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I faced Lux. “You know how to direct it.”
“Yes.”
“I can give it power.”
“No.”
My mouth flattened. “Scarn said I could power wards for days. Is that true?”
Lux closed his eyes. “Yes, but it could kill you.” His jaw worked once before he corrected himself. “Do you want to try?”
“Yes.”
“You would have to pull from me first. My life force goes through you, your body converts it, multiplies it, and you feed the amplified energy into the ward.” His fingers closed around mine. “If it takes too much, it empties both of us.”
“So I’m a fucked-up supernatural transformer.”
“Liv.”
“I heard you.”
His jaw tightened. “If the ward keeps pulling after I’m empty, it starts taking from you.”
I looked at the screen. Daniel was still behind the barrier with eighty-six people trying to get through one tunnel. “Then we don’t let go until they’re through.”
“This is not the same as healing me. A city ward will pull until the circuit closes.”
“How much time do they need?”
Sam listened to Daniel. “Six minutes to clear the tunnel.”
“You’re injured.”
“So are eighty-six people standing behind a broken ward.”
His gaze dropped to my hand. He took it.
Vale brought a portable ward key from the emergency cabinet and placed it on the table. The black stone had silver lines carved through the center, each one pulsing weakly.
Lux covered it with one palm. He guided my hand over his.
“Take only what I offer,” he said.
“I remember.”
“The hunger will react when the ward pulls.”
“I remember that too.”
Lux nodded. His power opened beneath my palm. Darkness flowed into me in a measured thread. Hunger woke hard enough to make my mouth water. My fingers clamped around his hand while the instinct inside me begged for more.
I pulled. Power filled the hollow place inside me. Pink light crawled beneath my skin.
The source was obvious once it was inside me. Lux. His life force moved through my body, hit the hungry place beneath my ribs, and changed. What came back felt brighter, bigger, too much for my skin.
“Return it,” he said.
I pushed the energy back through him and into the ward key. The stone flared. Pain struck my stomach. I gasped, though Lux held me upright. Pink light spilled across the table, following the projected ward lines toward Angelfall.
