The warlock twitched.
His eyes were open, but they were unfocused and hollow.
Koa drew back, his flames extinguishing mid-air. “He’s not in there,” he murmured, voice barely above a breath. “He’s shattered from the inside. His mind is gone. His soul’s broken apart.”
Snakey shifted his massive coils, tightening just enough to silence the warlock’s next rant. The man’s mouth still moved, muttering what had to be his mate’s name and pleas, but the sound barely passed his lips.
I stared at the warlock with pity. His pain hung in the air around him. I didn’t have to be a shadow demon to know that.
“Mirabelle…” the warlock rasped. “I…I did it right this time. I know I did. Come back.Please…”
He mumbled his story over and over again on a loop.
Eleanor was at his side, her arms wrapped around herself, as if trying to hold in the sorrow threatening to burst out of her chest as she listened, piecing his story together. Her throat bobbed, and her eyes shimmered.
“He doesn’t want to hurt anyone,” she whispered hoarsely. “He just…loved his mate.”
None of us knew what to say.
She dropped to her knees beside him. Her hands hovered inches from his trembling form, but she didn’t touch him. “The ritual,” Eleanor continued, her voice barely stable as she translated his ramblings for us, “was to bring his mate back. She was a phantom. He tried to…use her last breath after he stopped her from being taken by humans in Kalista’s Second War. He tried to use her fading magic as an anchor. He wanted to rip her soul back from the Fates.”
“He will be punished by the Fates for that,” Coralynn muttered her disapproval, and I agreed with her.
Eleanor inhaled sharply, fighting the tears burning at the corners of her eyes. “But it didn’t work. He just…stayed.” Shelooked up at us, eyes wet and wide. “He waited here for her. All these years.”
The truth settled around us.
Dimitri stepped forward, his jaw clenched. “He’s still dangerous.”
The warlock whimpered again, something between a sob and a laugh. His eyes glazed, unfocused, flickering with shattered gold light. “Mirabelle, I’m here. I’m here now. I stopped them. You can come back now.Please…”
“He’s broken, not dangerous,” Eleanor pleaded, her voice thick with emotion. “He just needs help. He’s clearly lost everything. We can send him to an infirmary or rehab.”
“Two things can be true at once,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “It’s clear he’s broken, but it’s also clear that he’s dangerous. I don’t think rehabilitation is an option now.”
And then, as if the Fates wanted to prove my point, he made his move.
In a blink, he twisted violently, slipping through Snakey’s loosened coils with a shriek that sent every hair on my body standing. His face contorted, no longer lost or pitiful. It was full of rage and grief.
He lunged for Aura, and she didn’t have any time to dodge before his hands clamped around her throat. “You killed her!” he howled, spittle flying in her face.“All of you!”
Aura choked, her eyes wide in shock, legs kicking as he lifted her like she weighed nothing. Her small hands clawed at his wrists, glowing faintly with imp magic that sparked and fizzled—bright bursts of red and pink fireworks popping in the air but doing nothing to help.
“Aura!” I shouted, taking a step forward as my rose-gold scales formed over my body, but Zuko was faster.
He blurred forward, appearing behind the warlock in a flash. His arms wrapped around the man’s torso as he sank his fangs deep into the flesh of the warlock’s shoulder.
A guttural sound ripped from the warlock’s throat. He arched backward, his body seizing as every muscle turned rigid. Foam spilled from his mouth as the venom worked fast.
Aura collapsed to the ground in a gasping heap, clutching her throat, coughing as her lungs fought to pull in a breath. Koa kneeled next to her, his blue flames glowing, healing her damn near instantly.
Once again, I realized, Koa’s magic did not have the same effect on her as it did me.
Why was that?
Before I could give it much thought, the warlock stopped seizing and slumped to the ground on his knees.
His chest rose and fell in ragged, shallow breaths.
