Page 44 of Ignited

Karisma obviously didn’t like the sound of that. Losing contact with your animal was as bad as not being able to make it go away.

DB went on, “Mainly, though, it’s debilitating. She probably won’t be able to get out of bed for a few days, and it will take a while to get her strength back.”

“That’s not too bad,” Mikey said to Karisma. “You can stay here, at the Ridge. Kick back. Eat chocolate. Binge all the TV shows you’ve missed.”

But Boomer was watching Karisma, and he knew what she was thinking.

Days in bed. More days helpless. Unable to defend herself, with those fake FBI agents still after her.

Not knowing if there was anyone here she could really trust.

“I can’t do it,” she said. “I’d rather have the potion.”

Michelangela opened her mouth, but Boomer shook his head at her. “Can we have a minute?”

Mikey and DB exchanged glances, and then got up and walked to the other end of the room to give them some privacy.

Boomer took Karisma’s hands. “Hey, Kittycat. I understand how you feel—”

“No, you don’t.”

He sighed. “Okay, maybe not. I know you have no reason to trust them. Or the rest of us, for that matter. But the Ridge is surrounded by magical wards, and the entire pack is tuned in to anything coming into our territory. It’s hard to find a safer place than this. Plus, Thanatos is fucking omniscient.”

“Oh, that makes me feel better.”

Damn. He sucked at this. “Look. Thanatos needs you, to bring down that sorcerer. And that’s what you want, right? You want your revenge. You want your life back. You want everything Maximilian took from you.”

“Damn right.”

“So if you let DB do the spell, then you’ll be stable enough to finish your mission. And I’ll make sure you get a fair deal from Thanatos. Nobody messes with the guy holding the explosives.”

That made her smile, a little. But she still shook her head. “You’ve always had your brother. If anything happened to you, he was there. I have no one.”

That hurt—more even than he would’ve expected. “You have me,” he said quietly. “Look at me, Kittycat.” She looked up and met his eyes. “I, Boomer, swear to you that I will throw myself and every grenade I own at anything that threatens you while you’re here. And I’ll personally be at your side the entire time. Making you burned toast and disgusting overbrewed tea.”

That got a slightly bigger smile, like he hoped it would. She hesitated.

“Come on, you crazy reckless tiger. Take a chance. I know you want to.”

She looked into his eyes for a long moment, and then down at their clasped hands. The silence stretched out.

Finally she said, “Okay. I’ll do it.”

DB decided to do the spell right there in Thanatos’ throne room. First he put wards around the room, which were basically like a combination of a magical security system and a sci-fi force field.

After that, he conjured a full-length fur-lined cloak, whipped it off his shoulders and laid it on the floor. Then he pulled a handful of magical crystals out of his backpack, and he and Ziggy-Thing laid them in a pattern around the cloak.

Finally, he gestured to Karisma. “Lie down there, on the cloak.” He narrowed his eyes at Boomer and added, “You get inside the crystal circle too.”

“What for?” Karisma asked.

He raised his eyebrows. “Because I’m the dragon sorcerer, and I said so.”

She turned to Mikey. “Is he always this bossy?”

“When it comes to magic, yes. But he knows what he’s doing.”

Karisma lay down, the tip of her tail twitching with annoyance. Boomer said, “Where do you want me?”