Page 71 of Transfiguration
“We are so fucked,” Con muttered.
A portal opened and Kaine stepped out, not in his kid form, but the fae man who looked like a younger version of Bryar with Seiran’s sapphire eyes. He yanked Gabe through with him. Gabe immediately leapt at Hart, wrapping himself around the man, and the ooze of darkness crawled over him. But Gabe held tight, wrapping his arms and legs around Hart to keep him from attacking Bryar or coming at Con and Seiran. The darkness slid over Gabe, trying to devour him.
“No!” Seiran cried.
Kaine rushed to their side. “We have to get him to Luca and Sam.”
“I told you to stay out of this,” Seiran said, grabbing Kaine’s hand.
“Sorry, daddy.” Kaine apologized, but reached for Con, slamming energy and wind power into him. “Through the veil, yeah?”
Con understood as Gabe struggled to hold Hart. The ooze coating them both. The entire hall was open to Con’s element, wind racing through the broken walls like it was happy to reclaim the space. Kaine reappeared behind them and a portal opened. Bryar popped back into place, crouching and readying himself to launch. Con called the wind and demanded a force that whipped through the broken walls, making Hart stumble backward. It was enough of an opening that when Bryar hit him like a linebacker, slamming into his middle and wrapping his arms around both Hart and Gabe, he propelled all three of them backward into the portal, vanishing beyond.
Kaine grabbed Page’s hand and reached for Seiran. Con wrapped the wind around the four of them, tying them together as he let Kaine’s magic pull them through the portal and land them in the arboretum.
To say they arrived in the middle of chaos was an understatement. Con’s heart leapt in joy to see Sam aboveground. But the red-eyed monster wasn’t his lover.
The revenant had risen.
Fuck.
Kaine let Page go, and the man fell over, throwing up into the grass. Fae travel was a wicked ride.
Con needed access to his element if he was going to have to fight Hart and Sam. Or the revenant that took over Sam. He shoved aside the fear that Luca hadn’t risen, and focused on the insanity, forced his magic up and into the glass, shattering everything to let the wind run wild in the space.
Seiran flinched, but none of the shards touched any of them. Con directed the wind to carry it all away to a neat pile. He was in control, even if his heart hammered in his chest and darkness swirled around them like a living thing.
Gabe dropped away from Hart, breathing hard, his body covered in a mass of writhing dark bits. Hart oozed darkness. It didn’t seem natural at all, and the handful of dark magic witches Con had met in his life had never actually looked like darkness was pouring from them. What the fuck was this?
Sam leapt toward Page, attracted to the nearest mortal blood while his revenant was in charge. Con hit him with a giant gust of wind, slamming him into the ground. “Take him back, Seiran!” Con demanded.
“If I force him with the revenant in control, I don’t know if he’ll return!” Seiran said.
Con’s gut flipped over in fear. Sam shouldn’t have risen as a revenant at all. He was smoldering, like heat was projecting off of him in waves. The wind energy rippling and angry like it could form some sort of tornado right there with Con and Sam’s power barely touching.
Con erected a wind barrier around Hart, pooling every bit of strength he had into it to contain the vampire and the dark ooze, then launched himself to Sam’s side. Roots wrapped around Sam, trying to hold him down as the revenant struggled. Sam, the real Sam, wouldn’t have had any problem breaking the bonds. He could have used the earth power long ago absorbed from Seiran and freed himself. How far gone was he?
Con sliced his arm again, forcing the blood to drip over Sam’s lips, and the revenant snarled at him. “Accept the bond,” Con demanded. “Let me help you!” He couldn’t lose them both.
“Take his blood too,” Seiran said, sounding strained. He struggled in his full Father Earth form to hold the roots tying Sam down and added a barrier around Hart, who was pounding on Con’s wind shield hard enough to make Con’s head ache.
“How am I going to do that?” Con asked, thinking if he got too close to Sam’s teeth or nails, Sam would slaughter him. The revenant was called a beast for a reason. The vines holding Sam sprouted thorns, making the beast bleed and struggle harder. Con bent to lick a line of dark brown blood off of Sam’s arm. It tasted like mud, but he didn’t care.
“You are mine, Samuel Mueller. I am yours. Come back to me,” Con demanded.
The beast fought beneath him like a wild thing, but Con could feel some sort of energy wrapping around them to form a connection. He trembled as it plugged his power into Sam and became a sudden drain.
Sam’s revenant was sucking all the life from him. His vision blurred, and he gasped for breath. None of the texts had said anything about the Focus bond killing him instantly. Had they done something wrong? Was Sam too far gone?
Con’s strength waned, and he stared down at Sam’s red eyes, thinking it would be okay if Sam ended him. Even if Sam wasn’t himself. Without Luca, and Sam lost to his revenant, what was the point? Rou would save Bella. It was what he did. He was a good man that way.
Con fell forward, sprawled over Sam as the suction of his strength narrowed to a pinprick of Sam’s snarling face. He only vaguely felt the teeth of the revenant in his neck. Con knew it was the revenant because Sam would never have been that vicious. He blacked out to the feeling of Sam drinking him down, both his blood and his power, and prayed for that ultimate stop to take him to a void of all pain.
THIRTY-ONE
Everything swirled in a whirlwind of chaos. The heat of blood and power filled him to a depth that Sam could never recall experiencing before. It was both maddening and clarifying all at once. A heat cradling him in blazing and familiar warmth, welcoming and becoming too hot all at the same time.
The beast raged, trying to hold its tentative grip on his consciousness, but the wind dragged him down, snarling and fighting, cooling his overheated body. Sam floated to the top, his entire body trembling, aching, and filled with power. He heard a heartbeat in his head, but it was slowing, his own struggling to match it.