Page 102 of Death Warden
I absorb the forensic examiner’s words. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. There is no doubt.”
“Thank you.”
“Wait, Logan, you know what this means,” he says.
“I do. But you don’t. Leave this to the Grave Spirits.”
“I have to log this, and then we’ll need to interview—”
“Dammit, Rudy, there is no need, okay? I don’t have time to explain it right now, but you owe me. It’s time to pay up by not asking any questions.”
He sighs. “Fine. I can give you forty-eight hours.”
A stabbing, burning pain on my wrist draws my attention. “I’ll call you back.” I hang up and roll up my sleeve to stare at the tattoo, three interconnected ovals.
What the heck?
My chest grows warm just below my diaphragm, a hot spot that steals my breath, and then my vision blurs. When it clears, I see Adi in her room. She’s breathing shallow and fast, eyes wide. An invisible force slams into me and rushes through the soles of my feet up to the hot spot in my chest, then outward. I feel the connection to her as a jolt that rattles my soul. Every hair on my body stands to attention.
I have to go to her.
Now.
I’m out the door and running for the stairs, but Spectre beats me to it, his huge body filling the stairwell as we run toward her room. We hit the corridor and Curo barrels out of his room, slamming into us and knocking us into the wall.
“Adi!” we say in unison.
I hold up my wrist and they stare at the tattoo and hold up theirs.
I think I know what’s happened, but the need to get to Adi trumps talking about it.
I push past the larger guys and throw open Adi’s bedroom door.
She’s sitting up, hair in disarray, eyes bright and cheeks flushed. She holds up her arm where three tattoos, almost identical to ours, make a line up her forearm, and smiles.
“Guess who just had her revelation?”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE
ADI
Tobias examined the markings on my arm. I had three. Three lots of interconnected ovals with a circle on each of them. Spectre’s marking matched mine, but Logan’s and Curo’s lacked the circle.
Tobias’s gaze flicked up to meet mine and he smiled. “I guess the universe is on our side. By giving you three conduits, it’s given us a chance to stop Dralos.”
“She’s not dying?” Logan asked.
“We’re all dying,” Tobias said. “But not because of the lock. Not any longer. However, the fractures have been created and they cannot be resealed. If he manages to unravel Finley and regain the full force of his power, the lock will shatter.”
“Will it hurt Adi?” Curo asked.
“I’m not sure how it will affect her,” Tobias said. “Now that she has three conduits, she should be able to survive the lock’s destruction. But the lock failing will bring the Mageri into play.”
“They’ll want to give her to Dralos.” Spectre put his arm around me. “Not happening.”
“Then we need to find his body and destroy it,” Logan said.
