AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I can’t believe you’ve come here,” one of them snaps, the second he sees me. I recognise him from the night of the BBQ.Jamie, I think. “You want to go in there and finish him off, you’ll need to go through all of us.”
Jim Thornber is standing by his side and nods sternly. He’d been Niall’s chief lieutenant. It’s not clear quite what relationship he has with Gabriel, beyond being his uncle, but whether it’s based on respect, familial love, or fear, there’s something in his eyes and in his stance that makes it quite clear that if needs be, he’ll lay down his life to keep his nephew safe.
“He ordered us not to kill you, you know?” Jim explains. “That’s the only reason I’m attempting a polite conversation instead of knocking you out. While he’s alive, that order holds. But if he dies, all bets are off.”
“I can’t believe you did this to him,” Jamie adds. “I know all Sadlers are scum, but I thought maybe you were different. He thought the world of you.”
I force air into my mouth. “I’m not here to kill anybody, but can we stop acting like Gabriel is some martyred saint? He was fighting my family and friends, destroying our businesses, and trying to collapse the Dome that protects everyone in Mannith. And I blasted him because he murdered Connor.”
“Who you apparently didn’t care about enough to save,” Jamie snaps.
I flinch. It’s a fair point as far as my failings go, and it’s a decision that’s going to haunt me for a long time. As is my decision to attack Gabriel. But all that doesn’t take away from the fact that Gabriel shot Connor without a second thought.
“What are you here for, Sadie?” Jim sounds like this has been the longest night of his life.
The million-dollar question. What the hellamI here for? To assess the damage? To complete it? To reverse it?
“I need to… to see him.”
Jamie shakes his head. “Bullshit. No way in hell would your family let a Thornber in if one of you was lying unconscious at our hands.”
I hold out my arms, and the two massive men flinch.Wow. I seem to have acquired a reputation.
“I don’t want to do him any more harm,” I say. “And I’m happy for you to do whatever it takes to ensure that. Whack those blocking bracelets on me and let me in there.”
Jim frowns. “I’m not sick enough to put those things on anyone. If someone’s an enemy, you put blocking handcuffs on them, nice and simple. If they’re a friend, an ally, or above all, someone you love, you don’t block their magic with pretty trinkets and pretend that’s okay.”
“Heput them on me.”
“I’d never normally say a word against Gabriel, but he was wrong to do that, just like my brother was wrong to use them on his wife. I told him so when I heard. I’ve got some standard blocking handcuffs if you really want to go in there.”
I’m not sure I entirely understand the distinction—blocking someone’s magic is blocking their magic, isn’t it?—but I guess the whole Thornber family is squeamish about the bracelets after what Niall did with them. Something uglier and sturdier would have led to the same outcome as far as Gabriel’s poor mother was concerned, but they’d have left less room for the hypocrisy of pretending that blocking her magic was an act of love.
Right now, though, I need to get in that room, and I’ll accept whatever conditions Gabriel’s family impose.
I nod frantically. “I do.”
Horribly dangerous to face them all with my defences down, but I believe them when they say Gabriel gave an order for me not to be killed. The thought torments me on more than one level.
Jim snaps the cuffs on me. Once again, all the colour and drama fades from the world.
Jamie opens the door. “There are plenty more of us in there, and we’ll be watching. Don’t try anything.”
The room is surprisingly full. Thornber acolytes more endowed with magic than with brute strength crowd around, working healing spells. They’re mostly pretty young women, but there are some pretty young men, too, as well as some motherly types deep into middle age.
Some of them are sobbing, others are lost in concentration. It takes both camps a moment to notice me, but once they do, everyone freezes. It’s not clear whether they intend to attack me, defend Gabriel at all costs, or flee.
I ignore them, grip the door handle for support, and stare at the bed at the epicentre of their ministrations. Gabriel’s utterly unconscious, mercifully. He’s hooked up to who-knows-what combination of drips and monitors, and is swaddled in bandages. Modern medicine is working in tandem with the healing magic his supporters are channelling into him, but none of it seems to be doing much good. The force I unleashed should have killed him. It surely would have killed anyone else. There’s little that can be done to undo that. Where his skin is visible through the dressings, he’s a burnt, gory mess. I did that. It’s a weird juxtaposition with his usual all-encompassing beauty.
It’s usually a relief to get proof that you’re not as shallow as you think, but I hate the fact that his burns don’t make me desire him any less. Wanting someone as gorgeous as he was is human nature, despite his faults. My surging feelings for this wreck of a man suggest something much deeper.
“You! How could you do this? Are you here to gloat?” one of the glamorous female practitioners screams at me in between the tears that have clearly been flowing for hours.
“I don’t know how anyone could hurt him. Not like this,” another attractive practitioner—this time of the male variety—adds, shaking as he speaks.
Presumably these mysterious orders not to kill me extend to these people, too, not just the enforcers. But they all seem capable of breaking rank at any moment.
I step towards the bed, and they close the circle and throw up their shields. If only I could inspire this much raw loyalty and affection.
