Did it mean that he genuinely had been trying to protect her all this time? Did it excuse his betrayal? Was there any chance for them? She had no idea.
All she knew was that she couldn’t let him sacrifice himself. They had to stop him before he made the situation even worse. If Gordon got hold of James’s blood, it would be a disaster. But ultimately that horrifying possibility wasn’t why she was so terrified. It was the thought of James tortured—hurt, alone, and suffering at the hands of his uncle, possibly even dead—that was unbearable.
And it had played over in her mind a thousand times since they’d sped back to try and intercept James. And a thousand times more since she and Kay had broken into the charming private garden in the center of the square to hide and watch the road.
Their task was to grab James before he made it through Gordon’s door. They were far enough away from the mansion to avoid the wards, and with a bit of luck, no one would ever imagine that they might come back. Now, all they had to do was pray they’d arrived first, hope that James wasn’t already being tortured by Gordon, and wait until he showed up.
Riley closed her eyes for a second, sending another brief desperate plea into the universe.Please let James be alive. Let us get to him first.Later, when he was safe, she could decide how she felt about everything else.
Zach and Emma were watching from the other end of the road, ready to grab James if he came that way, while Ethan was circling the block. They were in place, ready. But something still felt wrong. As if there was something important she’d forgotten. Something she should have checked or thought of.
Riley rubbed at the ache in her chest just as her Shadows leaped. Before she could drag them back, they swirled out, searching, knowing… James was nearby.
Kay stiffened beside her, and Riley focused back on the road just in time to see him turning the corner from the high street. Even at a distance, she knew those shoulders and heavily muscled arms, that tussled golden hair. But something was off.
He stumbled and then paused, dragging a hand down his face. After a moment, he seemed to steady himself. Then, without ever once looking around, he marched unsteadily toward Gordon’s door.
James was a Guardian. Healwayslooked around. What on earth was he doing?
Kay whispered a terse set of orders into her phone, calling Zach in as she unspooled a large Shadow rope. Then she tucked the phone into her pocket and glanced at Riley. “Ready?”
Hell no. But that wasn’t going to stop her. Riley hauled the Shadows around her into a far less elegant rope, coiled it around the spiked fence, and held on tight. “Let’s go.”
They leaped together, using their Shadows to vault over the shrubbery and onto the street, their feet touching the ground just as James reached Gordon’s front step.
They started to run, desperation pushing them forward.
“James!” Zach called frantically as he flew toward them from the other end of the street with Emma just behind him. “Stop!”
James flinched, then spun slowly. He looked as if he was trying to peer down the road toward Zach, but he was listing to one side, and he dragged his wrist over his eyes as if they hurt. But then he shook his head roughly, turned back toward the door, and lifted his hand to the knocker.
Was James so determined to get back to Gordon that he was prepared to ignore his oldest friend? What the hell was really going on?
“James!” Riley called, but he didn’t even flinch.
Kay grunted beside her, lifting her hands to weave Shadows as she ran. She launched them outward and a huge cloud of midnight-blue Shadows poured over James.
Riley added hers in a storm of jade and charcoal, and together they wrapped him in their Shadows and hauled him back, away from the door.
He fought them, lashing out with his own Shadows, but he was far weaker than she could ever have imagined. His Shadows were hardly visible within the maelstrom that she and Kay had created, his sky-blue faded and strangely fragmented.
James fell to his knees as they reached him, face contorted with desperate fear. Damn it. He didn’t seem to know them at all. He’d abandoned his weapons and his Shadows, fighting in the most primal, basic way, with flailing fists and desperation, as they battled to contain him.
And that was when Gordon’s front door opened. With the worst possible timing, Finn, a Council Healer, stepped out. His olive-green-hued Shadows lashed around him, and his face twisted as he absorbed the sight of James kneeling on the ground.
Finn raised his eyes to hers, taking in the swarm of Shadows pouring around her and Kay, and he twisted to shout into the house. “Diedre, get out here!”
Hell. Finn was calling one of the most powerful Guardians in the Order. They didn’t have time to convince James to stop fighting them.
“Get him up, Zach, we have to go,” Kay muttered frantically. “Right. Now.” But as she spoke, James collapsed and began to convulse.
Riley flung out a cushion of Shadow on instinct, then lowered him gently to the road as his muscles spasmed. “Wait! Don’t move him!” Riley put out a hand to stop Zach from lifting him and threw herself down beside James instead. God. Why was he seizing?
Finn shifted his weight uncertainly as he watched them, but he didn’t interfere. A second later, Brayden—one of the Council’s Seers—rushed up beside him. “What the fuck?” Brayden barked, but Finn stalled him. “There’s something wrong with him. Something fundamentally… diseased.”
Riley could hear the disgust in his voice. At any other time, she would have been outraged at a Healer who didn’t run to help when someone was in need, but she didn’t have time to think about anything other than James.
Beside her, Kay took a threatening step toward the two Council members, daggers raised, and placed herself protectively over James. “Get back in the house.”
