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Grant let out a hollow laugh. “No argument here. I am a mistake, but maybe I’m also a consequence, a lesson to you all that you can’t do whatever you want without repercussions. The council made me what I am.”
Jameson shot his hand out again, with no more luck than the first time. “I’m going to kill you,” he assured him. “And I’m going to kill everything you’ve touched, scorch it from the earth like an infection.”
Grant narrowed his eyes, then spoke, his voice soft. “Ava, you and the others should go through the portal.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I told him.
“I’ve got long-overdue business here to deal with. You’re the one who needs to get to Lilith, not me.” He tossed the vial of ash to Kase. “Use this just like I did if it gets wiped off anyone. Go.”
Kase exchanged looks with Troy and Hunter, but there wasn’t much of a choice.
Grant was the only thing keeping the mages from killing us, and we didn’t have a shot against that many in a real fight.
Hunter nodded and went through the portal. Kase and Troy looked back and forth, as if deciding who had to deal with me. It seemed Troy drew the short straw, because Kase stepped through next.
“Come on, Ava,” Troy said as he wrapped a hand around my arm.
I pulled, but my strength was nothing compared to his. “I’m not leaving Grant.”
“We have to go,” Troy said. “Or this will all have been for nothing.”
But if I lost Grant, it would be for nothing. The promise I’d made came back to me, when I’d sworn that I’d protect them all as they had me.
I’d lost Gran already. I wasn’t going to lose anyone else.
When we neared the portal, I twisted and tried to bring my forearms together, to hit Troy with a blast of power. I’d tossed him before with it.
He must have expected it, because he caught my arms before I managed it, a pointed look on his face saying he didn’t appreciate it.
Too bad.
I wasn’t a one-trick-pony anymore. I let go of my corporeal form, causing his hands to slide through my arms, for him to lose his grasp. As soon as I became whole again, the action smoother and more practiced than it had been before, I brought my forearms together.
He gave one snarl before the blast hit him and sent him tumbling backward through the portal.
If Grant saw any of it, he showed no sign. He kept his gaze locked on the mages as if the rest of the world had disappeared. It was just him, them and a lot of ugly history.
When Jameson took another step forward, Grant raised both of his hands and a column of fire consumed the mage. It happened so fast, the heat terrifying even as far away as we were.
The wind that had blown the whole time strengthened, enlivened by Grant’s magic, by his actions.
Screams erupted from the other mages, full of fear and confusion.
“You think I’m a monster?” Grant screamed into the wind, into the crowd. He held out his hands to his sides, but it wasn’t flames that escaped this time. Instead, it was as if he drew something into him, as if he yanked something away.
The wind increased until I struggled to stay on my feet.
Those screams stopped, and that wasworse. The mages around arched forward, feet rooting in place and bent at unnatural angles.
It was just like the tattoo he’d shown me, as if he’d been trying to tell me something without having to say it. I’d assumed it meant he’d hit them with some sort of magic, but now I realized it depicted him pulling somethingfromthem.
He was draining them, stealing something from them. Even as the stench of burning flesh from Jameson filled the space, all I could see was the horror and pain on their faces.
They had been planning on killing us all, but still, I couldn’t ignore it.
I fought against the wind, even when I was thrown to the ground, when I had to crawl to move forward, my fingers gripping the stones of the floor.
I grabbed his jean jacket to get me to my feet in front of him. His eyes weren’t the green I was used to but a bright, almost neon shade. They were empty, too.
