12. Caliel

12

Caliel

Much as I protested, and put conditions on it, I had already lost the battle.

They were simply the last cries of outrage at being asked to do something abhorrent to me. Because the truth was—I would do whatever she wanted.

Even sell my soul.

Bree moved to crouch near Slade's still body. We only had moments until Jaimie returned. I was not sure what I could do, even if I managed to transfer my life essence to Slade.

After all, he had already tried to take on Jaimie, and lost.

But I could do nothing to save Bree while I existed inside her. Riggs was right. This was worth a shot. If only I could figure out how to actually make this leap…

The answer came to me on a wild burst of power—Riggs, pumping everything he had to me through the link. With the sword in hand, it filled me with power and possibilities.

Not for nothing, did people revere that sword.

As Bree laid her hand on Slade's furred arm, the surge carried my consciousness into the still body. And I knew, in an instant, that he was gone.

His body still struggled to live, but the impact had driven shards of bone into his brain. The hemorrhaging was finishing what the shards had started. Even a shifter could not survive that.

In a way, Riggs had been lucky. Finn's blast had destroyed brain tissue and shattered bone, but it had also cauterized most of the wound—it had not bled much.

But I suspected, now, that Fate had a hand in that. That she had intended Riggs, or rather, Razir, to live. Slade had not been so fortunate.

My pulse accelerated as I recognized the opportunity bestowed upon me. The question was, could I repair the damage? And then transfer my life essence into him?

It was not only a "could"—there was the "should" too.

Memories of flying filled my mind. Bree had set me free, to feel, once more, the wind dancing through my feathers.

If I became Slade, I would never fly again.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" The shout echoed through the chamber beyond. Victor sounded furious.

Hurry, Caliel, urged Riggs, sending another pulse of energy.

"I no longer have to listen to you," Jaimie answered Victor. And the wind began to howl.

What are you waiting for? Riggs hissed. Just do it, will you.

We'll be lucky if there's a bloody building left after this, Bree said.

I was losing it all anyway, one iota at a time, every second that I lived within her. I gritted my teeth and sent my healing power pulsing through the big shifter's body, sealing off the sluggish bleeding in his brain, pushing the bone shards back out, and lining them up to reassemble the skull.

I did my best to ignore the howling wind and the licks of flame that curled around the doorway. Thunder rumbled in the distance—but if Jaimie thought the storm could help him in the basement of a stone fortress, he was not a smart ex-Centaur.

Here, fire had the upper hand.

I rode the power of the sword, pushing ever faster to repair the flesh. As it did with Riggs, the memories would be shredded, but most of the damage was in the sensory area that regulated smell. What had signed his death warrant was the bone shard that had penetrated into the brain stem—the zone that controlled breathing and his heart.

I reconnected the damaged nerves and gave his heart a burst of pure energy to get it started again. The rib cage, now fully human, heaved.

I had him breathing, but when I scanned for mental activity, there was no one home. He had been without oxygen for too long. Would I be able to get his brain functioning again?

I had been a healer long enough to know that life essence, once gone, rarely returned to the body. Where it went after death was an esoteric philosophical debate.

I was breaking new ground now.

The crashing from the room outside had increased, and a new roar sounded as the battle awakened the sleeping Drake, too. The ground beneath us trembled.

And the Ice Drake answered.

I heard Bree's lips open in a weak version of the screech ringing through her. Riggs leaped to rebuild a wall that was rapidly crumbling, and I turned to help.

No! he cried. I've got this. Keep going!

I did not need Riggs's urgent cry to know I was running out of time. He sent me another powerful surge from the sword.

I gathered it to me. In order to heal, I projected a part of myself into the body of another. Now, I had to push my entire life essence into Slade.

I had no idea if it was possible.

Can we pull him out again if it doesn't work? With Riggs holding back the monster, Bree sounded half panicked now that we were actually going to try this.

But I was committed now. Isobel and Aurora had perfected the art of inserting life essences into the Centaur hosts, but they had used bloodmagic to do it. Could I accomplish the same using the sword's power?

It had been created by long-ago mages far more powerful than either Sorceress. There was a chance it could work.

Maybe we should scrap this, Bree said.

We have to try, Riggs insisted, but I heard the hesitation in his voice, too.

There is only one way to know, I replied. And that is to do it. Give me the entirety of what you have to offer.

As he sent me a surge of pure sword power, I envisioned myself gathering up everything that was me. My entire self pulled into a ball. And then?—

I leaped.

But I was now suspended between Bree and Slade's bodies. As long as I was attached to Bree, this would never work. So I gritted my mental teeth…

And imagined the ties to Bree as ribbons. Which I then severed.

Darkness, so much so that I almost panicked. But I grabbed hold of my terror and rode the power granted me by the sword. Reached out to touch the blood, bone, and muscle that was Slade. Pushed myself into every cell, and then, buoyed by the sword, reached for more. Used my life essence to bring back what had been taken.

It was too much. This body was dying and did not want me…