Page 76 of Shadow Weaver
But I had to touch it. It was the only way to save him.
My phantom hands grazed the crimson thread, and then my fingers wrapped around it. Pain tore through me, and I almost let go.
No. Hold on.
I had to relieve the burden. Act as a valve to release the pressure of energy building inside him. Energy that was too much for his body to use or store. It had to flow through me … back to the weave.
Open.
Something inside me snapped, and then power was flooding through me, energies, images, memories. They flooded into me and then out of me, down my thread toward the weave. I was feeding the weave energy. I was siphoning from Kash. My thread began to grow brighter, power rushing up and down it—running both ways. Oh, God. I was feeding the weave and drawing from it. I was connected. Really connected, and the crimson of Kash’s thread had dulled and turned white.
“Indigo?” Kash said.
“Kash?”
“What’s happening?” His voice echoed around me.
“I … I don’t know.”
Our threads touched, and a shock rocked through me. The weave lit up so bright it was blinding, and then a pulse shot out of it, knocking me into spiraling darkness.
“Indigo?”
I opened my eyes to the mist, and to Kash’s face filled with questions. “What did you do?”
“I don’t know.” I struggled to sit up with his help. My pulse was sluggish. Aidan, Carlo, and Devon were unconscious on the ground around me. Athos had his eyes closed; the only sign he was alive was the steady rise and fall of his back.
“Is it over?”
“Look.” Kash pointed up. “It’s working.”
I tilted my head to look up into the mist and watched white fire burn away the darkness.
Twenty-Three
The fortress was a recovering place. Weakened. All of us recharging, but the threat was gone. Wiped out of existence as it should have been all those years ago. There was only one reason for the Tuatha having bound and hidden the virus … They’d planned on using it again someday. But on who? The thought sent a shiver down my spine. And then another tremor ran through me as I stopped outside the med bay.
For the first time in a long time, Payne was inundated with patients suffering from chronic exhaustion. The nightbloods and moonkissed weren’t too bad. They’d fully recharge in a day, but the feyblood were hit hard.
Many were laid up in their rooms, and the worst of them were here, in the med bay, including Hyde.
It had been easier to bring him up here than take him to the fortress healer. Brady was being administered to there, and he still hadn’t woken. I’d sat with him for an hour, holding his hand, and now I was here.
My pulse quickened as I pushed open the door and stepped into the foyer. The med bay door was open and Payne was visible inside administering to a patient, and a few beds down was Hyde.
He lay propped up, eyes closed, skin pale. I took a step toward the room.
“Indigo?”
I turned to see Deana enter, clutching a flask.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. Then her gaze slid over my head into the med bay. “You came to see Hyde.” She studied me carefully. “That’s dedicated of you.” Her gaze was too knowing.
“Yeah, well, that’s me. Dedication is my middle name.”
She sighed. “Well, things make more sense now.”
“What do you mean?”
