Chapter 1
The wind howled against Gem’s bedroom windows, and a flash of lightning illuminated the darkened room. Desperate to wake Niko from the sleeping spell he was under, Gem gathered her most precious healing stones into a purse and flinched when a crack of thunder shook the mansion.
After Crush and the wolves had stormed Cyrus’s home and killed all the brothers, one of the Shifters morphed to human form and carried Niko to the van. Gem didn’t ask why they were there or what they planned to do with the bodies. She didn’t even ask if Viktor had made it through his mission alive. She had simply clutched the red book of spells in her arms and followed them without question, her mind still in a state of shock.
On the long ride home earlier, Gem couldn’t stop thinking about the moments leading up to her spellcasting. Everything had happened so fast, and there weren’t any other options, not with the fighting and imminent danger of Cyrus using his sword on Niko. Had she recklessly wielded an energy ball, she would have killed Niko for certain. And would it have accomplished the deaths of Cyrus’s men? Probably not. Arcadius had the ability to create a powerful shield around himself, so that left her with only one option. Had she taken extreme measures by invoking a spell from the book? What if Cyrus had only meant to dismember Niko?
No, no, no. Gem would never accept that as a reason to have sat idly by and done nothing to intervene.
But why, oh why, had the fates revealed that spell, of all spells, to her?
Gem hurried down the hall to the opposite side of the mansion. Niko resided on the second floor, as did she, but there were so many halls and rooms between them that they rarely ran into each other outside of the common areas. She still hadn’t let go of the red book, gripping it as if it might grow legs and scamper away.
Thunder shook the mansion, the sonorous sound swinging the lanterns that hung in the hallways. As she reached his bedroom, wood snapped in the large fire blazing in the hearth across the room. Niko had a corner fireplace near the bed. He could roll on his left side and watch the flames dwindle to nothing but embers. Maybe he couldn’t see fire like everyone else could, but his Mage gift allowed him to see something.
Crush, Switch, and Wyatt hovered over Niko’s bed, and all Gem could do was stand in the doorway like a statue.
“Spooky, ain’t it?” Wyatt remarked.
Crush tugged on his grey goatee, one arm folded around his middle. “You ever heard of something like this happening to a Mage?”
Switch pivoted on his heel, and for a brief moment, she thought he might shake her and demand to know what she had done. “I have to check on Hunter. If you need anything, let me know,” he said, leaving the room.
Gem stepped inside, her feet ghosting across the wood floor. She searched Niko’s face for signs of life, but he just lay there with the most angelic look. “Who did that? Who crossed his arms over his chest like a corpse?”
Wyatt shrugged. “Force of habit.” He reached down and put Niko’s arms to his sides. “Did you try giving him your healing light?”
She inched up to the foot of the bed. “On the way over. It healed his injuries, but that’s all.”
Crush turned his gaze about the windowless room. “Maybe we need to put him in the sun.”
Wyatt shivered and tucked his hands in his armpits. “He’s not a flower.”
“No, peckerhead. But if a Mage needs light to heal, maybe he needs something stronger. Something constant, like the sun.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Gem informed him. “He has to pull the energy from sunlight. It’s a voluntary and intentional process that requires the person to be conscious.”
“Know any Relics who specialize in Mage disorders?”
Gem bristled. “There’s nothing wrong with his light.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
Wyatt paced back to the fire and stoked it. “He’s afflicted in some way. I’d call that a disorder. Are you sure he didn’t just deplete his energy and zonk out?”
Gem swallowed, but her throat was dry. “I don’t think so.”
Maybe Wyatt was onto something. Maybe Niko would sleep it off in a few days and wake up. That seemed more logical than the truth, and right now, Gem didn’t want to talk about what had really happened, not until she had time to think about the consequences.
Crush jerked his chin at her armload of supplies. “What’s all that?”
She set her purse at the foot of the bed. “Healing stones. I thought… I thought they might have a curative effect.”
Wyatt set the metal poker back in the holder before turning around. “You think rocks will help? Why don’t you hit him on the head and see if he’ll wake up?”
She narrowed her eyes as he tightened the drawstring on his grey sweatpants. “If you want to make jokes, go make them somewhere else, Gravewalker. I know your Breed doesn’t take death seriously, but what if he can hear you? What if he can hear everything we’re saying? Have you given that any consideration?”
Wyatt bent over the bed. “Niko,” he sang, “can you hear me? You need to fire your interior decorator.”
Gem slammed the red book on the floor with so much fury that both men straightened their spines at the sound of the leather slapping against the wood. She stalked over to the fireplace, cupped her elbows, and fought back the tears. “How am I going to explain this to Viktor? How will he ever look me in the eye again? I have to fix this… I have to find a way to—”
“When’s the last time you had any sleep?” Crush asked, his voice as soothing as his touch on her shoulders. “Those dark circles under your eyes were there when I dropped you off in the city, so I know you haven’t had a good night’s sleep in days. You can’t do anything running on fumes. I know there’s a lot you have to figure out, but those things can wait a few hours. You’ve been through a lot, seen things a woman shouldn’t see. Get some shut-eye, even if it doesn’t make sense or seem like the right thing to do. You’ll have a nervous breakdown if you don’t. I’ve been to war, and it’s hell. But even in hell, you have to sleep.”
Crush was right. Gem could feel her sanity dwindling, and she was having auditory hallucinations of past conversations with Niko and Cyrus. Symbols filled her head like spectral phantoms, and the world seemed to be tipping off its axis. How could she possibly help Niko while suffering sleep deprivation?
“Here. I’ve got her,” Wyatt said. He put his arm around her and led her to the door. “Come on, buttercup. I didn’t mean to get you all in a tizzy. I’m just a silly Gravewalker. Ignore anything I say. We’ll pick up where we left off in the morning.”
She rooted her feet in place. “I’m sleeping here.”
Crush and Wyatt shared a look, then Crush vacated the room.
Wyatt scratched beneath his white thermal shirt and wrinkled his brow. “What happened?”
“I hurt them all.”
Wyatt gave her a quizzical stare. “You blew him up with an energy ball?”
“You don’t understand. I need to talk to Viktor. Has he called?”
“Yep. Mission complete. I booked them a flight back, but it’ll take them another day to get to the nearest airport in West Virginia.” Wyatt glanced over his shoulder and gave Niko a long look. “Crush said the other men were piled on the floor like laundry before they even broke through the door. Is that right?”