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Victor inhaled sharply, eyes going black, but he nodded. He held out a hand, and motes carefully landed. He stared at me with awe as he handed them over, adding them to the pile swarming me.
“I think if we get enough of them, he can pull himself together.” I looked at Zhenjun for answers. The Marshal shrugged, though I caught the tightness of his shoulders. He’d wanted help, and maybe even for Jude and me to succeed. Without Jude, once again, it was all on him.
“Now me.” Wade put a careful hand on my arm.
The thread of the protection spell connected us all, and I opened my power for them to feel. It was a heartbeat of recognition, as if they’d all experienced it before, which they had, when they’d all shifted after Jude was taken.
Wade flinched, his hand going to his chest. “Holy—” He fought back his change for a few seconds, the weight of the power overwhelming, though I’d oddly become used to the burden. Using Jude’s stretched soul shield, I could link them all to my power, making them Bastions as well. Protectors of the Arbiter. If they were willing.
“Breathe,” I whispered. “It’s a lot. I know.”
Wade nodded, jaw tight, eyes squeezed shut. When he opened them again, they were darker. Not black, but shadowed. Like he was seeing the world through a new lens and still figuring out how to focus.
“I see them,” he said, voice rough. “The motes. They’re... everywhere.”
“They’re Jude.”
He flinched, but didn’t pull away. Just nodded once, sharp and determined. “Then let’s put him back together.”
I turned to Bobby next. He hesitated, fingers twitching at his sides.
“You don’t have to,” I said. “Any of you. This isn’t an order.”
“Didn’t think it was.” Bobby stepped forward and placed his hand on my arm. “Jude saved my life. Least I can do is help save his.”
Bobby seemed to absorb it, his vampiric nature drinking in the shadows like they were water. His eyes went fully black for a heartbeat, then cleared. He blinked, shook his head, and let out a low whistle.
“Well, that’s a mindfuck.”
“Told you.”
Ezra was next. “Let’s do this.”
The power surged through him, and he rode it, teeth gritted, eyes burning gold. The wolf inside him surged to the surface, but he held it back. Controlled it.
“Fuck,” he breathed. “That’s what he sees all the time?”
“More, I think. He sees the threads. The connections. Everything.”
Remi approached last. He looked at my arm, then at me, then at the motes floating around us like dark snow. He placed his hand on my arm.
The power hit him like a wave. He gasped, staggered, would have fallen if Bobby hadn’t caught him. His eyes flashed between black and their usual green, his fae heritage and the Bastion power fighting for dominance.
“I’m okay,” he said, though he didn’t sound okay. “I’m okay. Just... a lot.” The green returned to his eyes, though it was flecked with gold now, a reminder of what he’d accepted.
My Bastion sight sharpened with each addition. The team added warmth and energy to the bond stretching between Nox, me, and Jude. Giving him strength, I hoped.
I needed to gather all the pieces of him and reconnect them. Jude might be scattered, but he wasn’t gone. Just a little fragmented. And who survived trauma without becoming a little broken? The test was if my love was enough to hold him together.
The team spread out, and I felt them through the bond, connected and determined. They moved through the house like a net, gathering the pieces of my mate.
I stood in the center of the room, arms outstretched, and let them bring him back to me. The motes gathered around, pressing close like they could suffocate me in the most harmless way possible. As his anchor, holding him together was my job. Leave it to Jude to take it literally.
43
JUDE
I blinked back into existence with stuttering confusion and chaos. One moment I was in the mental hospital, the next, a home office space. I was disoriented, as if waking from a dream. But Angel’s eyes widened the second he saw me, and my ghostly heart skipped a beat.
