“And Gordon will have known all of this before he gave the blood Shadows to James?” Kay asked.
Bryn nodded.
Fuck. Who did that?
“What will happen to him?” Kay’s shoulders sagged and Ethan pulled her closer, wishing he could do something. Anything.
“I’m sorry, Kay,” Bryn said gently. “At this point, we don’t know how much of him is left.”
Her Shadows surged where they flickered against Ethan’s, dismay pouring through her and reverberating across to him.
What if she was right? What if James was genuinely a victim too? Was there, maybe, something they could do? “Could we siphon the blood Shadow out of him like dialysis? Or perhaps more like radiotherapy, if we target the specific areas in his Shadow?” Ethan asked slowly, running through options in his mind.
“I don’t know,” Bryn said tiredly. “I’ve never heard of anything like that being done, ever before, in all of our history. Honestly, until today, I would have sworn that this was an abomination that had been cleaned from the world.”
“But that’s not a no,” Ethan challenged.
“It’s not ‘no.’ We can try. Working together might make the difference.”
David folded his arms over his chest. “We can try. But you need to be clear that the James you see in front of you the next time you meet is not your friend. The old James might be gone forever.”
“And we all need to understand,” Bryn added, “that we don’t know what will happen to James if we pull his Shadows apart like that. We don’t know if he would even survive.”
Kay flinched beside him, and Ethan sent out a wave of his Shadows to enfold her, pouring his love and reassurance into her.
Slowly, her body relaxed while he and Bryn spoke softly around her, working through different options for Healing, trying to predict what might work most effectively if they were going to have any chance of success.
Elizabeth’s phone rang and Kay shot up, pushing the hair from her eyes. She pressed the button to answer and immediately put it on speaker. “Hello.”
“Hello, Kay.” It was James, sounding even more wheezy and unwell than he had before. “Are you alone?”
She bit her lip before answering carefully. “Ethan and Zach are on their way. I told them I needed them.”
“Good. Tell them not to drive the whole way to Elizabeth’s house. They need to go to Tintern Abbey. You remember it?”
“Yes.”
“Come first, alone, tonight at eleven o’clock,” James continued. “Tell Zach and Ethan to meet you fifteen minutes later.”
“Please, James.” Kay’s voice was almost a whisper. “You don’t need to do this. Bring Elizabeth back here and we can talk. We can sort everything out together. I’ll help you.”
There was a long silence before he answered. “I can’t, Kay. This is the best I can do. You’ll be well. It will all be well.”
“Okay, James,” she said softly just before he ended the call, her head bowed in a way that broke Ethan’s heart.
Slowly her spine straightened as if she was forcing it up by will alone. “I’ll go ahead, like he asked,” she said, “and hopefully get him to explain Gordon’s plan. Then you all follow ten minutes behind. He’s not expecting us to be working together, and we can overwhelm him. Try to Heal him.”
Ethan rubbed his thumb gently over her shoulder as he looked down at her, trying to keep his voice soft and even. Forcing himself not to say something stupid about her staying behind. “I’m not letting you go on your own.”
Kay glared at him until Ethan sighed. “Fine, maybeletwasn’t the best word. But I know you can see that this is a trap.”
She nodded sadly. “I do know. But if we all go in, he’ll sense you immediately, and then he’ll leave with Elizabeth. And if he takes her to Gordon….” She stared up at him, her eyes bright with worry.
She put her hand against his cheek, her fingers icy on his skin, and met his eyes as she continued, “Ethan, I’m a Guardian. This is what I do.”
“I know.” He swallowed to clear the lump in his throat. “I know how strong you are, and I love you for it. But this isnotwhat you usually do. This is a man you care about, even after everything he’s done. One who took Elizabeth against her will. One who won’t hesitate to hurt you—when you, Kay, youwillhesitate to hurt him back.”
He cupped his hand over hers, trapping her fingers against his cheek. “You don’t know what it was like, seeing you…. I almost lost you.”
