27
Alistair’s sinister laugh sliced through me like a blade. “This is magnificent, Theo!”
My knees burned where they pressed against the cold concrete, slick with blood from both new and existing wounds.
My arms trembled violently, fingers numb and blistered from the pressure of the sigils.
Every pulse of the lattice drained me further, tugging at my magic like a tide pulling sand from the shore.
I was hollow, a vessel barely keeping myself upright, every muscle screaming in protest.
“I … can’t do this.” My chest heaved with ragged breaths that felt too shallow to fill my lungs.
“Hold on, Theo!” Alex’s voice cut through the throbbing inside my head. I glanced over at him, still bound in chains and being restrained by the broad-shouldered rift warden. “You have to hold on a little longer. Please. I’ll save you. I promise.”
A humorless laugh escaped my lips. Hold on a little longer? I admired his determination, but I saw no way Alex could save me. His magic barely listened to him. How did he expect to take down Alistar, Mandy, and the entire Syndicate base by himself?
Despite this, I could feel a faint pulse of Alex’s magic reaching out to mine, giving me the strength I needed to keep going.
“Complete the array, Theo,” Alistair demanded. “Find him.”
“Find who?” I spat a wad of blood onto the floor. “What the fuck do you want from me?”
And yet, as the innermost circle blazed with magic, I felt something tugging at my senses.
It was weak, splintered, but alive, and it pulled at something deep inside me.
My magic surged instinctively, threading through the runes, weaving stability into the array as the silver chains bit deeper into my flesh.
Every spark of red energy that shot across the sigils felt like it was ripping at the edges of my own being, threatening to tear me apart entirely.
I glanced over at Alex. He looked nervous, but his gaze wasn’t focused on me. It was staring off toward the entrance to the bay. With my vision swimming, I couldn’t tell what had caught his attention, but I could have sworn I saw a shadow dart behind a tank.
All that was left was activating the last part of the array … the one that made me a living anchor, the emotional core needed to find the missing person the Syndicate was after.
My hands trembled as I slammed my palm onto the final rune, forcing the last shreds of magic from the hollow ache in my chest into the carved sigil.
For one breath, nothing happened. Then the innermost circle erupted chaotically around me, red light shooting upward in a blinding column as everything snapped into perfect synchronization.
Pressure crushed inward against my ribs, prying at my chest as if something inside me was being forced open.
Beneath the roar of magic, there was something faint and fractured. It felt like a heartbeat, but it wasn’t mine.
My magic reached out and locked onto it, the array narrowing around that distant pulse. I felt it shifting closer, and as it did, I saw it: dormant runes flared awake in violent synchronization with mine, reviving the innermost array with a flood of bright light.
Red light burst around me, and matter knitted together at its center.
It reminded me of Thomas when I had released him from being trapped in that urn.
At first, bone traced itself in lines of white light.
Muscle layered over it in slow, horrifying precision.
Then skin followed, translucent at first, then solidifying.
The sight froze me solid. The naked man’s eyes were closed, the figure was merely a body, an empty shell void of life. He was thin, his skin slightly tanned but lacking luster, his light brown hair tied back into a bun.
Caspian.
“You’re not done yet,” Alistair roared. “Find his soul! Bring him back alive!”
His soul? Alive? Caspian had given up his soul over a hundred years ago, and gave up his life when his magic latched onto me instead. Was there even anything left of him to find?
My hands trembled faster, palms burning against the sigils as I desperately tried to keep the array steady.
As much as I craved to release Caspian from this horror I’d dragged him into, letting him go now would only bring him endless pain and suffering, a half-broken body with no soul, no will to live.
I squeezed my eyes shut, guilt gnawing through me for everything I’d risked, everything I was about to do. My magic, the magic he’d gifted me, was seeking its original owner, bringing him back from a death he so desperately yearned for.
When I forced my eyes open, a yellow flower petal drifted past my face.
“What’s going on?” Alistair demanded, his voice sharp as more petals floated down from the ceiling. “What is this?”
“Theo.” I looked over at Alex and froze. He was smiling … a small, subtle, half-crooked smirk I was well familiar with. Except not from him.
Electricity snapped violently through Alistair’s body as the petals landed on his skin, forcing a grunt from his throat as the current locked his muscles in place.
