Chapter 9

Screams.

I woke to screams. Graham's voice, saying something that didn't register. Laila yelling something, then voices I didn't know.

A bright flash.

I shot up in my sleeping bag, but all I saw was white.

I couldn't see.

The whiteness blinded me. My irises burned, and even when I shut my eyes, I could still see the light.

It was like darkness in reverse. White light was supposed to shine your path, but it was like staring directly into the sun. There was no heat. No warmth aside from the burn when I opened my eyes again.

"I can't—" I began.

"I can. I can see." Warren gripped my hand. I knew that touched better than I knew my face in a mirror. His other hand brushed past me. "Ezra?—"

"I've got it," Ezra said. His voice was calmer than either of ours. "I smell them too."

Suddenly, through that bright white, there was darkness. The darkness brightened the blindness, no matter how counterintuitive and disorienting.

In front of me, through the fabric tent that I knew was there but couldn't see, there were colors. They were all trimmed in black. As if I was a part of that blackness. It was such a difficult thing to describe, but suddenly, I wasn't seeing with my eyes. I wasn't seeing the world I existed on.

This was what Warren meant when he talked about the twilight world with Jeremy and Hannah. I'd never understood it, but now I did. While everything else was entrenched in white light, obscuring faces and bodies, I could peer through it all to see the colors of their souls.

It wasn't sight in the traditional sense. Warren's soul and my eyes were the same. I could only see through him. While I didn't have control of his body, in my peripherals, I saw that I had no form. No true form. There was no physical substance. I was black and gray smoke, speckled with neon blue.

If Warren and I hadn't once talked about souls, I would have thought I was in a dream or a bad acid trip. But he had told me that his soul looked like this. Black and gray, speckled with blue.

Beyond the soul I saw from, there were others. Two dozen at least.

So many colors. More blue. Purple trimmed with gold. Pink, and green, and yellow, and orange, and everything in between. It was beautiful.

The screams floated through the tent.

So many voices. So much pain. And I was frozen, only one word on my lips. "Graham!"

I'm alright, mo stoirín. No matter how much of a relief it was to hear his voice in my mind, to know he was still okay, I didn't believe that. Thanks, Warren.

Just hang in there, Warren's thoughts sounded in the telepathic connection.

Another hand grasped mine. Ezra's, I had to assume. "He needs us behind him." Assumption confirmed.

Warren's hand trembled.

I squeezed it tighter, but followed Ezra's lead. As he stood, I stood with him. Warren did too, but there was resistance. Like I was dragging him. I didn't know if it was through the bond or because I could see through his eyes, but I swore that his heart was going to beat out of his chest.

And I only squeezed tighter.

"I'll listen behind us while we move," Ezra said. "Warren, you've got to take the lead."

He didn't speak, but he did so. Once he moved in front of me, I stayed like a bridge between them. As we stepped forward, drawing closer to the screams, to the chaos unfolding before us, I tried to remember.

I knew this spell. The blinding white, Luci had called it. He had taught it to me. It was Angel magic. But I wasn't familiar with the Enochian tongue. It was nothing like Latin, which most of my spells were spoken in. Harsher. Rougher. Like each word was a slap.

I'd only worked with it a few times. Luci hadn't taught me how to reverse it, but that wouldn't be a problem if I had remembered the original spell.

If I could just fucking remember it, reversing it wasn't so complicated. The spell was spoken with words, not ingredients. It only relied on the power of the one casting it. Which told me something about our assailants.

They were Witches. Either Angel Witches or Elvan Witches, but Witches.

But I couldn't fucking remember it, because all I could think about was the scene before me.

A whoosh of a blade sounded.

There were two souls. One of yellow and another of pink. Both upright, as if they were standing. They almost seemed to meld together, making it difficult to tell where one person ended and the other began. Then a splash, the sickening sound of gurgles, and the pink one collapsed to the ground. That brilliant rose floated slowly upward.

I didn't see the blood, but I knew it was there.

Someone had just killed someone else, and I didn't know who.

But then we were moving. We were moving so fast, I didn't understand it. Suddenly, I wasn't beside my body and Ezra's, but in that smoky gray and black shadow that was Warren's soul. We soared toward that pink one, enveloping it in a way I could barely understand, much less describe.

I got him, Graham said.

An emerald green orb of light sprung in front of that yellow one.

Then the rush of a blade. A splash, this time drenching me in hot, coppery liquid. And a gurgle. That yellow light soared into the sky above.

Now, Warren said telepathically.

Suddenly, Warren collapsed to the ground beside me. It was all happening so quickly; I hadn't realized we had made it to the center of the campsite. It was like my body was on autopilot as Warren guided us that way and simultaneously showed me what was happening in his mind.

"Get down here, Ezra." Graham spoke quickly. "I need you to hold him."

Ezra circled and dropped beside me, his shoulder brushing against my knee.

It should've clicked sooner, but it was only then that I realized what they were doing. Graham was healing whoever had just gone down, Ezra was holding them in place so that Graham could work, and Warren was holding the soul in the body. The man on the ground started screaming, which I took as confirmation.

