Chapter 12

TWELVE

COLLINS

“Oh, God, is she dead?” Nickel’s voice was tight and quiet. “Please don’t be dead.”

I rubbed my eyes, then opened them again. But everything was still black. I couldn’t see anything. There were no smells, no sounds, no wind. Hell, I couldn’t even taste the blood I’d accidentally smeared across my mouth. I heard their voices but nothing else. No footsteps or heavy breathing. Nothing. Just Nickel’s words, which didn’t make any sense.

“She’s not bleeding enough for these wounds. That’s not good. She’s too weak.” Nickel’s voice was growing more panicked. “Come on, Jada. Stay with me. You’re safe now.”

I gasped. Jada! I hadn’t let myself really inspect her wounds before. I’d known her aura was weak, but I had to play my part as Aryk. My stomach turned. “Is she okay?”

Silence. No one was answering me.

“Bash . . . Mom . . .” I threw my hands out to try and find them, but I felt nothing. Not cold. Not hot. Just nothing. “BASH? MOM?”

Silence. Just more darkness.

“ BASH!”

Silence. My pulse skipped beats and it was the only thing I could feel. Fear like I’d never experienced rushed through my body, making every muscle twitch and tense. The darkness was creeping in at the edges, swallowing me whole. I pressed my hands to my chest, but all I got was pressure. I couldn’t feel my skin or my clothes or the blood. My senses were gone. Then it clicked. My eyes widened.

“BASH, GET ME OUT?—”

The world came back in an instant. Lights, sounds, smells, and that metallic taste of blood. It was all back. All my senses. I sighed with relief and heard my own breath leave my mouth.

I blinked and looked around—and found I was on my knees in that bank of portals disguised as elevators inside The Emerald. Mom stood a few feet away with her blue eyes wide with panic. Her sandy-blonde hair had blood splattered in the curls. Something held me down by my elbows, and heat radiated through my suit into my skin. I tried to swat it away, then realized it was Bash .

He was kneeling on the ground in front of me, holding me in his arms. His face was pale and ashen. He, too, had blood splattered across his hair and coat. “Collins? Collins, can you hear me?”

My breath left me in a rush, and I collapsed forward into his chest. “Oh my God.”

“ I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, ” he whispered in a rush over and over as he hugged me tightly against his chest. He ran his fingers through my hair. His pulse pounded against my cheek. “I’m so sorry. Are you all right now?”

“What the hell just happened to her?”

I pushed back from him and shoved my hair back out of my face. My pulse was still flying high from the panic. “ Dear God, Bash. ”

He grimaced and started to wipe the blood off my face with his fingers. “I’m sorry.”

“Is that what your magic is really like?” I gestured around me in a frantic kind of way. “There was nothing, Bash. Nothing. I couldn’t even hear myself breathe. It was just . . . black.”

“I know. That was me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I looked up into his moonstone eyes, but the fear and pain in his aura were flashing. With my heart still hammering, I pressed my hand to his chest. “It’s okay. I’m fine now.”

“Bash?” Mom put her hands on her hips. “What did you do?”

He groaned. “I panicked. When the spell reversed, I just panicked and threw my magic out. Like all of my magic. Full sensory deprivation. I don’t usually use that much. It’s too . . . unsettling and traumatic. But it’s probably the only reason Mother isn’t already storming through that portal. I was so busy just trying to get us out of there alive that I didn’t realize I’d put it on Collins too.”

I cursed and then a strange, wild laughter escaped my lips. “Dammit, Bash. That’s the single most terrifying moment of my entire life so far.”

“I’ve heard that before,” he grumbled, still petting me like he wasn’t sure I was okay.

“Yeah, well, you need to use it on our enemies more often. Damn.” I pressed my hands to my chest and felt the emerald still attached to my skin. I cursed again. "Sorry, sorry. You can let go now.”

“What?” Bash flinched and dropped his hands.

“No, not you , Prince Charming.” I chuckled and tapped on the emerald. “Come on, my friend. You’re safe now.”

There was a beat of nervous hesitation and then the pressure in my chest vanished. I gasped. Oh. That was your panic too. I’m sorry. The stone popped off my chest and landed in my palm. I wrapped my fingers around it and forced my magic to slide over the edges to help the emerald calm down.

Bash wrapped his hand around mine over the stone. “Are we okay here? The stone?”

I nodded. “We have to get this emerald back to Crystal-henge as soon as possible.”

“We will. You have my word.”

“Good.” I slid the emerald into the little pocket Peggy had made in my catsuit, then covered it with my hand. “You’ll be safe in here until we can get there.”

Mom cursed and sagged against the wall between portals.

“Wait, where’s Jada? Where’s Nickel? I heard Nickel’s voice— wait. How did I hear Nickel’s voice but none of yours? Or were you not talking?”

