“Is he dead?” I asked, noticing steam rising from Sparrow’s body.
Blue crouched next to him. “He’s got a pulse.”
Gem pulled a dead leaf out of my hair and flicked it aside. “How do you feel? I thought you were going to blow up!”
Claude gently pulled her away. “Give her room. She might still be charged.”
I looked down at my hands, the swell of power throbbing against my skin like a heartbeat. The hourglass light tattoo hadn’t disappeared. In fact, nothing had changed about our situation. The electric dome still surrounded us like a snow globe. That confirmed our suspicion that killing Sparrow wouldn’t have lowered the wall, let alone lifted the curse. Energy doesn’t die with a Mage; it simply moves somewhere else. At least now I had control of it.
“Nowyou can charm him,” I said to Christian. “He’s mortal. He can’t block your gifts.”
Christian picked up the dagger. “First things first.” He bent over and angrily sliced the ground all around Sparrow’s head. Then the other side, effectively cutting off his long hair. “That’s for giving my woman ghost knickers. Now sit up, you fecking cocktail.” Christian gripped Sparrow’s collar and yanked him to a sitting position.
Sparrow’s head bobbed back and forth. His eyes were open, so he wasn’t dead.
Blue nudged him with her foot. “What’s wrong with him?”
I crawled next to Sparrow and stared into his lifeless eyes. “Maybe I fried his brain. I had to temporarily reverse the energy channel to heal him before popping his cork.”
“Popping his what?” Claude asked, his voice laced with amusement.
“It’s just a figure of speech.” I poked Sparrow’s chest, looking for a response. “I’m a Stealer, so when I go in to remove their immortal light, it’s stuck to them. Removing it is kind of like a cork popping and the rest of it coming out.” I slapped Sparrow’s cheek. “Wake up. Christian’s going to charm you, so if you’re faking, you might as well snap out of it and plead your case.”
Sparrow’s hair was choppy from his impromptu haircut. Short on the top and different lengths in the back.
“Can you bring down the wall?” Blue kicked at the burnt grass before turning her gaze upward.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I discovered my own Mage gift by accident, and it took me months to figure out how to use it.”
“It’s true.” Gem stepped onto the bench and sat on the back. “The energy inside us doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Even our Creators can’t teach us how to use it unless they share the same gift. All they can do is guide us based on experience. Even then, I never mastered mine until I started seeing this Relic who knows all about Mage gifts. Oh! Maybeshecan help us.”
“We don’t have time,” Christian reminded her. “In case you haven’t heard, there’s a battle going on out there, and we don’t know who’s winning.” He gripped Sparrow’s collar and gave him a hard shake. Christian tilted Sparrow’s head back until their eyes met. “You possessed an incredible amount of Mage power, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Sparrow said under his breath.
“And you mastered that power. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
Sparrow wasn’t brain-dead. He was stupefied that someone had stolen all his power. And on top of that, he was human now. Mortal. Just an ordinary man.
“What happens if we walk through your wall?” Christian asked, something we’d all been wondering but not willing to test.
“You’ll burn up in less than three seconds.”
Claude folded his arms. “Sounds delightful.”
“Ask him how to bring down the wall,” I said.
Christian held his gaze. “Raven owns your power now. How can she remove the wall surrounding us without harming anyone or opening another portal?”
“Pull it back,” he said matter-of-factly.
Christian bared his fangs. “And how might she do that? A little elaboration would be helpful. Explain the process as you would to a child.”
Sparrow’s voice was monotone and his face expressionless. “You envision every angle of it in your mind. Then you reach up, pull the energy from the top, and strip it down.”
I had a sinking feeling in my stomach and branched away from our group. I stood by the pool, studying the perimeter of the courtyard, which I knew by heart.
