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Levi glanced over his shoulder. “Really?”
A scream echoed through the castle, and I ran. The others followed on my heels knowing I knew this castle better than they did. As soon as I reached Lambert’s lab, I threw open the door.
Two circles had been erected. Lambert stood in one and Delphine in the other. Between them stretched magic, pulling from her and into him. I’d known it’d be something like this.
The vampires rushed toward her but fell back at the circle. Hudson had already gone around to the cages and was trying to wake Phoebe. This one was up to me. My mentor had done so much evil in the world. I wasn’t going to let him take Delphine’s magic from her. I’d promised her I wouldn’t let him hurt her, and I wouldn’t.
She cried out again.
“You’ve got this,” Roman said, his hand on my shoulder.
“Draw on us if you need to,” Levi said on my other side.
I blinked. “But . . .” That they even knew it was possible, and that I’d done it before, I couldn’t believe. I hadn’t wanted to. Lambert had made me, but still. “No. The last time . . . he died.”
“Whatever it takes,” they said, their faces serious.
“We’ve lived a long time,” Roman said.
“And we’d give it all up for Delphine,” Levi continued. “We know you and Hudson would take care of her.”
I took a deep breath. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“For Delphine,” Roman said.
Looking at the lines of magic, I could see the spells wound around them. A holding spell so Delphine couldn’t get to her magic, and a transferring spell that allowed Lambert to take it. He’d wanted to do the same to me.
After I’d told him I was leaving, that I just couldn’t do what he wanted me to do, he’d threatened and tried to hold me, just like this. I focused on the trail of magic over their heads. The circles contained them, and crossing another witch’s circle was impossible, but the magic wasn’t contained in the circle. It still needed a path.
I focused on the connecting magic. I could feel the slime of Lambert’s power in it, his greasy feel. I never knew if his magic was really that dark, or if the way he’d used it over the years had twisted it. I could also feel Delphine’s light. Her null power wasn’t used maliciously, it was a gift, like any other kind of magic. Wrapping my mind around the magic, I drew up my own power within me and I pushed on theirs, trying to twist it, bend it to my will. The magic resisted, fighting back.
Glancing at Lambert, I saw his smirk. He didn’t say anything, continuing his chant, but I could almost hear the words he would have spoken. “I’ve always been more powerful than you, boy. Don’t even bother.”
I closed my eyes.
Levi and Roman squeezed my shoulders.
I didn’t want to, but Lambert would break Delphine, and then he’d be stronger than ever. What was I supposed to do? I opened my eyes.
“You’re stronger than you think,” Hudson said. He stood just a couple of feet away. “You can do it without hurting either of them. If you just trust yourself.”
“What would a shifter know?” I snarled, already angry with myself for what I was about to do.
Hudson glanced toward Delphine. “She trusts you. She wouldn’t want you to hurt anyone to save her.”
I scowled.
“Let your intention be for good and none will be harmed.”
“I don’t know how,” I said softly.
“You do.” He grinned.
How could he believe in me? I glanced at Delphine. How could she? How could I be this new person they wanted, they needed? I sighed. That’s what I’d wanted to do. Why I’d opened the aquarium and made a deal with the twins.
“And I trust you,” he said, moving around us and placing his hand on my back. “Use our magic. Save our mate.”
I nodded. Then I opened my magic, gathering streams from Levi, from Roman, from Hudson. I pulled it all together and then I reached out for the magic that surged between Lambert and Delphine. I poked it, prodded it, looking for the weakness. When I found it, a grunt escaped me.
