David’s back arched, his body shuddering as he screamed again, and his eyes rolled back in his head.
“Everything comes to this,” Bryn answered, but Elizabeth hardly heard him. Her vision was back, somehow overlaying reality. Two desperate fights for survival. The pivotal moment.
Ethan called to David here as—there—a blade shattered, and darkness roared. She fought against the Sight. She couldn’t help there. She had to behere.
“I love you, David!” She gripped his shoulders, shaking him. “Fight for me!”
He shuddered helplessly, gasping one last mouthful of desperate air. And then, as if a string had been cut, he collapsed back down, unmoving.
“No, no, no.” Ethan scrambled around the bed, fingers going unerringly to David’s throat to check for a pulse. The grief written over his face told her what she already knew. There wasn’t one.
Ethan knelt on the side of the bed and leaned down, his face turned to place his cheek to David’s mouth as he watched the older man’s chest. It didn’t move. “Starting chest compressions in ten seconds,” Ethan murmured.
They had never joined their Shadows before, but that didn’t stop her. Elizabeth opened her heart and poured herself into David.
Love. Strength. Joy. And hope. She gave it all to him.
Ethan continued to count, but she didn’t look away from David. She settled one hand on David’s heart, the other on Ethan’s shoulder. Bryn rested one hand on her back and one on David’s shoulder as his Shadows joined hers.
Friendship. Love. Trust. Loyalty.
Ethan’s Shadows folded around them in forest-green-and-charcoal waves.
Admiration. Kindness. Trust. Love.
And then David opened his eyes. He opened his eyes and looked right at her. He drew in a shuddering breath. And then another. And the last dark Shadows slowly broke apart and faded away.
He was alive. And Elizabeth lay her head on his chest and sobbed.
David stroked a trembling hand over her hair. “Don’t cry, Liz, please,” he whispered brokenly. “I’m here.”
She shook her head against his chest and cried even harder.
ChapterTwenty-Seven
James clungto Riley’s hand as the black cab pulled up outside the Circle House, and they all spilled out.
Kay had called Elizabeth as soon as she could, and they knew David was awake. But the hours that had passed before they could leave the museum had lain heavily on all of them.
It was a relief to walk back through the familiar door, through the same plush foyer. The house smelled of lemon cleaner like it always had. He’d lived there for years—for longer than he’d lived anywhere else in the world. It was home. And yet, so much had changed.Hehad changed.
Riley had called 999 as soon as they realized Gordon was dead. Police officers arrived with the paramedics, and it took hours for everyone to be interviewed and Gordon’s body assessed and finally taken.
There was no suspicion against anyone. The Shadow backlash had stopped Gordon’s heart, but it hadn’t left a mark, and no one had heard their almost silent battle hidden deep beneath the church.
Instead, Diedre weeping over Gordon, almost incoherent, shocked, and twitching from the blood Shadow backlash, had caught the focus of the paramedics. She’d refused any Healing from Riley, and eventually, she was led away, the blue lights of the ambulance glowing against the pallor of her skin. She would be taken to a Duine hospital. No longer a threat.
When she emerged again, she would face the Order along with the rest of the failed Council. And, in the meantime, the rest of them were finally free to go.
Free. What did that even mean?
James should have been more than relieved. He should have been joyful. He should have felt hope for the future, or something positive. But the truth was, he didn’t know what he felt.
He’d listened to Riley calling her parents from the cab. Their joy had echoed around him as they made plans for the future. They would travel down to see their daughter. They wanted to learn about her home. Riley would be the senior Healer for all of London, and her family wanted to see her clinic and meet her friends—sisters now.
Riley had found her home. Kay was the new Custodian of the London Circle, and Zach was talking about opening a bakery with Emma. But James’s plans had all revolved around becoming Gordon’s second in command and helping to guide the Order. Then, when he could finally see clearly, his only goal had been to kill Gordon and, if he couldn’t get her back, somehow find a way to live without Riley.
Now Gordon was dead. And James had Riley beside him, thank God. But that’s where all his hopes had stopped.
