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CHAPTER 14

“N o!” Xavier’s heart shattered.

Blood spurted from Kat’s chest—an expression of pure shock crossing his face.

Xavier activated the blood ward, fury burning through his veins.

His magic roared.

With a whoosh of smoke, vines dissolved into dust. Blight screamed as his body dissolved beneath the blood curse. A sound that would fuel Xavier’s nightmares for years to follow.

Xavier jumped over the quickly evaporating monster to reach his mate. “No. No. No,” he chanted.

“Xavier!” Zabria shouted as she ran up to where he kneeled.

He gathered Kat into his arms, afraid to look at the gaping hole in his chest.

“Xav! There’s no time! Take him to your rune circle.” Zabria shook his shoulder.

“What?” He sucked in a breath as he tried to focus on what she was saying.

“You can save him.”

Her firm conviction tore away the fog of grief threatening to drown him.

His circle. The healing circle he’d created in his workshop. “Will it work?” This wasn’t a time for vague hints or shadowy outcomes. He needed to know.

Zabria’s eyes silvered over. “Yes.”

Xavier scooped Kat into his arms and ran.

His leg throbbed, and he almost collapsed more than once from the pain tearing through his probably broken ankle, but he’d let his bones crumble to dust if it saved his mate—sweet, kind Kat, who always had a smile and a sunny outlook. If Kat didn’t make it, the world would burn.

He gave an absent thought to his brother, but there wasn’t enough time to worry over a brother he barely knew when his mate was bleeding out.

It took far longer than it should’ve to reach his workshop, but no one else could carry him. Xavier’s instincts were running high, and the first person who tried to block his path hit the wall with a loud crunch. Others were quick to clear their way through the quickly filling castle. Xavier had no idea where everyone had been during their battle, but they were too late to help now.

The workshop door opened without a touch, his bleeding hands still powering outside magic.

Gently, he set his mate in the middle of the circle, careful not to smudge any of the runes.

“How is he?” Melcori appeared in the doorway.

“Almost dead.” The words poured from his lips without hesitation.

“Do your thing, child,” Melcori encouraged.

Xavier placed his still-bleeding palm on the lead rune and uttered the string of words he’d developed to power the runes. His mate’s life depended on his theory being correct.

“Don’t hesitate. Don’t forget your intention. You intend for this to work. You won’t accept failure.” Melcori’s words echoed in his chest.

Don’t accept failure.

The chant came smoother, and the magic rose, distorting the air around the circle. Xavier fed his love, power, and insistence that this circle heal his mate.

“Heal!” he commanded, finishing the magical chain spell.

A burst of red light seared his eyes. He had to look away to save his vision. Heat poured out from the center, and only the sound of coughing forced Xavier to look at his mate.

“Kat,” he whispered, like a benediction to an unknown god of healing.

Kat sat up, his gaze frantically searching Xavier. “Xav, are you all right?”

Xavier burst into sobs as he wrapped his arms around his mate and squeezed.

“Let me check him.” Melcori’s voice broke through Xavier’s crying fit. He stepped back, reluctantly releasing his mate.

Melcori waved a hand over Kat and studied the glow that appeared over his body. “Excellent work, Xavier. I declare your Mastery complete.”

“What? What about the tests?”

Melcori scoffed. “Those are only to get you to focus on your work. The project is the only thing you must finish. Since I witnessed its success, you only need to write down the results, and we’ll submit them.” He squeezed Xavier’s shoulder. “Congratulations.”

“What about Jared?”

“He’s fine. I sent a healer to check on him.”

“No, what about my time you promised to him?”

Melcori’s aged face wrinkled in a smile. “I lied. I wanted you to meet your brother.”

Xavier hugged the old mage.

Melcori allowed it for a minute before he pushed him away. “Don’t get mushy on me. You know I can’t handle emotions.”

Kat offered a tentative smile to the Blood Mage Master. “I don’t know where Rance went.”

“He and his mother are in my office. I was at the new Grove site when that monster came to the castle. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to save you.” He brightened. “Luckily, you are both capable young men.”

Xavier didn’t know how capable almost dying made them, but he wouldn’t argue. Melcori might take back his mastery.

Melcori patted Xavier on the shoulder. “Trade places. I want to see if I can work your runes. It will go a long way toward the others accepting your mastery.”

“What’s wrong with Xavier?” Kat immediately got to his feet.

Xavier took his place.

“A broken ankle and maybe a torn knee.” Melcori fixed the few smudged runes, then repeated Xavier’s chanting.

Xavier was pleased to leave the circle with only a minor tingling in his bones. He rotated his ankle without pain. “Works.” He didn’t try to hide his smile at the announcement, followed by a yawn. Damn, he was tired.

“Can we see Rance now?” Kat asked.

“Yes, come, you two. We’ll discuss negotiations with the dryads. Killing Blight didn’t solve all their problems.”

Xavier nodded. “Even without Octavia, several of them didn’t want a male dryad in their mix, and I don’t think Blight helped the cause of the Green Men.”

“I don’t think so either,” Melcori agreed.

“Where does that leave Rance?” Kat asked.

None of them had an answer. They were barely a few feet into Melcori’s office when Rance slammed into Kat and wrapped his arms around him like a koala. “I thought you were dead.” The teen sniffled into Kat’s shoulder.

“Shh, I’m fine.” Kat patted his back while Xavier stepped around to take his usual spot.

“The gems are yours.”

Xavier turned to Talula. “What?”

“You saved our lives, and your mate is willing to take in my son. I can’t in good conscience give them to Melcori, not after he burned down the Grove, but I can grant them to you. If you are willing to do us a favor.”

“What favor?”

“Would you two negotiate to let Rance plant his tree on the pack lands? As much as I’d like him with me. I can’t guarantee his safety as he gets older. I would like to share custody of him if you are agreeable. We can finish raising Rance together.”

Rance blushed from where he stood, wrapped in Kat’s arms. “I’m almost all grown up.”

“Hush, child, adults are speaking,” Kat teased.

Rance rolled his eyes.

“I think we can do that,” Xavier said after receiving a nod from Rance and agreement from his master.

Kat nodded. “I’ll talk to Silver about it, but I doubt he’d say no.” Kat helped Xavier to his feet. “Come on, let’s go home. I need a nap with my mate beside me.”

“Sounds good. If you want to spend the night with your mother, you can stay in my chambers.” Xavier pulled a key out of his pocket. “The second apartment from the left of the stairway.”

“I’ll show them, Xav,” a pretty girl who looked just like the one in the hall spoke up.

“Thanks, Zabria. Are you all right?”

Zabria nodded. “Everything came out for the best. You two can scamper off home. I’ll take care of things here.”

“Thanks.”

Kat wrapped an arm around Xavier’s waist. “Tomorrow, we can deal with contracts, Groves, and master papers. I need a bath and a nap. We also have to put our door back on.”

“Sounds like a date, " Xavier said, kissing his mate. Now that he had his mate back in his arms, everything was right again in his world.