David groaned, his Shadows spilling out to pool on the floor with his life’s blood. The cobalt blue Shadows fluttered weakly, already beginning to fade to gray.
Riley threw herself to her knees beside James, her Shadows flooding out. She had to Heal David. Shehadto. But dark Shadows seeped from the wound, burning and corrupting everything they touched. Her Shadows were beaten back again and again, even as David’s lacerated heart stuttered.
Bryn and Ethan flung themselves down beside her, their Shadows joining hers. But the darkness twisted and slithered, running like bruises up their Shadows and over their skin. Every attempt at Healing, every chance to save David, was repelled by the malignant Shadows in the blade.
“Why would you do that?” James demanded, staring down at David. His eyes were wet, his hands shaking as he brushed David’s hair back from his pasty sweat-damp face.
“I… couldn’t let you….” David swallowed. “I didn’t….” He took a rough gasping breath. “I had to tell you.”
“Nothing was that important. Nothing.” James leaned down, his face pressed against David’s was almost the same shade of bone-white. “The blade was for me. You should have let me take it.”
David coughed, his mouth speckled with blood as he lifted his shaking hand up to cradle James’s face. “A father doesn’t… stand back.” His stained lips twisted into a trembling smile. “I… love you, James.”
David’s breath rattled and he closed his eyes. His hand slipped from James’s face as his Shadows broke and drifted across the cold ground before slowly fading away.
ChapterEighteen
James’s heartshredded in his chest. The pain was so acute that it was as if the blade was embedded in his own flesh.
He tightened his grip on David’s shoulder as he fought to hold in the scream that wanted to rise through his throat.
Elizabeth collapsed beside him, her face streaked with tears as she wiped David’s hair from his forehead with trembling fingers.
“Please,” James whispered, not quite knowing what he was asking for. Any Dru-vid could see the Healing Shadows Riley, Ethan, and Bryn were pouring into David had no effect. Instead, the mottled black-and-purple stains crawling up their Shadows from the dagger vibrated with dark malice, and soon, they would be forced away from their patient.
Somehow, David’s blood had opened some kind of seal on the dagger. Centuries' worth of blood Shadows were spilling out in a toxic wave. No longer contained in the blade, they writhed over the hilt, through David, and into the Healers; hundreds of times more potent than the blood Shadows they’d pulled out of James that night in the abbey.
David was almost gone. But the others would die trying to save him anyway. No one could survive prolonged exposure to the dark Shadows pouring from the blade. Unless….
There was only one thing he could try, and there was no time to hesitate.
James lifted his eyes to Riley’s. She was sweating with the effort of trying to save David. Her curly hair stuck to her skin, dark circles highlighting the pallor of her face. And she had never been more beautiful. “I love you, Riley.” He smiled at her. “Thank you for giving me another chance. I wish I’d told you how precious you are to me before everything went to hell. I wish I’d told you every day.”
And then he closed his hand over the hilt of the dagger and pulled.
James screamed. His world blazed into agony as molten lava traveled up his veins. Dark bruises swarmed over his skin while his muscles spasmed and shivered. Murky visions assailed him. Roman soldiers bleeding out in a silent grove. A young Emma weeping, clutching a battered fabric tiger. Ancient warriors kneeling, caged by wicker. Himself as a teenager, filled with terror. “You will be calm,” a voice muttered. The bowl and the blade and the blood.
“James!” Riley’s voice was panicked and breathless, but he couldn’t answer. Everything he had was focused on holding himself together. He didn’t dare let go of the dagger. If he did, the blood Shadows would spread out, uncontained. This way, he could hold them within his body.
His body would be sacrificed. He wanted to howl with the grief of it. Now, when he finally had a chance at a future, he had to let it go. But if it meant Riley and the others lived, there was no other choice. In the end, that was all that mattered.
“Help David.” He forced the words through his cracked lips as he fought his cramping muscles for control. Then he staggered to his feet and took an aching step.
He could do this. He could get the stone blade away from the people he loved.
Riley’s Shadows rolled and twisted, the jade clearing as the dark Shadows leached away from her, drawn to him. But he could see she was about to follow. Her eyes were wet and shining as she whispered, “Don’t make me choose.”
“There’s no choice.” His voice was rough, sounding a million miles away, even to his own ears. “Save David. Please.”
He forced one weighted foot in front of the other, each step a marathon as he lumbered away, pulling the blood Shadows with him.
Kay reached for him, Zach at her side. But James grunted out the last of his breath. “Don’t.” He dragged himself another foot. “Don’t touch me.”
Bryn gripped Riley’s and Ethan’s shoulders, their Shadows swirling together, surrounding David, stronger and more assured with every second.
The darkness clawing over his vision made it impossible to be certain, but James almost imagined he saw a wisp of cobalt Shadow slowly twisting through the air over David’s chest, stretching out toward Elizabeth.
“James.” Riley’s voice came stronger this time even as she concentrated on David. “Use the vervain. Wash off the blood. Break your connection to the blade.”
