I continue to hover around Cosmo, not taking my eyes off the swirling smoke.
“We left Wes to sleep,” Donovan breathes in my ear. “But I’ll wake him if you want?”
“No. I think that’s the right choice.” I swipe at my forehead, a thumping pain developing inside my skull. “First question: can any of you see something around Cosmo’s wrist?”
Cosmo keeps his eyes on mine, as though our locked gaze prevents him from tumbling into the abyss. Ludo and Alexis stand on either side of me, while Donovan and Max move to flank Cosmo.
“You mean his watch?” Donovan asks.
“No, something else.”
“I take it you can see something that we can't. Can you tell us what it is?” ” Alexis asks gently.
“Smoke. A ring of smoke that moves like it's alive. It’s circling his wrist.” I get closer and hover my hand over his arm. Cosmo startles, then his breath starts coming out in pants.
“I’m remembering,” he croaks. “What happened earlier, I’m remembering.”
“Breathe, Cos.” Max rubs circles on Cosmo’s back.
“What happened earlier?" Alexis frowns. “What’s been going on?”
“Cosmo saw his father,” Donovan supplies. “He came out of the meeting looking like a zombie. Then we took him to a healer; he had a migraine or something.”
The pain inside Cosmo is not a migraine. “Tell me what you remember.” I keep my hand a couple of inches above the swirling smoke.
“It was, it was...” A shudder ripples through his skin. “It was…oh Gods.”
The room is silent, all of us waiting in dread to hear what horrors Cosmo has witnessed. He turns his head towards Donovan. “Your parents were there, with Father.” Cosmo moves his eyes back to mine, “It’s blurry, but they had a child with them—a little girl. She couldn’t have been more than three or four.” His voicecracks. “They cut us both, and a hurricane of something flooded out of her into me.”
He coughs. “Fuck, I’m going to puke.”
Someone puts a bowl before him. Ludo.
After several deep breaths, Cosmo is able to continue talking. “Then I was filled with a desire for power like I’ve never known; the need to conquer was a siren song, taking me over, so enticing, calling me.”
The men around me shuffle uneasily. The tension in the room rises.
Cosmo’s eyelids flutter, and he forces them open again. “But I knew it wasn’t right, my dragon knew. He was fighting it off, like the storm clouds in Avalon.”
“Let me hold you,” Alexis murmurs in my ear. “I can feel his pain pulling at you. You need to be tethered.” I don’t reply, just concentrate on what’s happening, but the minute Alexis’s arms circle around me I feel stronger.
“Amirene was there,” Cosmo says.
Shit, I wasn’t expecting that. “What do you mean?”
“She gave me a drop of something; Lumina? I think.” He coughs again. “One mote floated down, and I swallowed it. That smoke is still inside me, but her Lumina and my dragon are preventing it from fully taking me over. From making me destroy you all.” His voice is raspy, like he’s choking on the evil fumes.
I’m pretty certain I know what I should do. “I’m going to hold your hand now, Cosmo.”
“Tee, no!” Donovan reaches around me to pull me away, but Max stops him. “Sparkles knows what she’s doing,” he grunts.
“How can we help you, pulu?” Alexis asks quietly. “The dark essence won’t wield like your Lumina.”
“I realize that, and it’s fucking scary, but I’m going to do it. Don’t let me go, Alexis.” I meet eyes with Donovan, then Ludo and finally Maximus. "None of you let me go."
I feel hands touch my shoulder, my thigh, my hair, then I take a breath to lower my arm.
As soon as I link fingers with Cosmo, the world tilts. The apartment walls dissolve into gray mist, and the floor drops out from under me.
