I let go and stagger back, curling in on myself to guard what’s left after the sudden, intense drain. Dizziness crashes over me, and I reach out, grabbing the nearest person—Flynn—for balance.
Across Carver’s still shattered body, Griffin looks crazed. His eyes are big and dark, stark with panic. He looks back and forth between his brother and me, and I can practically see him ripping in two.
“I’m all right,” I assure him. Or I will be.I think.
Griffin circles the cot and replaces me next to Selena, taking hold of her shoulders. Her hands never leave Carver’s chest. She inhales, bows her head, and then pulls from Griffin like she pulled from me.
Griffin jerks. His eyes close, and his face takes on a grayish hue. A shudder runs through him.
“Stop.” I don’t like this. Taking from Griffin shouldn’t even be possible.
No one listens. Carver groans, falling in and out of consciousness. Jocasta starts to cry.
“Stop!” I say more sharply, dragging on Griffin’s arm.
He hunches his shoulders, ignoring me. A muscle ticks harshly in his jaw. His head drops forward, and his face twists under the shadow of his hair. He angles himself away from me, but he can’t hide his agony. I pull harder when he starts to shake. His grip on Selena tightens. He won’t let go. He’ll leave bruises, but she doesn’t seem aware.
“Help me!” I cry. Griffin is huge, and Selena left me weak.
Flynn bands his thick arms around Griffin’s middle and then picks him up with a grunt, hauling him back. Griffin snarls. He stays latched on to Selena, and the two men end up pulling her back, too, breaking her contact with Carver.
Selena straightens and looks around as if coming out of a trance. Her eyes focus again, and I’ve never seen them so radiant or so eerily blue. All pallor gone now, her skin glows, illuminated by some magic from deep within. She sinks into a chair. Her hands tremble in her lap, but I don’t think she’s shaking with fatigue; I think she’s jittery with power—and Griffin’s life force.
Griffin slumps in Flynn’s hold, his breathing shallow and irregular. His face is ashen. I’ve seen it that color once before, and it scares the living magic out of me. He collapses, and his weight drags both him and Flynn to the floor.
Fear exploding in my chest, I drop down next to him and take his face in my hands. “Griffin?”
He blinks. That’s it. My great, strong, indomitable husband can’t even move.
I spin on my knees, terrified and furious. “What happened?” I demand of Selena.
She holds my livid gaze, her expression inscrutable. Not sorry. Not belligerent. Almost cold. “I lost track,” she says.
“You lost track? You nearly killed my husband because youlost track!” I fling my hand toward Griffin. “Look at him! Look what you’ve done!”
Her perfect features remain disturbingly smooth, but Selena reaches down and puts her hand on Griffin’s chest. Griffin’s back arches off the floor. The breath he drags in seems to last a lifetime, and then his big body settles.
I lean over him, almost afraid to breathe. “Griffin?”
His gray eyes meet mine, and his hand rises to cup my cheek. In a voice as rough as a rockslide, he asks, “Did we do it?”
Relief pushes tears to my eyes. But he wants to know if we saved Carver, and my heart breaks because… “I don’t know.”
I turn back to Selena. She’s not luminous anymore. She looks awful, so pale I can almost see right through her. For the first time since I’ve known her, she looks like she’s aged. She gave Griffin his considerable life force back—at the expense of her own.
I reach for her hands. “That’s not what I wanted.”
She squeezes my hands back with the strength of a butterfly. “Of course it is.”
“But you—”
“Will be fine,” she interrupts. “I just need to rest.” She looks at Kato and then frowns.
“I can wait,” he says stoically, reading the hesitation on her face.
I’m not sure he can. There’s a feverish gleam in his cobalt eyes. I could help, but the only healing magic I’m capable of involves running water, and we don’t have any here.
Selena beckons limply. “We’ll just start. Then we’ll both rest.”
