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“I don’t understand.”

“It’s not an infection. It’s not something to push back and order away through the domination aspect of that ability. It’s an actual wound, already created,” Kai realized.

He pushed to his feet.

“What are you doing?”

“Just before I lost consciousness earlier, I hid the Aetherbound Scepter away with a flicker of my magic. I’ll call it forth and use Ari’s Celestial power imbued in it and fuse it with a spell to heal Nyx.”

“No,” Nyx cried, snagging Kai’s ankle, albeit so worryingly weakly.

“What are you talking about, no? Of course I’m going to do it. That wound… it’s…”

“I’m dying. I know, Kai. I know.”

“Then what is—”

“There’s only a certain amount of power stored in your staff. You use it to heal me and you won’t be able to use it againstthe fucker who took Ariana. You won’t be able to free her from whoever the hell he is.”

Kai shook his head. “We’ll find another way. I’m not letting you die. And I’m certainly not going to stand here and let you slip away when thereissomething I can do about it.”

“If she’s lost because of me, I’ll never forgive myself. And neither will the two of you.”

“No, that’s not…stop.”Kai gestured at me. “Compress the wound. He can’t lose any more blood. It’s already bad enough as it is. And it’ll take me ten minutes or so to create the necessary spell to heal him with the scepter. The stored power was intended to be used to defend and to attack, not to heal. I just need a few moments to determine a workaround.”

“Kai,” Nyx groaned.

But Kai grimaced and turned away, determined to call the scepter forth and get down to saving him.

“Let him do this,” I told Nyx, compressing his wound. “It will all be okay. Ariana will be okay. She just took back her power. She’s far from helpless.”

As I spoke the words, I realized how much I needed to hear them, too, to calm myself, to believe them down deep and hold on to them.

She’d been taken!

She wasn’t with us anymore.

She was somewhere in the ozone and—stop!

I sucked in a breath, not wanting to project emotional upset in front of Nyx, who was already in great distress, tears even filling his eyes now.

“Shh, babe,” I told him softly. “We’ll fix this. All of this.”

I looked out at Kai, just as his power sparked, and he was mere seconds away from calling his scepter.

But then an explosion of silver light ripped through the area, blinding all three of us from the sheer intensity for several seconds.

When it finally dissipated, we all got one hell of a shock, as none other than Cornelius Martel stood there.

The Silver Ghost.

The former Head of the Guardian Movement.

The Immortal.

Ariana’s grandfather.

His long, silver hair whipped wildly in the wind. He was a powerhouse figure a lot like me. He was a former Celestial warrior. It was a contrast to his normal dress of a gray tee and black dress pants. His wings were also magically tucked away and not in view.