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Step One wasn’t absolutely awful. That was simply to have Eli here. The other steps were varying degrees of terrible. My brain was processing too many things, but all I really wanted was to call the dead toward me. That had to be a warning sign of some sort. I had the energy to bring hundreds of dead things to my side. I could feel them, all through the city. With a veritable army of corpses at my side, I would be a terrifying force—but to what end?
I wanted todosomething with this energy: to summon, to bind, to hunt Alice.
Alice.
Tres.
A flicker of a thought hit me that Tres was in danger.
“Phone,” I mumbled.
Jesse gave it to me without question.
I struggled to focus my eyes on the here and now. With shaking hands, I texted Tres: “Alice injected me. Dying maybe.”
After I hit send, I realized that there were a lot of other things to add. It wasn’t the calmest or most articulate of warnings, and I hoped it wasn’t too late. Alice had expected me to be dead. I could picture her designer heels passing me as I stared up at her with eyes and mouth open. My body was in shock as she and her friend stepped away and left me there to die.
I felt my magic dancing through New Orleans, spreading out for miles, and I felt more olderdraugrthan I knew were in the city look up as if to find the magic that had grazed them. One of them was Beatrice. I felt as much as saw her say, “Geneviève?”
I jerked back, tried to roll my wandering strands of magic back to me. It reminded me of trying to stuff a fishing net into a sock. This much unfurled magic wasn’t going gracefully back into the small space inside of me.
“Geneviève?” It wasn’t her voice this time.
When I opened my eyes, Eli stood in my room next to Jesse. He was holding a bag half-filled with ice. At his feet were two tall white buckets of ice, and I realized that several more bags were piled on my stomach, chest, and arms.
“You seized up,” Jesse said. “Moving . . . or warming up?”
I nodded.
“Sera texted to bring ice,” Eli said, and I wondered if he’d say much more if we were alone. He was very open with me in private, at least compared to the reputation of the fae, but there was a witness here.
“I’m glad you’re here.” I gave him what I hoped was a convincing smile. I was incredibly cold, but my brain was clearer again.
It was odd seeing Jesse and Eli there at the same moment, especially in my bedroom. The undercurrent between them meant they were typically at odds. Tonight, they were in rare accord. Who knew that all I needed to do was be near death to get them to be at peace?
Even if I wasn’t used to reading his emotions, I’d have realized that Eli looked stricken. I must look worse than I thought.
I smiled at him. “Hey.”
Eli didn’t move. “Jesse filled me in. I should’ve walked you inside or—”
“Nah. . . but I do have a terrible plan,” I murmured. “Just need your strength to make it work.”
Seeing the same anxious look on both faces was like a punch to the stomach. I stared at them, and then only at Jesse. I felt like there were a million things to say, and I couldn’t make myself say any of them. He was my brother. My rock. My family. I didn’t want to leave him alone, and I sure as hell wasn’t willing to wake up without remembering everything. My greatest fear was becoming like my father.
“Try not to die,” Jesse said in a rough voice. “I’m going to need you here when I screw up with Christy again.”
I nodded and held out my hand to him. I wasn’t going to die on purpose. I had things to do yet. “Take care of them if—"
“Yes,” he said. “And I’ll manage Mama Lauren if . . .” His words faded, as if saying it would make it real. “Love you, little sister.”
“Love you, too.”
After a few moments, Sera and Christy were standing in the doorway behind Jesse. They all looked like I felt, as if none of us was certain we’d meet again. “I’m planning on not dying,” I said forcefully. “I need you all to go first, though. I can’t do this with you here. I need to focus.”
“Hot water,” Sera announced. “I brought the suture supplies.” She held up a needle and tweezers and scissors. “You’ll have to swab it to disinfect before you—”
“I know how to sew her up,” Eli said softly. “I’ve had practice.”
