I held fast, letting my primal instincts guide me to the tether that thrummed between Finley and me. I bound myself to it, feeling her magic swim through my veins as if I could summon death at my will now.
“Again,” Alastor said.
This time, when I felt the tug, our bond curled around our magic. Finley was guarding me as fiercely as I protected her.
We trained for hours. All three of us were growing more tired, but eager to get this right. The enormity of what Sama andHoshiko had entrusted to us weighed heavily. They’d already had so much loss, and that fueled my anger, my drive to not let them down. Too many depended on us, so we couldn't fail.
Sometimes we stumbled, the tether of our magic unraveling within our bond, and her gasp cutting through me. Other times, we held strong, threading ourselves so tightly that Alastor was the one to slip.
At the last attempt, a sense of power coiled too sharply. Unfamiliar with it, I tried to hold it tight, but before I could question it, Alastor staggered. His body went slack, and his knees buckled.
I lunged forward, catching him before he hit the ground. “Easy,” I muttered, lowering him carefully. His head lolled, eyes rolling back while blood streaked from his nose and mouth.
Fear punched through me, and I summoned the healing I’d relied on a thousand times before.
Nothing answered.
Desperate, I shifted my grip, not for magic but for the tether. Our bond flared in response, a sharp vibration where our magic joined, but nothing followed. No healing. No release. Just the empty echo of what should have poured through.
“Dammit.” I hauled him up, draping his weight over my shoulder.
Finley darted ahead, rushing into the tent when we reached camp. She came back with a pitcher of water and splashed it over Alastor’s face. He didn’t stir.
Her worried eyes found mine. “What do we do?”
Something inside me stirred, something foreign yet familiar. Something that was as much a part of me now as it’d always been to Finley.
I tightened my grip on Alastor’s wrist, feeling the faint, fluttering pulse beneath my thumb. Relief came sharp but short-lived.
“We can’t help him from here. Not while Vistos’s barrier smothers our magic.” My voice came out rough but sure. Yet my smoke magic had responded earlier, and I had felt power rise inside me moments ago. “Get Callan. We have to get him back to Vistos. Once we’re inside the wards, our magic will rouse him.”
She raced toward Callan’s camp while I pulled Alastor tighter against me, every muscle braced. He was more than an ally, more than a mage I’d befriended, more than Teddy’s cousin. He was family. And I wouldn’t let him slip away. Not here, not like this.
Chapter
Twenty-Six
BRENTON
Alastor’s pulsewas weaker by the time the boat carried us through Vistos’s barrier. Each flutter felt thinner while the air around us hummed with its magic. For what felt like the hundredth time, I reached for the tattoo on my palm, the mark that bound me to Eiran. Each time it’d remained silent, but now it thrummed with this awareness that made me queasy, telling me that Alastor was ready to go, that he didn’t want anyone fighting for his life.
The certainty of it unsteadied me. Who was I to choose for him? To pull him back when he’d decided to let go? Or to stand aside and lose someone I’d bled beside, someone I’d laughed with, someone who was as much family as Teddy was?
My throat burned. I looked at Finley, at the fierceness in her eyes despite the fear. The bond between us flamed, alive and bright and demanding. A living wire that held us together.
She was my foundation.
Alastor lay on the floor of the boat with Finley and me kneeling at his side. I braced a hand on his shoulder, and Finley’s palm covered mine. Our magic twined through our bond, my smoke braided with the red threads of her magic, and when wepoured it into him, it wasn’t her death magic that flowed through him but one of healing.
It swam through him, not forcing or dragging him back, but holding open the line and giving him the choice to follow the thread back or sever it forever.
Forgive me.Before I could stop them, the words soared through the threads that tied us to Alastor. Anger and shame burned in my chest, aimed squarely at myself. I’d been so certain I could keep Finley and me centered, so certain I could control the weight of our magic. I hadn’t thought about how easily it could break someone else.
It had to have been Finley’s magic that had risen a beat before Alastor fell. The memory curdled inside me.
Finley’s grip on my hand tightened where both our hands pressed against Alastor’s shoulder. His heart fluttered weakly, the threads of our magic weaving through him like fragile smoke, still giving him the option to return if that was what he chose.
A shadow swept over us. Hoshiko. He flew lower, his wings stirring the waves while a low rumble vibrated through the air.
