To his credit, Xavier did as he was asked. Raven pressed her healing magic into Avery again, but as the minutes ticked by, Tobias’s face became more and more grave. Avery’s skin was gray. He stopped chest compressions, placed two fingers on the side of her neck, and then fell back on his heels. He slumped in on himself. “I’m… sorry.”
Raven trembled in Gabriel’s arms. “Sorry? What do you mean, you’re sorry?”
Tobias’s gaze locked on to Xavier, who was still trying to breathe for his mate. “There’s nothing you can do. She’s dead.”
Across their sister’s body, Raven met Clarissa’s gaze and held it. Could she feel what Raven was feeling? Like a vacuum of space had been torn between their souls?
Clarissa shook her head like she couldn’t accept it. “No… She can’t be dead. Don’t say she’s dead!”
Raven searched Gabriel’s face for the truth. Her mate would fix this. Somehow, someone had to fix this.
But Gabriel was weeping, as was Tobias. Raven cried out and clutched at the base of her throat. Her soul was cleaving in two. Clarissa wept inconsolably in Nathaniel’s arms. Alexander moved toward Xavier, no doubt reliving his own loss in Avery’s death, but the dragon had gathered Avery up and was rocking and growling like things were going to get ugly if anyone touched him or her.
“It’s not your fault, Xavier,” Gabriel mumbled. “She couldn’t take your tooth. Her magic wouldn’t allow it.”
Xavier bared his teeth and growled so loudly Gabriel turned Raven to put his body between her and his brother.
Raven collapsed onto her knees and dry heaved toward the obsidian. She’d overused her magic. The grief and exhaustion were unbearable. She couldn’t even process it. Nothing would be right. Nothing would ever be right without Avery. They were the three sisters. Three. Without her, Raven would never feel whole again.
Long, tapered fingers landed on Raven’s shoulder. Through blurry eyes, she saw it was Leena.
“The scrolls said that Isis and Circe raised Medea from the dead.”
Raven blinked at the scribe as if she were speaking a different language.
“You have their wands,” Leena said. “You have their power. You have the spells from the grimoire.”
Clarissa stopped shaking and staggered toward her, stopping on the other side of Avery. Her eyes roved wildly from Raven to Leena and back again. “We have to try.”
Raven tried to stand and failed. Tried again with Gabriel’s help. Her whole body started to shake, and she landed on her knees again. Tears carved down her cheeks. When she looked back up at Clarissa, she couldn’t stop herself from raising her voice.
“I have nothing left!” A sob ripped from her throat. “I held back the mountain. I raised Marius and the goddess from the dead and used everything that I had left to kill Eleanor. I’ve tried to heal Avery with the last of my power. I’m so hungry my stomach is eating itself and my mouth feels like a desert. I don’t think I can do it, Clarissa.”
She hugged her knees into her chest and buried her eyes in her hands. Everything in her was glass, and she was shattering, shattering into a million tiny pieces.
Gabriel’s scent surrounded her, and he hugged her shoulders and whispered encouraging words in her ear, but he didn’t understand. She could not do it. Not this time.
“Do you know the spell?” Nathaniel’s voice was harsh, demanding.
Raven nodded. “It’s a variation of the same one we did downstairs, only we direct our magic on Avery rather than throwing our energy into the cradle.”
“Alexander, the symbol. Draw it here, around where she lies.” Nathaniel barked the order, and Alexander immediately plucked his charcoal from inside his jacket and started to sketch on the uneven floor.
“Give me your wand.” Nathaniel held out his hand expectantly.
Raven stared up at him. “I- I should be the one—”
“Stop!” Nathaniel growled and glared at her with such intensity Gabriel’s wings snapped out defensively. Nathaniel shot him a look of annoyance. “Give me your wand.”
“Nathaniel, ease the hell up,” Colin chimed in.
“No, I will not, as you say, ease up.” Nathaniel focused fully on Raven, raising his finger in her direction. “You are a woman who has been blessed with significant power. Will you choose to be like my late mother and insist on isolating yourself, never trusting anyone to truly help you? Will you, like her, put all your energy into amassing more and more magic because you think you are the only one capable of wielding it? Or will you wake the hell up and see that your gifts are just one of many tools available to aid you in a just and fair rule? That you are surrounded with those who love you and who can help, if only you will ask?”
Raven lowered her head, ashamed. “Please help, Nathaniel,” she sobbed. “Save my sister.”
“Give. Me. Your. Wand.”
Raven placed it in his hand and sobbed anew at how pathetic she was.
