And really, that was no choice at all.
I wouldn’t be Erlik’s weapon, but I could make myself their shield.
An eerie calm deadened the panic, and I sank into the idea. I refused to become the nightmare, and had instinctively protected Angel by restitching an old rune. Why couldn’t I do the same at a larger scale? There might not be anything left of me when this was over, but they’d all be safe, and that had to mean something. Right?
The vibrant tapestry of the world brightened behind my closed lids, and I could see it as easily as if I had stared at a video screen magnified to define all the threads. My power knotted close at heart, but a growing pulse of strands led off into the distance, tying to my developing friendships and turning into family. The connections shimmered like constellations, some brighter than others—the strongest two were Nox and Angel—Ivan’s not far behind.
I was held together by a thousand knots, a tapestry of memories, love, and will. It was a staggering truth, a person wasn’t a solid thing, but a careful weaving of a millioninteractions, connections, and directions. To unravel it was to unmake them. This was a power far beyond the necromancy everyone had feared. I didn’t just command the threads of the dead. I held the very threads of life itself, and I knew, with chilling certainty, that I could unmake it.
And the only way to save the lives woven into mine was to unravel myself.
I turned my focus inward, to the brilliant, shimmering cords connecting me to my world—to Nox’s warm silver, Angel’s blazing gold, Ivan’s bright, brave strand. I poured all my love, all my regret, all my hope into a final, silent message down those lines.
I love you,I sent, the thought sharp and stinging my very soul with tears.And I’m sorry. I’d have hoped to be stronger, to have learned how to stand and fight this shadow nightmare.
44
Then,with a breath that felt like my last, I gathered up the thousand knots that weremeand severed them in one painful swoop, weaving the raw essence of my power, my love, my very soul, directly into the threads of those I loved.
For a few fast breaths it was agony, a soul deep flaying of my consciousness. Weaving my essence into their hearts as a barrier gave me a few seconds of balm to ease the pain before the dam broke. All of me flooded into them—power, heart, soul, and hope. I prayed they understood, even as the last of my strength waned.
I reinforced Angel’s golden bond, weaving my essence into a fortress around his soul. The fear that had haunted me, that he would fade, vanished. He would be safe. My final act would be his shield. The last snags of his trauma, healed, leaving behind an unbreakable anchor of pure, protective love.
Nox’s wild magic fluttered with panic as it recognized my intent. His spirit, still refueling its strength, clung to mine. But I reanchored him as a guardian to Angel and Ivan, weaving a conduit of shared energy and protection between them.
Then I turned to the newer threads. For Ivan, I wove a shield of fierce, big brother love, a barrier that would harden with anythreat, hoping it would grant him the resilience I wouldn’t be there to give. For Remi, Wade, Tiana, for the whole team, I sent a final spark of my own stubborn will to live, a gift of resilience woven into the fabric of their souls which would add strength to their abilities, healing, and clarity. And finally, to those beyond the supernatural reach, I gave them peace—Grandpa, Nikki, and even my old partner, Joe.
The last dregs of my consciousness began to disintegrate as the final threads began to slip free from my fingers, and Erlik roared a scream of pure, cosmic rage, “What have you done?”
Erlik dug into my soul, searching for the power, and found it empty. He grasped the last few threads and tugged, coiling them around my body as if it were all he needed to hold me together and use my power, but there was so little left, I doubted it was the magic he’d dreamed of.
“Useless parasite,” he snarled.
The connection to the void snapped. For a single, weightless moment, I was falling.
A jarring, icy shock stole my breath. My eyes flew open. I was submerged in a thick, viscous liquid that glowed with a faint, sickly green light. It burned with a cold that seeped into my bones, my chest, my empty soul. Through the distorted glass, I could see the hazy outlines of other jars, other forms suspended in the same eerie solution. The soul prison.
Erlik’s larder.
Panic, dull and distant, tried to surface, but my body had nothing left to give it. My limbs were leaden, my thoughts scattering like smoke. The green liquid pressed in, a cold, chemical kiss, pulling me down into a silence deeper than any I had ever known.
My eyes closed. Darkness, true and absolute, swallowed me whole.
The final thing I knew was not Erlik’s rage, but the distant, steady pulse of Angel’s heart, now beating with a rhythm woven from my own, and the faint, purring echo of a little dragon’s love. They were safe.
Then, there was only silence.
45
ANGEL
I rifledthrough the dresser drawers, my movements sharp with frustration. If Cassidy and Bowman were cult partners, there had to be a clue here. Something the first SED team might have missed because they didn’t know what they were looking for. Did they understand this cult at all? Not that I could say we did either, which made my irritation with Sergeant Hanna grow, knowing she hid things from us.
Two decades of trust thrown out the window. And her having boxes of redacted information delivered couldn’t repair that rift. If she hadn’t helped me protect Jude the second I’d revealed he and I were mates, I’d have left the SED already and taken my whole team with me.
My attention kept returning to Jude. Even shrouded in Remi’s shadow-walker spell, I could read the tension coiled in his lean frame. A few weeks wasn’t long enough to truly know someone, but my instincts had been tuned to him since that first day in the lobby at work. A hopeful knot in my chest, cursing fate for the timing, yet praying he was mine.
What was he sensing that I couldn’t? That had to be the most difficult part of our relationship. I was used to being hyperaware of everyone and everything around me. Part militarytraining, part instinct borne from my cat half. That Jude’s senses perceived things beyond the Veil made me worry. How could I protect him from something I couldn’t see or sense?
