Page 149 of Our Radiant Embers

Somehow, I made myself move, rising from the ground before I offered a hand to help Liam up. He grasped my fingers, gasping slightly as he stood, clutching at his ribs.

“What—” I started, and he interrupted me.

“I’m okay. Just bruises, I promise.”

I wrapped an arm around his waist. “I swear, if you’re lying to me…”

“I’m not.” He smiled, so warm and private that it just about took my breath away.

“Okay,” I murmured. It was painfully inadequate for the beautiful, bright jumble of emotions that sat in my chest, but those weren’t suited for an audience.

Together, we moved to follow Archer Summers, Jack, and Laurie out of the room, Lila trailing us. Briefly, just before we left, I turned to nod at Gale, who sent me the faintest of smiles in response.

I didn’t look at anyone else.

* * *

Archer Summers set her teacup down with a delicate clink of porcelain that sounded like an exclamation mark. Outside, the thunderstorm had subsided, gentle rain tinkling against the windows of her study.

“Rumours about the power of ley lines have persisted for centuries,” she said. “Just like rumours about families that speak to them in ways others don’t. I never gave much credence to the talk, I have to admit.”

“Maybe magic is simply different in France?” Liam sounded uncertain, frowning at his herbal tea that he’d barely touched. He wasn’t a fan of tea but had been too polite to decline Summers’ offer. “And when they tried the same thing here, it was bound to fail.”

Well, it hadn’t failed entirely—Gale and Christian were much more powerful than they had been. Novas, perhaps, or at the very least upper-level Suns. At what price, though? If Liam hadn’t stepped in, the magic would have broken free eventually and raged across the city in its quest to return home. Seated next to him on the sofa, I pressed our knees together.

“Could be.” Summers pursed her mouth. “I’ve heard tales of how the French revolution acted as a catalyst that briefly tore the veil between the mundane and the mystical. There was much upheaval in the magical communities after that. Or perhaps it might have worked here if it had been handled in a rather more careful, less impatient manner. Hard to say.”

“So you don’t think it’s only down to cultural and geographical differences?” Laurie asked, her words and tone selected with far more caution than usual.

“I don’t have all the answers, my dear—I merely pretend that I do.” Summers picked her cup up once more, studying it with a thoughtful air. “You know, I visited Mexico City many years ago. They draw from thunderstorms, a practice that goes back to Aztec times. Perhaps it helped activate the conduits here.”

“I think they weren’t conduits so much as traps,” Liam said softly. “At first, I thought they were like sockets—if the ley lines are like an electric grid, you know. Now? I think they were more meant to act like…magnets, maybe. Inductors. Built to attract magic and channel it towards the circle in St Paul’s.”

It aligned with the sense of helpless, claustrophobic confusion I’d felt rolling off the magic gathered in the crypt.

“You may be entirely right,” Summers said. “Honestly, I believe it will be many decades yet before we stop discovering new aspects to what we think we know.”

“Like how Liam’s ability to see magic wasn’t affected by the entrapment circle?” I asked. When I blinked, fragments of earlier still flashed behind my lids, a stark contrast to the quiet, peaceful space around us.

“I suspect it might be passive in nature.” Summers looked at Liam. “Does it ever run low?”

“No. It doesn’t require any energy, it just is.” He touched the side of his throat, not for the first time. The gesture made my stomach clench with echoed fear.

I could have lost him. But I hadn’t.

“What’s going to happen now?” Impatience coloured Jack’s question, then he seemed to remember where he was. “Sorry. I mean—I’m just curious.”

“Ah, the urgency of youth.” A slight smile danced around Summers’ eyes. I’d never thought of her as old before, but there was a weariness that briefly hung around her, proof that the events of the last few hours had left an impression. She spoke to Liam more than me. “I hope you’ll understand that I will have to put a temporary hold on the Green Horizon Initiative.”

“I assumed as much,” he said, and I wanted to protest that he shouldn’t pay for my family’s mistakes. Laurie beat me to it.

“But it’s not our fault!”

“It isn’t,” Summers confirmed. “In fact, this city is in your debt even if we won’t exactly advertise that.” She nodded at Liam. “Do you believe yourself capable of leading the Initiative alone?”

Instead of giving an immediate answer, he turned and held my gaze. “Are you with me?”

Like he even had to ask.

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