“You understand?” he asked Sylas.
Sylas stared out at him for several moments of painful intensity.
Kai was grimacing at the emotion bleeding out everywhere.
He wasn’t the only one.
Movement in my peripheral vision caught my attention, and then Evira and Vax were quietly and stealthily stepping out onto the porch with me.
“Love you,”I mouthed to them.
They mouthed it back, then wrapped their arms around me, as the three of us looked on.
I smiled when Win noticed us, or maybefeltus even, and discreetly acknowledged us.
That we were here with him.
And he wasn’t hiding it this time.
Sure, he’d gone to Kai quietly, but that had been to see if this could even be done. Win didn’t hide shit anymore, not in the way he used to. He just liked to have all his ducks in a row before he brought things up.
The three of us knew damn well that if he’d wanted to keep us out of this, he would have ensured he’d felt our approach long before we’d been standing here watching and listening.
Sylas then stepped up to Win and clasped his shoulders. “I do understand, son.”
“Yeah?”
“If the narrative concerning you is disarmed, you believe you can be free.”
“And you? Do you believe that?”
Sylas smiled sadly. “What I believe is that doing this will bring you peace.” He gave his shoulders a squeeze. “So you’re gonna take it. Do this. It’s what’s right for you, what you need.”
Win’s eyes shone at him, then they hugged tightly.
When they eased back, Sylas gave Kai a chin lift.
“All right,” Kai said, striding closer, “So with your idea to useNihilumbraalongside the mechanism of the Encompassing Inhibitor to create this fail-safe, there are some aspects that’ll need to be reworked.”
Winter gave a nod, listening with that deeply concentrated look on his face.
Kai went on, “As you know, the Encompassing Inhibitor was developed by Arcanum Order several decades back to be used on Ketheron when he was considered a threat. Not due to anything he’d done, but because that sick fuck, Corvin Morvain, had a hold on him. In that particular case, the moment Corvin attempted to influence Ketheron again, the moment his power touched him, the Encompassing Inhibitor would nullify Ketheron’s magic and power. In your case, we’ll forge it so that if your power becomes unstable—if you lose control—a response will be triggered that will activate a flood ofNihilumbrathrough your system, which will nullify your magic. Now, there are times where you may have to reach new heights of power to perform a certain spell, or in a future battle where things are chaotic by nature. With these parameters in place, it could trigger the nullification unnecessarily. So, we won’t have it automatically activate.”
“You’re saying somebody should hold the trigger?”
“Yes.” Kai held up his hand at Sylas. “Not you. Not any of his parents. Not Ketheron. Not his loves. No one will trust in that. Might as well not have the fail-safe at all, the public will never believe you’ll actually activate it.”
“Ambrose,” Winter said.
“Ambrose?”
“Definitely. He can see the forest for the trees when things get crazy. He cares about me so he’d be very careful about using this, but he alsowouldactually use it if it came down to it.”
“And the world, given what they think they know about him, would definitely believe he’d use it,” Kai agreed.
Sylas gave a nod. “Yeah. It needs to be him.”
“All right, then. We’ll make the ask, then see to the spell,” Kai said.
