Page 99 of Shadow & Stars
Damn. Okay. Think, think, think. Search for the chink in the armor. There was always an oversight somewhere, especially with how quickly this went down.
Bingo! A manhole cover alarmingly close to the flames, but doable as long as the ice fires weren’t down there too. I pointed it out to Xavier, shivering my bollocks off by this point.
He agreed with a nod, taking my hand as we hurried toward it.
“Wait, Shadow!”
Margarite’s voice brought my feet to a stop. I’d forgotten all about her and Lizard Guy.
They were glittering again.
“What is it?” I said, remembering the thing about waiting for me to be restored.
She smiled, her arms super straight by her sides. “We can help you now.”
“Like before?”
She shook her head, Lizard Guy offering me a sad smile.
“Things have changed,” he chimed in. “We can only help you one more time.”
“By becoming part of you,” Margarite carried on.
What was this, verbal tennis?
“Together, we’ll enter you.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “Beg your pardon?”
“Our strengths joined to yours,” Lizard Guy added. “We give our existences to yours. Feed on us. Draw on our energies to make you stronger.”
My head went all light and dizzy. “Whoa.”
It was Margarite’s turn to speak now. “No need to fear, Shadow. Simply allow us in and enjoy our sacrifice.”
That word. It didn’t sit right, especially coming from her mouth. I scratched at my chest, my body seriously pissed off with this cold now. Overthinking this brought hesitation—a luxury we didn’t have. The sacrifice bit just really turned my guts upside down, but what if it helped us gain the upper hand?
“What happens to you both?” I asked, drawing on some heat from my demonic honey bunny.
Xavier rubbed my body for good measure.
“Gone once we’re all used up,” Lizard Guy answered.
“Gone,” Margarite said. “For the greater good. For you. It will not give you the wishing back, but it will help you in this fight.” Margarite’s expression shifted, seeming much more like the woman I used to serve. “We have our issues, and I remember flashes of our moments here and there—which are no longer my concern. Serving you is my priority.”
I squirmed under her golden gaze. “I’m sorry it came down to me killing you. But…” I wasn’t sure how to proceed, itching to go into that manhole.
Her posture change, sagging in what looked like defeat. “I miss them… I want… I see… I saw her, the Margarite of backthen.” She pointed at the door. “I feel the love of my children, my husband. Remember the blanket of it, so far away from the grief and the bitterness.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then smiled. “So much light.”
A billion stabs of guilt punctured my defenses. I’d pledged to serve her, breaking the rules spectacularly, feeling like an arsehole for letting her down. However, no amount of guilt would ever put me in her service again. We were done. So, so done.
With a deep breath, I told them to come on in. “Let’s get this over and done with.”
The former witch queen and the demon joined hands and broke apart into two figure-shaped clouds of glitter that rushed at me, transforming into streams of golden light at the last minute.
“Whoa!” I cried, those beams hitting me in the chest.
Xavier held onto me as the impact rocked my body, almost taking my legs out from under me as power surged, my device humming with hot delight. The incredible energy from two very different creatures joined with mine, filling me up to the brim. Every trace of tiredness got chased away, nothing aching or hurting. With a battery like this inside me, I could run several marathons back-to-back.
