“Niko! Wake up. Please, wake up!” After shaking him, she turned him onto his back.
He looked like a fallen angel, his black hair carpeting the floor and his eyes closed.
“Wake up!”
Niko didn’t move. Nothing moved except for the easy rise and fall of his chest.
Horrified, Gem sat back, tears streaming down her face. “No, no, no.What have I done?”
Part of her was still in jubilation that it worked. Itactuallyworked. Even though she’d read it in English, the magic somehow translated the idea and intent of the passage, drawing energy from her to charge itself up. But she quickly came off that high with the grim scene before her.
When Gem noticed the bloody sword in Cyrus’s hand, she dragged Niko toward the door and away from the blade. It seemed irrational, but how long would the spell hold? A minute? Forever?
She cupped Niko’s face and leaned in close, her lips trembling as she struggled to speak. “Niko, I’m so sorry. I thought if you were touching me that it wouldn’t affect you. Why did you have to let go and stop Cyrus? I could have protected you.”
She bowed her head, tears splashing onto his tattered garments. Niko had saved her. Again. If the blade had come down, Gem would have had just enough time to recite the final words. She could have saved him even if it meant her own death.
Gem recoiled at what sounded like vicious dogs attacking the door. A loud blast deafened her and punched a hole through the door. When a hand reached in to open the locks, Gem shielded Niko with her body.
Crush swung open the door. “Get ’em, boys.”
She clung protectively to Niko, but the wolves sailed over them and pounced on top of the fallen Mage brothers.
Artemon’s progeny.
Gem watched in horror as the wolves savagely tore them apart, limb from limb. No mercy. She wondered if those unconscious men were aware of their impending death. Could they feel the pain? Were they afraid?
She hoped so. With all the fire in her heart, she wished they felt every moment of their skin peeling back and bones breaking. They deserved it for all the misery that they’d left on this earth. One of the wolves shifted to human form and stood in the middle. He pried the sword from Cyrus’s hand, which was no longer attached to his arm.
A wave of nausea moved over her like an ocean tide when Cyrus’s head rolled across the floor.
Crush seized her arms and forced her to sit up and look at him. “You okay, honey?”
Dumbstruck, she simply shook her head.
Crush’s gaze lowered to Niko’s body. A Mage simply didn’t die unless it was by gruesome means. Beheading, fire, Chitah bites—but none of those applied.
He lifted Niko’s eyelids and felt for his ticking pulse. “What the hell happened to him?”
Gem had cast a sleeping spell with not a clue how it worked. She had vastly underestimated the power of words. Crestfallen, she replied, “I played God, and I failed.”
He put a hand on her shoulder even though he didn’t understand. “What’s done is done. Help me get him out of here, and maybe I can fix him.”
Gem wiped blood off Niko’s chin with her sleeve. “Only I can fix this, and I’ll spend the rest of my life trying. Until the day I die.”
Chapter 32
After I climbed to the top of the watchtower, I circled the overlook and admired the view. The moon had risen with a sliver taken from her crown. Being a lover of heights, I’d asked Reuben’s permission to come up. He agreed on the condition that I would act as the night watchman. No problem. As tired as my body was, my mind was wide awake and needed something to do.
Down below, many yards away, candlelight from inside the greenhouse twinkled. The windowed ceilings allowed me to see movement inside. Viktor was savoring a bottle of wine at a table they’d brought in from the patio, and Claude was sweeping up the hair trimmings from the numerous haircuts he’d given to the children. Shepherd was probably asleep in one of the sleeping bags Reuben had given us, but I couldn’t see him among the long rows of plants. From my vantage point, I spotted a second greenhouse beyond an inlet of trees.
I climbed onto the ledge and sat down with my legs hanging over and my palms on the wide handrail. Man, what a view. The sky was infinitely dark and the stars blinding. A meteor flashed across the sky, and I searched for more.
“Careful, lass. You might fall and break your neck.” Christian draped my leather jacket across my shoulders.
“What would you do if I died? Carry me all the way back home?”
“I’d bury you in the potatoes and sing you a song.”
