Page 88

The guys all rush to me, and someone catches me as my legs give way. My gaze locks on a triumphant looking Kylen.

“Cunt,” I mouth, and grin through the pain knowing that it will piss him off.

Suddenly, there is an almighty boom of power, one that I recognize, and my smile widens, as the necklace around Kylen’s neck shatters into dust.

Now he’s fucked.

Coen’s dragon roars with terrifying anger, and Kylen’s eyes widen in panic as he tries to turn to the rest of his team for aid. They all back up, moving far away, and Coen’s dragon stomps on Kylen, pinning him to the floor and stopping his transformation.

I watch in pain-filled fascination as Coen slices Kylen’s hand off, and then with the other paw crushes the hand into a mushy mess. Wasting no time at all Coen roars again, and then picks up Kylen in the paw that is pinning him and squeezes so hard that Kylen’s fucking head pops off, which is so incredibly macabre, but also funny as fuck.

My laughter turns into a groan of pain, and I’m vaguely aware of the guys gathered around me and Doc trying to do something and sounding more panicked, but I’m laser-focused on Coen as he torches what is left of Kylen with his dragon fire, turning him into dust.

He spins around, lumbering over to me and turning back into his human form as he does. His gaze fills with relief as he sees me watching him. But quickly turns into panic as darkness pulls on me, and I lose my fight with consciousness.

Ransom

Neith’s eyes roll back in her head, and her body slumps.

“What’s happening?” Evander panics.

“I can’t fucking heal her,” Doc growls, “my magic isn’t working.”

“What?” Coen asks, now back in human form and looking as panicked as the rest of us are.

She’s in so much pain, and when I think it can’t get any worse, she starts to fit. Her body jerking painfully.

“The bullet that she was shot with has poison on it, she shouldn’t be alive. I don’t know how the fuck she’s alive. She has to be in so much fucking pain, it burns you from the inside,” Doc’s voice is full of desperation and helplessness as he looks up at us.

Before any of us can react though, Raiden drops to the floor, and starts to writhe in pain.

“What the fuck!” Griff exclaims.

Doc moves over to him, and does a scan, frowning, he says, “His magic is being drained.”

“Fuck the tether!” Van exclaims. “That’s what’s wrong with both of them. Neith can’t do her dying and coming back to life thing and . . .”

“Her what?” Coen exclaims.

There’s no time to explain that though as Evander continues, “She’s pulling magic from Raiden, and it’s killing him.”

Neith and Raiden both start convulsing violently, and everyone pushes forward, trying to figure out how to save them both and break the tether so that Neith can do her thing, and Raiden doesn’t die in the process.

I fall to my knees next to her, my hands pressing against the wound on Neith’s stomach in a futile bid to stop the bleeding. Around me is utter chaos, and I’m not the only one with wet cheeks as we watch the horror unfold.

Calm washes over me, my mind clears, and a spell appears in my mind, ancient and so incredibly powerful that no warlock today would be able to perform it, but I know that it will save them both.

“Guys!” I yell, gaining all of their attention. “There’s a spell, it has just come to me. It will save them, but it needs all of us to do it, and I don’t know what the consequences will be.”

“Do it,” they all shout at the same time, their eyes locked on me.

“Put them next to each other and lay their hands together like they’re holding them,” I order, following pure instinct at this point.

The guys quickly do as I’ve asked, and their trust in me boosts my confidence even more.

Once Neith and Raiden are next to each other, the guys don’t need to join their hands, they somehow manage to find each other and link their own hands, even though they are both still convulsing.

“Everyone needs to lay a hand on their skin, on either of them, it doesn’t matter who, they’re joined.” Everyone immediately does it and then looks at me, waiting for further instructions.