“Then get me some mage wine,” I growled. “And I’ll make more.”
“It…” Elaine’s voice cracked behind me, and I flinched at her sudden appearance. A small sob escaped her lips before she pressed on. “It didn’t work. They tried … everything…”
Everything?
I grabbed the knife at Rage’s waist and yanked it out. Without hesitation, I ran the blade over my palm, pushing it deep into the skin and muscle underneath. A searing pain radiated up my arm, and I dropped the weapon to the floor before pulling the sheet covering Justice’s chest down.
Elaine’s gasp registered, and my stomach heaved at the mangled mess that was Justice’s chest.
Bile burned the back of my throat, but I forced it down as I inched closer, pushing Rage to step back.
“Uh, Nai,” Noble said, reaching for me. “What are you—?”
If I opened my mouth, there was a good chance I’d vomit, but that wasn’t what bound my tongue. The air around Justice was shimmering, and something deep inside me told me I didn’t have time to explain.
He was on the verge of death.
With blood dripping from my fingers, I ran my hand over Justice’s shattered ribs and shredded flesh, pushing whatever spirit magic I had into his body to tie his soul to his mortal form.
You can’t have him, I thought to the Keeper of Souls. And then I begged every power within the universe:Please work. Please work…
My vision blurred, and my tears dripped into the wound, joining the blood and magic. I needed this magic to seal his spirit back to his body, and his body needed to heal so the two could be whole once more. I bowed my head and pleaded…
Mother Mage, please let this work.
There was something healing about my blood that I hadn’t yet learned enough about, but if my blood mixed with mage wine made a healing elixir, then maybe my blood plain was even more powerful? Justice was getting the bare minimum Spirit 101 here, and I was just going to have to try my best. Gramps was too sick to help, so I was all he had right now, and it had to be enough.
‘Is it … is it working?’ Rage asked, his voice filled with pain and longing.
I opened my mouth to say I wasn’t sure, but then I felt it. Sunshine and joy. Hope and love. Health and wholeness.Justice.
I gathered every ounce of spirit magic I could muster and threw it into my dear friend. His soul appeared then, hovering just over the bed as a white translucent figure, and with a yank, he fell back into his body.
My palm and fingers tingled, and I smiled.
“Oh. My. Mage,” Noble gasped.
‘Nai?’ Rage’s voice was filled with awe, and I felt his arm slide around my waist.
Justice coughed, and my eyes widened as he grabbed my wrist.
“Dude,” Justice said, his lips pulling upward as his gaze jumped from me to Rage. “Tell your mate to stop feeling me up.”
This time, when tears pricked my eyes, they were filled with joy and relief. I pulled my hand free from Justice’s and shook my finger at him. “Don’t youeverdo that again, you hear?”
His eyes widened, and he nodded, “Yes, ma’am,” but there was nothing serious in his expression or voice when he spoke.
Then I sank back into Rage and asked, “What the hell happened?”
* * *
Rage ledme into his room where he slipped into the attached bathroom to take a quick shower and wash off the blood.
I pulled on a pair of his sweatpants and a soft t-shirt that smelled like him and then climbed up on his bed. Sitting there, I bopped my leg nervously as the scene with Justice played over and over in my mind. There was so much blood. So. Much. Blood. And what the mage did he mean when he said blood mages werevampires? The first day I’d met the Midnight brothers, hadn’t one of them said some of the vampire royalty lived in the cliffs, but after the Mage Wars, the vampires were mostly extinct? Were they back? How many were there?
A billow of steam escaped the bathroom, followed by Rage. He wore a low-slung pair of sweatpants; a few droplets of water trailed down his chiseled chest.
Yum.
