Page 113 of Third Offense

I couldn’t say. And it didn’t matter. Because the magic was crumbling and Ketos still wasn’t awake.

Come on!I thought at him, my heart beating rapidly in my chest.I need you to wake up.

And I need Novak to find Auric.

My throat went dry, my body shaking as the incompleteness of mates swirled around me.This shield is linked to us all.

But our circle was damaged.

Not broken. Not unfixable. Justwounded.

I didn’t believe for a second that Auric betrayed me. It wasn’t about that. It was about his disappearance.

Where did they take you?I wondered.

And why won’t you wake up?I demanded, my eyes on Ketos. I understood that he’d just been stabbed and had nearly died, but a feral part of me needed himto move.To recharge. Tolive.

However, my will wasn’t enough to force him to wake up.

He just needs a little more time,I thought, swallowing as the energy outside rippled once more.

But there isn’t enough time.

We need to run… fly… escape right now.

Before the barrier collapsed. Before the entity outside truly attacked.Before it’s too late for us all to survive.

But Ketos…We would have to carry him.We can’t leave him here.He’s… he’s supposed to be… might be… mine.

Raven wavered, all the blood having drained from her face as she’d continued to push her healing energy into Ketos.

It’d worked, at least on the surface. Because all that was left of the knife wound was an angry red line.

Which suggested his internal injuries were still healing.

But he was breathing normally now.

And I could feel some of his power caressing mine, as though tasting the new energy around him.

Does that mean this is my ability?I wondered, flexing it once more to smooth out the fraying edges outside.

However, something pulsed right back, damaging it again in an instant.

It’s not going to hold, I thought again, panting now.

“What’s holding them back?” Sorin asked, his grip on Raven the only thing keeping her up right.

“Barrier,” I told him. “It’s about to… tobreak.” I closed my eyes as another blast nearly took it all down. But I tugged on a strand of magic in the air, using it to fortify the invisible barrier like a plank across a bowing wall.

I forced myself to my feet and walked toward the windows, my mind building another fortifying layer as I moved.

It was like I kept pulling pieces of energy from the air and turning them into bricks.

Only a fire outside grew, the portal turning the water around it into steam.

The fiery jaws of the magical hole were just beyond where we’d flown every day.

I recalled it hazily, remembering the sentries… the guards that had pretty much kept us inside the perimeter, like some sort of glorified prison.