Who was this? Who were they healing? I didn't know, and I had no way of knowing. Warren knew, but I had his eyes, not his insight. I had never seen anyone's soul; I couldn't recognize friend from foe. I couldn't even be the lookout while they worked, since my vision was tied to Warren's.

But I could.

How could I have forgotten such a simple spell?

Gripping Warren's shoulder, touching the back of Graham's head, and resting my knee against Ezra's back, I murmured the spell. Wrenching on their energy gave me the strength I needed to pull it off. I could've done it on my own with the right ingredients and enough focus, but in a battle like this, I didn't have time for that. Combining their strength with my own, while letting mine fuel theirs, was the only way.

And it worked like a dream, because suddenly, I was in the astral realm.

I had never needed to use the spell. I'd only learned it for the sake of learning, but holy shit, how convenient it was now.

There was no more blinding light here. Everything was dim, like a black and white filter had been tossed over reality. I finally knew who my enemies were.

To my right, half a dozen strides away, Naomi, Jeremy, and Laila were doing exactly as Graham, Warren, and Ezra were. Tucked awkwardly between them, shivering with fear, Jake clapped his hands over his face to muffle his sobs and avoid the sight before him.

Thank gods. It happened so quickly, I was still in a haze. As much as I hated to admit it, I almost forgot Jake was here.

On the left, Luci had a man as tall and bulky as Warren in a headlock from behind. The man was plain, light skin and light hair, wearing a pair of blue jeans. Which I found odd.

No one here had been in jeans except for us.

The denim-clad dickhead fought desperately as Luci reached for an Elvan ore blade on the ground at his feet. Every time he opened his mouth to summon it, the bastard jammed his elbow into Luci's ribs.

Spells required rhythm. Each time it was disrupted, he had to start again.

Using Graham's power over air, I levitated the blade. "Open your right hand, Luci!"

He released his hold on the man's abdomen and dropped his hand out at his side.

Still using that wind, I floated it into his palm.

He clasped his fingers around it, released his hold around the man's neck, then tore the blade through his throat. The blood poured out in a wave.

"You grimy shite!" Amara's voice, followed by Elvan words I didn't understand. They rang out behind me.

I shifted there in the astral reality––staying still in my own body––until she came into view. Three of them surrounded her, a fact she could probably sense even if she couldn't see them. Her eyes were pinched shut; two blades of Elvan ore in her hands. Without the power of sight, she spun in circles, speaking Elvan, keeping her swords pointed in their directions.

They didn't look like the last man. Or rather, their attire was different. While one of the men had darker skin, the other two shared the same light features. But their clothes were more normal, at least by the Fae Realm's standards. Loose, flowing pants. One had a leather vest around his shoulders. Another wore a fur coat.

Amara was holding her own against them, all things considered. But just like with Luci, every time she spoke, one of them interfered. The guy in the vest tossed something at her, and another dropped to the ground to try and take out her feet. Gasping, she dropped the blade onto his hand.

What could I do? How could I help her? The moment I stepped away from my guys, I'd lose the connection that allowed me to see. I couldn't run that way and put a blade through their hearts.

Was there a spell that'd work from here? If there were no allies on this field, yes. I could take all three of those guys down in a heartbeat. But not without hurting everybody else I cared about. There were a million different spells for that. Fire, acid, spells that would break every bone in their body or melt their eyes from their sockets.

But there was no way to attack them all at once and get her out of that cluster.

A hand gripped my shoulder.

I jumped.

I spun around.

Luci. Like everyone else's, his eyes were closed. "Dusk spell."

"Amara," I said, shaking my head. "She's?—"

"We'll worry with that in a minute."

"She doesn't have a minute?—"

"If she goes down, we'll bring her back. We need to level out the playing field first."

That made sense. It made my stomach turn, but it made sense.

I nodded.

He took my hand. In my mind, he spoke the words of the spell. I thought it over a few times in my head. Then he swapped out the words that were needed to reverse it. Essentially flipping the positives and negatives and vice versa.

"On three," he said.

Doing my best to remember it all, I nodded. Then I followed his lead. As he spoke the first word, I did the same. Line by line, we repeated it on a loop. Spells gained strength with each repetition. They had to be chanted like a song. The more power you had behind it, the faster it would work.

That's why he came to me. That's why Luci didn't try to do it on his own. Because even with my help, we both knew the same thing. Whoever these people were, they knew what they were doing. There were at least a dozen of them, so one person's magic would be enough to reverse it. The only reason the two of us combined were close to enough was because he was who he was, and because my power was amplified by my guys.

Our chant growing louder, we closed our hands tighter around one another's. Squeezing with all of our might, practically screaming the words, we pressed on as the bright light dimmed. My eyes were still shut, so I couldn't see it precisely, but even through my eyelids, I could sense it growing darker.

It's working, I said to his mind.

So long as we don't stop, he said. Just don't?—

Glass shattered at my heels, right beside where my leg met Ezra's shoulder.

Everything spun. Like I had fallen onto the fastest merry-go-round. Sick, stomach spinning, my legs gave out beneath me.

"No!" Luci cried.

Darkness.