The sergeants looked at each other and then back at him, neither saying a word, shoulders and jaws set, determination etched on their faces. Saemund merely gave him a patient smile, and Raum took the hand that wasn’t holding Lilith and squeezed it firmly. “We’re with you.”
“Okay,” Ezra breathed out. “We can do this.”
“Whatever you’re going to do, do it fast. There’s been chatter in the higher-ups of the wrong people being interested in what happened out in the woods, and other agencies asking after rumors of a magical weapon in MERS custody,” Grendel stated, and a sinking sensation filled his belly. She caught the dismay on his face and nodded grimly. “You either pull this off now, or we’ll be fighting off foreign nations and other agencies for access to the skull before too long.”
“On it,” Ezra said, and he handed Lilith to Chase, who took her with a smile and a gentle stroke to her head.
“I’ll guard her with my life.”
“Hopefully everything will go smoothly and we don’t need to worry about anything,” Ezra replied.
He hoped he didn’t just jinx them.
The major must have had the same thought, as Grendel groaned and rolled her eyes at him, and then pulled out her phone and made a call.
“Evacuate all non-essential faculty and staff, and everyone else is to get under cover immediately,” she said into the phone before hanging up. “Redmayne, you have one shot at this beforeI shut you down and have this damn thing buried in a mine shaft a mile underground.”
“I can anchor the death magics in the earth again like I did last time if things get out of control.”
“That left you dead on your feet,” she reminded him. “And it was a week ago. Can you do it again?”
He was sufficiently recovered from burnout—he hoped—and he could access the veil for additional resources if he needed more power. What worried him was that he hadn’t tested his stamina and he needed that to be back to normal, or he wouldn’t have the strength to manage the veil. It took power to wield power.
And if he wasn’t careful, the raw power of the veil would burn him out from the inside with one wrong move.
Raum
Ezra movedlike he knew what he was doing—shoulders back, eyes bright, and movements easy, his stride open and energetic. His aura was much the same, colors bright and clear, full of confidence. There was anxiety and some fear, but Raum was heartened to see it, as it meant Ezra was cautious and would be careful.
Saemund and Raum followed Ezra into the hangar. Raum saw the reliquary instantly, and a shiver went down his spine. He felt nothing from it—the reliquary was doing its job and keeping the skull and its powers from leaking out into the wider world.
The sergeants and Major Grendel stopped by the doors, and aligned themselves along the wall, leaving Raum and Saemundto follow Ezra to the reliquary. Their footsteps echoed in the large space.
They all stopped a few feet away from the reliquary, and while Raum felt nothing, the air seemed oppressive, colder somehow. Maybe it was just the large metal building they were in, and his imagination was running wild.
“Can you see anything?” Raum asked his grandfather. Saemund was staring at the large container, the bronze fittings and polished marble ostentatious and at odds with the spartan hangar.
“I can,” Saemund answered him, hands in his pockets, eyes mournful. “It’s a terrible thing to see.”
“I see and feel nothing,” Raum said, a mix of disappointment and gladness. He wasn’t sure he wanted to see the skull within. A living soul trapped in a deceased body—not even a body, a single body part—had to be hell. Even for a goddess.
“If you can’t see the skull you can’t connect to it,” Ezra said, looking at Raum and Saemund. “How do you connect to each other? Do you meditate?”
“Not as humans do, but we can enter a trance and see within ourselves as well as without, to see the layers of this world,” Saemund replied. “As I said earlier, it’s useful when teaching our young how to utilize their abilities, or when establishing a mate bond as adults, things like that. I can connect to you, too, if you let down your mental shields. It is deeply intimate, so be prepared for that.”
“You can connect to Raum, and let him see the skull through your senses?” Ezra asked. “You may not need me to connect to you at all if you and Raum can do this.”
“I should be able to,” Saemund replied. “Making a connection is easy. What would you have us do?”
Ezra looked at the reliquary then at Raum and Saemund. “I can’t open the reliquary without triggering the storm, andneither Raum nor I can connect to it while it’s in the reliquary. We need you, Saemund, to connect to the skull, let Raum make contact through you, and then see if Raum can convince her to fade. Bring me into the connection if there’s trouble.”
“All without opening it,” Raum was making sure.
Ezra nodded. “Without opening it.”
“Raum, I’ll show you what to do as we go since you haven’t done a mind connection before,” Saemund sighed. “And I need a chair. I’m not sitting on the cold floor.”
Ezra