“We were speaking the whole time. I never actually let go of you physically. We didn’t realize my magic still had you until you started screaming my name.” Bash grimaced. “You heard Nickel because of the emerald. You were hearing her thoughts because she was the only one here without the crystal protection to prevent it.”

“Oh, on that note, little update . . . your mother had blocked Aryk’s gift.”

Bash swayed a little. “You couldn’t hear her? That whole time?”

I shook my head. “I was about to abort, I swear?—”

“ What happened? ” Mom yelled. She gestured down the hall. “Nickel rushed Jada to the infirmary and then you started shouting. So can someone please fill me in? Why was Tephine screaming?”

I opened my mouth to explain, but laughter came out.

Bash’s eyes widened. “Collins.”

“It’s not funny.” I shook my head, still laughing. “But I can’t stop. That did not work as I expected.”

Bash closed his eyes. “Never would I have expected that.”

“Expected what ?”

I took deep breaths to try and stop myself from laughing. “I presented fake-me just as we planned. I told her I was leaving to go hunt down Bastien, who had to be nearby. She said she was going to torture me and make Jada watch. I thought we were in the clear. I couldn’t hear her thoughts, so I was half a second from fleeing when suddenly . . . my God, did that really just happen?”

“It did, and I cannot believe it.”

“She cut off her head.”

Mom gasped and her hands flew to her throat. “ What? ”

“Tephine, at the last second, changed her mind and decided to just kill me by chopping my head off. Probably as payback for Bash beheading Helena.” I exhaled and rubbed my hands over my thighs. “When the severed head hit the ground, Peggy’s spell vanished and it was Aryk’s head lying in the snow at Tephine’s feet.”

Mom’s jaw dropped.

“We tricked Tephine into murdering her own daughter.” I gripped Bash’s hands and squeezed. “ We tricked Tephine into murdering her own daughter. ”

“I am . . . shocked? Why would she kill you and not Jada? I would’ve expected her to torture you to try and use you to find the Chaos Stone.”

“She’s unhinged after Helena. After Savina. After you dropped that vial of blood on her. But also, the realm itself senses Collins’ presence. The Chaos Stone wants her to find it. She’s feeling that, and it’s making her panicked. She’s not thinking like her normal cold-blooded, ruthless self.” Bash shook his head. “She wanted Jada to know she had failed to protect you, Collins. Her literal life’s mission.”

A cold chill slid down my spine. “We’re going to pay for that.”

“Right now, she’s beyond herself with rage and grief. Knowing what we know about the crystals and their feelings, thanks to Collins, I imagine the realm and the Chaos Stone are celebrating, and that’s putting her even more on edge.” Bash got to his feet and turned to face the portal into Third Realm. “Retaliation is imminent. She’s going to come for First Realm because it’s all she can get to. Killing her own civilians won’t suffice.”

Sandra groaned. “We have to warn Zuriel.”

“We have to go back in.”

Mom and I both gasped and turned to Bash.

“What? No? Why?” Mom scowled. “I said we have to warn Zuriel.”

“Go ahead and warn him. Use your feather and send a warning to all Nephilim here in First Realm. Hell, even the others, they ought to know what’s happening as it might affect them if we fail. But the three of us must return to Third Realm now. ”

My jaw dropped. “We barely made it out alive just now.”

“Exactly. She won’t expect us to come back. Right now, she thinks we’re hiding in First, that we think we’re safe or that we assume we can defeat her here again. She’s prepping to attack.” He shrugged. “So, let’s beat her to it.”

I scoffed. “And how do you expect we do this? To what gain? What’s your plan?”

He stared at me a moment, then shrugged again. “We use me as bait.”

“WHAT?” we both shouted.

“If I walk back into Third right now, it’ll throw them all off. They won’t have time to scheme.” He held his hands up to stop us from asking questions. “I go in and pretend like I’m up to something, pretend like I’m scheming. Use myself as bait . . . She won’t send all of them. She won’t risk everyone now that we’ve killed two of them. She’ll send her next best weapon, Marigold, and when she does, we kill her.”

I couldn’t speak.

Mom shook her head.

“Bash . . .” I pressed my hands to my chest as if I could force my pulse to slow down. “Bash, that’s crazy. That’s suicidal.”

He took my chin between his thumb and pointer finger. “I just had to watch you die.”

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine how hard that was for him to watch. My heart hurt just thinking about it. He’d just watched his soulmate be decapitated. Even knowing it wasn’t actually me, that had to be one hell of a blow. I couldn’t be a hypocrite. “You’re right. You did. That’s fair. I risked myself for the greater good, so I can’t ask you not to.”

He cupped my face in his hands and pressed his lips to mine. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

He held my gaze. “This plan will work.”

“Okay.” I took a shaky breath. “Let’s go poke the angry bear.”