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The air in the room stilled.

“You’re what?” Vale gaped.

“Damien hasn’t appeared to me since the days after the Battle of Damenal, and it’s starting to feel odd. I saw him four times in a matter of months and now…nothing. It feels…wrong.” I wrapped my hand around the Angelborn shard on my necklace and our pulses synchronized.

“What can you learn from speaking with him?” Santorina was skeptical. Crossing her arms, she came to stand in our circle, her soft gown swishing below the wide leather belt cinching her waist. A hint of warrior gear.

“Answers,” I stated. “We have three emblems now, and we’re no closer to figuring out why or what they’re for. If I can talk to Damien, maybe he can reveal something.”

It was an idea I’d had since Malakai mentioned he thought Lucidius had been trying to contact Damien. It wasn’t technically advised, but we were working beyond the bounds of known magic.

Based on the restraint Damien showed last time we spoke, it might be a futile effort, but I had to try. Judging by my friends’ expressions and the aimlessness we’d all been feeling, they understood.

“Why am I here, then?” Vale asked. She wasn’t arguing with my plan, though. Her head tilted, arms crossing as she considered the possibilities.

“Did you bring what I requested?” I asked. Nodding, she pulled a pouch from her side. “I want you to conduct a session while I try to contact the Angel and see if anything can be found within the overlapping forces.”

“To challenge the block I’ve been getting by siphoning off some of your power.” A devious smile split her lips, light returning to her eyes. “I’m in.”

“You’re going to help us?” Cyph asked, not unkindly.

Vale leveled him a stare. “Some of you may not believe it, but I only want to assist in this mission. You’re all the only reason I’m still alive.”

“Set up wherever you need to,” I said before Cyph could respond.

Vale dropped to the floor, skirt pooling around her, and pulled incense and matches from her pouch.

“Do you have the ingredients Malakai said Lucidius used?” Rina asked.

I shook my head. “I’m going to bleed on the emblems and pray Damien answers.”

Tolek stepped closer to me. “Wait a second?—”

“Don’t start being all overprotective now, Tolek,” Jezebel teased.

“I’ve always been protective of her.” He glared at my sister, then flashed me kinder eyes. “I support you doing what you have to, but I don’t want you to have to draw your own blood for this damn Angel.”

“Blood activates the emblems, Tol.” I spoke softly, as if this was some intimate moment between us. I didn’t know why it felt as such, but there was a fear in his eyes I couldn’t ignore. “I have to try.”

He searched my gaze, finally sighing. “Fine, but only a small cut.” He cupped my cheek. “You’ve got to stay in one piece, Alabath.”

“You always hold me together,” I whispered. If there hadn’t been others in the room, I may have said more. Told him how much it saved me when he cared for those pieces I tore apart. That he was the mortar between the bricks of myself.

Spirits, I had so much more I wanted to tell him. But now wasn’t the time.

Instead, I closed my eyes when he pressed a kiss to my forehead—allowed his touch to flow through my body and root me to the floor, to this moment. When I turned back to the group, Jezebel was watching me with a knowing smirk. I rolled my eyes at her.

“Let’s get to the ill-advised ritual, then, shall we?” Rina drawled.

Tolek brushed my hair around my shoulder and removed my emblem necklace. His fingers trailed down my spine, and I shivered, drawing a quiet chuckle from him. No time for games now.

I removed the fae bargain charm from the necklace and tucked it in the pocket of my leathers, ignoring Rina’s narrowed eyes on it. Then, I took out Barrett’s ring and the Seawatcher pearl we’d retrieved, placing all three tokens in the center of the room. Vale was already encased in a dove blue fog. Cyph watched her, jaw ticking, probably thinking of the last time he’d seen her do this—when he’d crawled across a cold temple floor, through his own blood, begging her to stop.

“Pull her out if something goes wrong,” I told him.

“I will,” he swore without looking away from where Vale had her hands palm up on her thighs, head tilted back, muttering.

Pulling the dagger Cypherion had gifted me for my last birthday from my thigh, I kneeled before the emblems. Tolek crouched beside me with his journal, Jezebel and Santorina standing across from us.