A choked sound escaped me, and my gut twisted.
“Sorry. I’m so sorry,” he said, fumbling, before he altered it to a simple black bathrobe.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, then managed to get a hold of myself, and ask what I needed, “So you are Rex Crowley, then? You knew him?”
“I did, yeah.”
“Is that why you tried to help me?” I frowned. “I’m missing something, if so, because the way I’ve heard it, you considered him a rival of yours.”
“Partly why, because he still had my respect, big time. But also because we need you. Those of us down here who aren’t exactly over the moon about being here, others of us who don’t want Sanctus brought onto the mortal plane.” He gestured at the bathroom door. “That room is soundproofed because he likes the calmness and privacy of it, but he doesn’t take that long, so we don’t have time to get into a whole thing. Just know that the lesson he subjected me to there was because I’ve been trying to help you since you got here.” When I went to ask more, he shook his head, then snapped his right palm up, his coral-colored magic flaming. “Later for all the rest. For now, this is what I believe you need from me. A boost so you can deliver a certain something to a certain someone. You try to do that while you’re in that pool or even afterward, and he’ll sense it. This is your only chance.”
“Deliver what?” I asked, forcing myself not to openly tense or react to what he was suggesting.
He rolled his eyes. “Ruxnoth required additional power to lock in that dreamscape he pulled you into involving that supernatural bath locale. He’d missed arestorative sessionto reach out to you because he was worried and wouldn’t wait. That power boost came from me. So I felt what you did.”
“What I did? I didn’t use my Necromancy on him.”
The corner of his mouth turned up. “Nice use of semantics there. Very carefully worded. That’s definitely something you inherited from Cassius.”
“What? You know Father?”
“Ruxnoth talks about him a lot. They used to be friends and—let’s focus on the immediate. You used your Wraith abilities in that dreamscape.”
Fuck.“I did?”
Another roll of his eyes. “Look, I used to be with a Shadowmancer. The similarity to Wraith magic is… a lot. I’d recognize it anywhere.”
That was…okay, then.
“You want to get that topside, you’ll need a boost to spark those abilities. He’s kept you in that poisonous shit for a really long time, so you’re gonna be tapped out for a while.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “Do it.”
He nodded, then held his hand out to me. “This is gonna be a bit of a rush, and then kind of uncomfortable because I’m pure necromancer using only Necromancy to boost your Wraith side. At least the twilight resonance between both will actually make it possible at all.”
I swallowed and grasped his hand.
In the next second, his coral magic surged where we were joined, then its glow shot along my arm, sparks erupting everywhere.
Sharp, painful sparks.
With my free hand, I turned my palm up very shakily, and pulled a little on his power to direct it there. Then I was able to call my Wraith frost to the surface—and what I’d taken that day. A sphere of frost with a sliver of midnight-blue and amber magic within—the magical manifestation of the warmth Ruxnoth used on me. A living equation to a fuck of a lot where he was concerned. Where defeating him and leveling Sanctus was concerned.
“Subitis,”I uttered, my frost flaring, before it then dematerialized as I sent it away.
To the one person who could receive it well.
We pulled away, Rex calling his power back.
“Good,” he said.
“You doing this… what about the ‘treatments’ you need?”
“Greater good and all that.”
Wow.
“Just so you know, what that contained might also be able to help you.”
