“Lord!” The other Scavs rush forward as the one holding me stumbles back, stomping his flaming foot on the floor.
Pushing myself upward, I turn my back toward Aran, who has flattened himself against the far wall, watching with wide, terror-filled eyes. He of all people knows exactly what I’m capable of.
“Aran,” I grind out, “get behind somethingnow.”
Darting in front of Roshan’s motionless body, I clear my head of everything but the power seething inside of me as the creature flexes against my rib cage. Roaring, I fling my palms out, white-hot energy spearing from them in flickering bands. The blast knocks all three Scavs into a heap. They claw at their blistering faces, their cries of pain echoing in the chamber as the temperature hikes to lethal, blood-boiling levels.
Enough.
Enough.
For a victorious moment, I feel the magic respond and slow, halting its devastating, ravenous course. It flickers impatiently as the screams around me turn into weak groans, and I take some small comfort in the fact that no one is dead. They might be monsters, but I don’t need more deaths on my conscience. Not yet, at least.
“Aran, get their weapons!”
I watch as he does what I ask, and then inhaling a deep breath, I tamp down the energy until it’s nothing but a faint glow.
“Get the fuck up,” I growl to the big Scav.
He obeys, but with reluctance, his dead eyes glimmering with interest, falling from my still-glowing chunk of hair to my rune-covered arms. “What are you?”
“Nothing you want to take on,” I say, and snatch the ring of keys at his belt. “Now move, all of you.”
We herd the captain and his men quickly toward the cellblock, using the push of my power. I need to get back to Roshan, but Aran is too weak to secure all three on his own.
“Watch them,” I tell him, after I shove them in a cage and lock the door.
My heart is in my throat by the time I rush back the way we’d come to where Roshan rests limply on the table. My sigh of relief to see his chest moving is audible, though short-lived. It’s hardly rising.He’s alive, but barely. I run a fingertip over his ice-cold brow. Suddenly, his entire body seizes without warning, spine bowing so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t snap.
“Roshan!”My hands flutter uselessly; I don’t know how to help him. “Snap out of it, wake up.Ro!”
His body convulses uncontrollably as I try to make sense of what is happening. A seizure? Heart failure? A guttural groan bursts from his mouth, and his eyes fly open, unseeing. They roll back in his head, his body jerking. I grab his shoulders, trying to hold him close, and then he goes deathly still.
No, no, no.
Desperate, I place two fingers on the side of his throat feeling for a pulse, but there’s nothing there. No flutter, nothing. Seconds pass in silence, each of them meaning Roshan will be more brain-dead without oxygen, if he isn’t already. My hands hover over his chest. Pulling my magic to my center, I feel the raw energy fill my cells. This isn’t going to be like burning out a poison. I’m trying to jump-start a fucking life.
You’ll kill him.My inner voice is adamant.
He’s already gone if I don’t do something.
With a deep breath, I place both palms on his chest.Please, Vena. If you ever wanted to help guide me, now’s the time.
Sigils race up my arms, and then I swallow hard andpush. Roshan’s rib cage jerks beneath my hands, and something thumps under my palm. I thrust forward again, willing my star magic to jolt his unresponsive heart.
“Fight, you stubborn, bossy shit,” I scream. “Fight!”
I blast my energy forward again, and Roshan’s back arches upward off the table as sparks fork through him. An eerie glow surrounds him for an eternal moment as if he’s suspended in threads of shimmery starlight. And then, as he flops back down, his chest moves and he hauls a breath into his lungs.
My fingers climb upward to frame his face. “Roshan?”
Thick, dark eyelashes flutter open, and those beautiful brown eyes fix on me. “You... like... me... bossy.”
The corner of his lip curls upward into the barest echo of his lopsided smirk, and my tears break free. “Maker, I thought I’d lost you,” I whisper brokenly, flinging myself forward and peppering his cool cheeks and chin with kisses. He’s still as pale as a ghost, but his pulse is strengthening, and color is coming back into his face. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“M’sorry.”
Inhaling sharply, Roshan pushes himself to a wobbly sitting position, grasping the lip of the table to steady himself before collapsing against me. His body feels like ice, and he smells strange—of antiseptic—but I don’t care about his odor or even my own, I hug him tightly, nestling my body between his thighs.
