Feniks is silent for a moment, then sighs deeply. “They must never learn of our ability to shift.”
No shit, Sherlock.
“Any luck with Wes,” I ask.
“Theo says it’s as if she can only get a teaspoon of Lumina into him at a time, and Wes needs gallons for the profound deficit within him.”
Gods, he’s verbose sometimes.
“So, how many teaspoons in a gallon?”
“Seven hundred and sixty eight,” he immediately replies. “Which obviously means that at the rate the Lumina transfer is going, Wes will not receive the Lumina he needs anytime soon.”
“Well fuck. What are we supposed to do? Can’t she dial it up?”
Feniks sits bolt upright and looks like he wants to punch me. “She’s not a machine, you asshole. Don’t you think she’s trying as hard as she can. She was wrecked after I sneaked her in there this afternoon.”
Shit. I swipe a hand through my hair. “I didn’t mean anything by that, it’s just…Wes, you know? I’m worried.”
Feniks takes a deep breath then leans forward, elbows on knees. “Tell me more about these Cadets. Is it all the Elites?”
“What the fuck do I care? It’s a pathetic waste of time. Time that should be spent freeing Wes from his fucking cursed mind.” I swallow. “Or freeing Theodora from the threat of being taken.”
“You care for her,” Feniks says. Not smugly, which is good, because I wouldn’t stand for that, but with a quiet certainty.
“Yes, I care for her. What of it?”
Once again images flash through my mind of all the hideous ways I’ve abused Theodora Wilson. It makes an involuntary groan escape from my lungs.
She’ll never forgive me. And I don’t blame her one bit.
“You’ll have to make it right, somehow,” Feniks says. “She needs us all.”
“I’m sure she’d be perfectly happy to have me nowhere near ‘team Sparkles’,” I snap back. “She doesn’t needmeat all.”
Surprisingly, Feniks looks pained. “That’s where you’re wrong. You’re part of her bond. Her True Bond. My gryphon knows it. I will never doubt his knowledge.”
If what he’s saying is true, then something occurs to me. “Theodora needs to reach her full potential to be able to send the dark energy back into the void, and seal the portals.”
“Yes.”
“So Ihaveto be part of her bond.” My heart lifts at the thought.
“And Wes,” Feniks adds.
Fuck, yeah. And Wes. Who is currently fully unresponsive to anything.
“So what do I do?”
Feniks shakes his head. “I can’t tell you, Drakeward.”
“I thought you were the all-knowing gryphon,” I scoff. Fucking twat.
“You have to heal what you broke, and that, for you, I imagine will be a Herculean task.”
‘Heal what I broke.’The way Feniks talks, it’s like I can make something beautiful out of the wreckage of my non-relationship with Theodora. Does he think I’m a fucking Japanese potter, filling cracks with gold?
I’m not. I’m a Grade-A prick who has never grovelled in his life. I wouldn’t even know where to start.
