he needs your permission.”
“Fine,” Nic bit out, returning her attention to Gabriel’s too-pale, sunken face.
“Youhave to tell him,” Laryn ordered, dragging Nic to her feet.Asa crouched at the foot of the bed, hands gripping Selly’s ankles, his head bowed in concentration—or to stay clear of the buffeting winds of Selly’s magic.Liberated through the conduit Gabriel had created, her magic lashed like a coastal storm, full of icy water and bits of solidified moonlight that stung her exposed skin.Jadren glared at her, wizard-black eyes accusing, as he bent over Selly in a protective posture, his hands hovering over her.
Nic nodded at him, gesturing for him to go ahead, but he shook his head in emphatic negation.What in the Convocation?“He needs your help,” Laryn shouted in Nic’s ear.“Go to him.I’ll stay with Lord Phel.”
Nic nearly told the woman not to lay a hand on Gabriel, but that was foolish.Laryn was resentful and stubborn—and no friend of Nic’s—but she wasn’t actively malicious.She had a duty to assist her wizard, and Asa no doubt expected her to do this sort of thing.Making her way around Gabriel’s prone form, head down against the fierce storm of magic, Nic clawed her way to Jadren’s side.“You have my permission,” she shouted.
He held out a hand.“I need your magic.”
She stared at the proffered hand as if he held a venomous snake.No.
“If I’m not strong enough on my own, without your help, I’m going down like Phel, and you’ll never get either of them back.Help me, curse you.”
It made sense, but every instinct in her revolted at the idea.Her magic belonged to Gabriel, not this other wizard.Jadren stared her down, a taunting challenge in his expression, as if he knew full well how much she hated this.Feeling as if she’d stripped naked and spread her legs for him, she laid her hand in Jadren’s and offered up her magic.
He grunted, yanking at her hand.“Come on, Lady Phel.You’re clenched tighter than your father’s fist on his fortune.Work with me.”
Somewhat taken aback that he hadn’t been able to simply take, she concentrated on truly opening.It took some doing, but the channels that had apparently attuned themselves only to Gabriel gradually opened, and her magic responded to Jadren’s oddly mechanical pull.He let out a long breath, relaxing his death grip on her, and exerted his magic.
The shift was immediate.The storm diminished considerably at first, then vanished with deafening suddenness, leaving her senses—physical and magical—raw and burning.Bits of silver rained to the wet floor.But Jadren continued to pull on her magic.
He was deft enough, and not greedy.Still she had to fight herself to keep that channel open, to resist the urge to thrust him away.She hadn’t had another wizard’s touch inside her since the night she met Gabriel, and the violation shook her deeply.That, on top of the aching absence of Gabriel’s vibrant presence, left her feeling sick and simultaneously invaded and isolated.
She sank to the floor beside Jadren, resting her forehead against the bed, one of the straps confining Selly scratching her cheek, only her hand upraised in Jadren’s grip.
And then he released her, the sudden cessation of magical connection and his supporting hand sending her reeling.Jadren collapsed over Selly, breathing as if he’d fought a pitched battle.Nic looked around, seeing Asa at Gabriel’s side now, drawing heavily on Laryn by her pained expression.Nic herself felt wrung dry, limp as a wrung out washcloth, but she needed to get to Gabriel.It also seemed that it would be as easy to circumnavigate the Convocation as to make her way around the bed.But an Elal didn’t give up without a fight.
Nor did a Phel.
She made herself move, feeling her bones creak in protest, her muscles tight as dried sinew, protesting with shrill alarm.Jadren breathed a laugh.“Now I know why he’s so obsessed with you, Lady Familiar.Your magic is more intoxicating than the finest wine I’ve ever drunk.”
Nic nearly snapped that she wasn’t his to drink, but she was too tired.In the end, she crawled on hands and knees to Gabriel’s side.Was his color slightly better—or was that wishful thinking?She took his limp hand in hers, seeking his silvery cool presence, breathing him into her airless spaces.Nothing.She’d found him before, when he was lost in the onslaught of Selly’s magic.Or, rather, she’d made herself as big and bright as possible and he’d found and followed her out, but now… Nothing.
He was alive, but what if his body was an empty husk?She’d heard tales of wizards burning themselves out, expending so much magic that their life force went with it, leaving nothing but a mortal shell behind.Sylus had done that, giving everything to avenge Lyndella.But she’d been dead and he’d had nothing left to lose.And Sylus hadn’t had his familiar anymore, confined to drawing only on his own magic.
Wishing she hadn’t given up so much of her magic to Jadren’s efforts, Nic tried offering her magic to Gabriel.If only there were a way for her to inject it into him.
“Don’t,” Asa said wearily, lifting his face, complexion gray with exhaustion.“You’re tapped out, Nic.You give up any more magic and you’ll be risking your life, and the baby’s.You, too, Laryn.That’s enough for now.”He shook off her touch, leaning away, and she opened her eyes, giving him an inscrutable look.
“But Gabriel…” Nic protested, staring into his beloved face, the cheeks gaunt, shadowed eyes sunken in his skull, as if the precipitous draining of magic had emptied his flesh as well.
