Page 21 of Wicked Ties
The scraps of the house crunched under my feet as I walked, and off in the corner were the remains of a mangled hospital bed. My vision went foggy, tingling on the edge of here and the past. I shook my head, focusing on the fact she was here and now. But the voice of the past pulled me in, pulled me down and wanted to suffocate me with it.
It all flooded my mind at once, not a vision but a memory of the horrific, not-so-distant past. My stomach twisted in knots and nausea rose in my throat. Tilly, my beautiful sunflower, lying on that bed mangled and bleeding, her life seeping away before my eyes as the blood stained the crisp white sheets, and I was so helpless. Helpless to do anything but watch her die. And then it all unfurled in my mind like I was in that personal hell again.
The frantic beeping of her failing heart filled my ears.
The heart monitor skyrocketed to her frantic beat.
Commit or don’t.
Watching her lying there helplessly dying, there was no choice. I had to commit. If she died, life would be meaningless. We all needed her. Me most of all. I hadn’t breathed until I met her.
“Do it.”
Odin in his fluffy demon form held up the bag attached to the IV in her arm. He slit his wrist, letting his black blood flow into the bag and through the clear tube toward her waiting veins. I held my breath. I didn’t believe in religion, but I prayed with everything I was. Just willing her to live. That wound seeped more blood, and I grabbed up all the potions off the bedside. Panic hit me so hard my hands shook. If we were going to meld her blood, then she was going to need all the potions she could get. I swiped my hand over them, uncorking each one. I turned them all over and dumped them onto Tilly. The hell I was going to let her seep away. I would do everything. Ophelia wasn’t the only one raised in the warlock world. I knew what they all did and knew the danger I was putting Tilly in.
Tilly’s body jerked. Her every muscle shook as more of Odin’s blood slid into her delicate body. My green smoke poured from my hands, and I grabbed tarot card after tarot card to give her strength. The Chariot, The Empress, Strength, Five of Wands, every strength card I could think of, I grabbed and threw at her chest. Curls of my emerald smoke seeped from each card into her chest, as though the wound was inhaling them. Magic lingered on the floor and up around the walls. I didn’t care. I’d committed to this, and there was no stopping us now.
“Blackest blood, darkest night. Demon bound to this light. Powers combined to make one. A life not lost just begun. By earth, by air, by water, by fire. Spirit to demon’s darkest desire.”
Then she was this, this strong beautiful thing who was so damaged because of me. I loved her in all her many forms, but I would help her be whatever she wanted. Whatever she needed. Just being around her was enough, even if she didn’t want me. All I wanted was her presence.
“Hello, Mazerial.” She waved her hand in front of my face. “Where’d you go?”
To my personal hell. “Nowhere. I’m right here.”
She frowned and tilted her head looking me up and down. “You’re not. But we can pretend. Why are we here for back up and not at Evermore?”
Hanging out among the wreckage of my life might’ve been a bad idea. “What we’re about to do isn’t exactly legal in Evermore, and you don’t want the others involved. Unless you want Astrid here?”
She shook her head sending those wild waves in all different directions. “No. But who?”
“Me.” Logan strolled from the forbidden woods with Kylian not far behind. Odin trotted along next to them with a brown paper bag in his mouth. Like he packed his lunch for work.
Logan pulled his phone from his pocket. “Got your text to meet you here. Not sure why, though.”
Logan used to be preppy and stylish, but since he spent too many days to count kidnapped in the unseen realm, he’d let himself go. His once short, clean-cut blond hair was now falling over his eyes and around his face in messy strands. He’d traded in the suits for dark jeans, work boots, and a dark plaid shirt. He used to be subtle with his weapons and relied heavily on his magic. Now, he had daggers all over his body.
Kylian followed loosely behind him. He, too, was menacing, with black inky hair that fell to just past his chin. His eyes were a light crystal green that almost glowed. He had a dagger strapped to his leg over his black leather pants and another strapped to his forearm. Logan was big but Kylian was bigger. They stopped just across from us.
Kylian pressed his hand to his chest. “So, what am I doing here?”
Tilly kicked other piece of wood and sent it crashed into a tree. “Yeah, what is he doing here?”
“Kylian took Beckett on a killing spree. He’ll be cool with what’s about to go down.” I shrugged, remembering all the dead bodies the two of them left in their wake. This would be a piece of cake for him. I snapped my fingers at Odin and motioned for the bag.
“Nuggie me.”
He dropped the bag and hissed in my direction. Then Tilly hissed back at him and nodded toward me. Odin trotted over and dropped the bag at my feet. I picked it up and my stomach growled. I grabbed one and shoved it in my mouth.
“And Logan, well, I think he just needs to get some . . . frustrations out.” I winked at my longtime friend, who was more like family.
Logan groaned and rolled his shoulders. “You have no idea how bad I want to stab something. So, what’s up?”
I sighed. “The Keres stole something from Tilly. We want it back.”
Kylian bent down and picked up a stone from the ground. He held it in the palm of his hand and his burgundy magic seeped all around it, turning it into the point of a dagger. He tossed it up repeatedly, end over end, catching it and tossing it up again.
“So, you want to hunt down and possibly kill the Keres? They are centuries-old creatures who aren’t really killable. Nor are they really easy to find.”
