But Nathaniel bowed to her as if her actions were deserving of respect. He motioned to Sylas and Tobias. Together, they pried Avery from Xavier’s grip and physically forced him from the symbol. Nathaniel placed Avery’s wand on her sternum, then reached back to clasp Clarissa’s hand. “Ready?”
Raven’s skin tingled. The three wands had forged a connection, charging the air between them. Nathaniel pointed Raven’s wand at Avery’s. Clarissa did the same with her own wand. The air crackled, growing thick and heady. Clarissa was clearly exhausted, but when Nathaniel nodded, she sang as clear and true as she had in the cradle, her voice charged with mystical energy. Raven’s heart ached at the pure love in every note.
Nathaniel fed Clarissa energy, gritting his teeth as he poured magic into Avery’s body as well. As fast as his lips would move, he uttered the incantation. How long could he keep this up?
“Breathe, Avery,” Raven murmured. “Please breathe.” It was taking too long. Maybe the spell wouldn’t work without her. She pounded her fists against the obsidian. “Oh goddess, it needs her blood!”
Raven staggered to her feet and took Charlie from Leena, then nodded at Gabriel. He sprouted a talon and pricked her heel. One ruby drop fell toward Avery, into the spell.
The entire symbol glowed with intense yellow light, but Avery didn’t move. Raven looked up when the sound of a fist hitting a jaw met her ears. Tobias’s body slapped the obsidian, and Xavier thrust past Sylas.
He reached through the symbol and grabbed Avery’s head with both hands. “Breathe, wife! Your husband has spoken!” He kissed her hard then, in a way that Raven thought might leave a bruise if she were alive.
Avery’s hand flinched. Raven blinked twice and held her breath. Her sister’s fingers moved again. And then that hand wrapped around the hilt of the sword at Xavier’s side. Avery’s sword. Fairy Killer.
“Get the hell off me, Xavier. Goddess, you weigh a ton!” Avery barked.
He pulled back, and she dragged the sword from his belt, hugging it to her chest. “And give me my damned sword.”
Xavier’s smile lit up the room. “That’s my lassie.”
Absently, Avery scratched her forearm through the sleeve of her tunic. She tried to sit up, but Tobias shot across the veranda to her and motioned for her to stay where she was. He checked her head and her hip. “Healed.”
Raven pulled Avery into her arms. “Thank the goddess.”
“I love you too, sister, but you’re choking me. Jesus. Battle’s over. Eleanor is dead. Get a grip.” She got to her feet and fitted her sword into the sheath she wore on her back.
Raven gaped at her. “Avery, you were dead!”
Avery glared at her, the corners of her mouth twitching as if she thought Raven might be joking.
“You were just dead!” Raven pointed both hands at the symbol.
Avery staggered back, and Xavier steadied her. Mouth gapping, she seemed to notice his tears for the first time.
Clarissa’s hand clamped over her mouth.
Clearly confused, Avery scratched the inside of her arm again. “God, it’s burning.” She rolled up her sleeve and stared down at a red-and-black symbol burned into the underside of her arm. It was the size of a quarter, a red spiral adorned with nine black dots. Her skin was seared around its edges as if she’d been branded. “Fuck, what in Hades is that?”
Raven’s eyes widened, and she looked from Avery to Marius, who hadn’t moved from the throne. His torso was covered in similar markings. Some small and some large. They peeked out of the neck of his tunic.
“I don’t know what it is,” Raven said.
Tobias cleared his throat. “We can figure it out another day. Right now, we all need to eat and rest. Especially Avery and Marius.”
Leena rocked Charlie as the baby started to fuss in her arms. “Well, you can’t go back to Aeaea. Asfolk will welcome all of you. I’m sure of it. And the healers there can help.”
Raven nodded and took the baby from her as Gabriel swept her into his arms. Sylas went back for Marius. And soon, they were all in flight, traveling over a kingdom both saved and destroyed. Their kingdom.
With Charlie in her arms, Raven realized the lore was partly true. Her daughter’s blood had held the power to create and to destroy. Eleanor had used it to become what she did. Crimson had thought her heart was powerful enough to make her immortal. Raven had used a single feather to take Eleanor’s immortality.
“You’re not a monster,” she whispered to her daughter. “But you are powerful. We both are. And we both will learn to use that power to build, not to destroy. We’ll ask for help, and we’ll thank the people around us when we get it. I won’t become like Eleanor, sweetheart, and neither will you.”
Chapter Thirty-One
No sooner had Colin landed at Asfolk with Leena in his arms than he discovered she was right about the high lord welcoming them in. They were met with applause and screams of freedom. All of them were surrounded by servants and whisked away to rooms across the palace.
He was more than a little disappointed when his new mate was shuffled from his arms to her own room, but then, she was still a scribe, still dressed in the robes of her order, still with scrolls in the satchel at her hip. He allowed her to go without a fight on his part. He could be patient.