Alex’s form flickered. The glamour cracked like light through broken glass. His features shifted, reshaping into a tattooed demon with tousled auburn hair, sharp jawline, and angular nose. Maroon eyes met mine, filled with fierce determination.
Ren. My beloved demon had come to rescue me.
The silver chains binding him sputtered, destabilized by the flowery magic incapacitating Alistair. Ren didn’t hesitate. He seized the opening, borrowing what little was left of my magic as the chains dissolved to free him.
In a flash quicker than my eyes could track, he bolted toward me.
“Don’t!” I tried to warn him. Mandy thrust her hand forward, power flaring as she reached for his mind.
Vines slithered across the concrete, coiling around her legs and torso in a violent snare, thorns sinking deep as she screamed.
Stella stepped out from behind a pressure tank, petals swirling around her like a storm, her magic sharp and merciless.
Ivy was at her side with Jacob, looking nervous as the scene unfolded. I didn’t see Markus, Alex, or Jordan.
With Mandy tied up, Stella turned her attention to Alistair. For the briefest moment, something crossed her face: surprise, hurt, maybe even anger. Then her expression hardened. The coldness in her eyes felt personal, like she was looking at someone she knew far better than she wanted to.
“Payback’s a bitch,” she growled, her eyes shining with a disturbing certainty.
The testing bay erupted into chaos.
The guard previously restraining Ren lunged first. Dense, crushing magic compacted between his palms like a gravity well. He hurled it forward but missed Ren and struck the outer containment circle instead, chipping the carving ever so slightly. The array buckled.
“S-stop!” My voice broke uselessly against the roar of magic.
The spell wasn’t finished. Caspian’s half-formed body still glowed beside me, bone and muscle barely holding together, light weaving through translucent skin.
The tether to his soul trembled, unstable but so close to locking.
My magic latched onto it in jagged bursts, slipping, catching, slipping again.
Each attempt sent a sharp ache through my chest, the connection fraying even as it tried to take hold.
Ren ran right through the first two circles, reaching the outer edge of mine.
“Theo, I’ve got you.”
It was too late. He’d crossed the boundary, disrupting the process. The outer circle destabilized instantly. Energy rebounded inward instead of flowing cleanly between the arrays. Everything began twisting out of alignment.
Pain exploded inside my chest. I screamed as the pressure inside my ribs reversed, magic collapsing inward instead of outward.
The backlash tore through me like a vacuum through shattered glass.
The array searched desperately for the stabilizing anchor it expected to find at its center.
Something I didn’t have but Ren did: a soul.
I felt it reach for him. It wasn’t gentle, and it wasn’t asking.
The array latched onto the presence of my soul inside Ren like a starving thing, trying to drag it into place, to rip it free and force it into the center where mine should have been. My magic surged in response, colliding with it and resisting. Ren refused.
“What’s happening?” Ren dropped to his knees in front of me, catching me as I sagged forward. His hands shook as he embraced me like I was crumbling to dust within his grasp. “Don’t—don’t die on me, Theo. Please.”
The pull intensified. I felt the array clawing at him, trying to tear away my soul, trying to force him into the spell. But he pushed back. His will, stubborn and unyielding, wrapped tight around what was his to protect.
He wouldn’t give it up.
“You can’t take it!” He roared. Even if it meant the spell would fail. Even if it meant it would break me instead. He had promised to protect my soul, and he wouldn’t let it go.
Magic shifted inside me as it reached and strained toward Caspian, trying to complete the summoning array to bring him back alive while connecting to Ren and my soul.
“The … others …” I rasped out. Even at a time like this, I could only think about their safety.
Ren swallowed, jostling me in his arms as he dissolved the silver chains of magic under his touch. “They’re all fine. They’re working on breaking the wards so we can get you out of here.”
Across the bay, Stella and Ivy fought to hold the line. Mandy was still tangled in Stella’s thorny vines, bleeding and unconscious. Alistair stepped forward. He was calm, composed, and terrifyingly controlled. He studied the collapsing magic array with sharp calculation.
“Stabilize it,” he ordered, only then realizing that the rift warden was unconscious and the technician had long since fled the scene.
His gaze settled on Stella, and a vicious, cold smile stretched across her face.