Page 96 of Death Warden
Oh, God.
Death put a finger to his lips and then sipped his coffee.
My heart sank.
“Drink this.” Spectre parked his ass on the other side of me and held a glass to my lips.
I sipped the cool water, then grabbed the glass and glugged, because damn, I was thirsty.
“Easy, easy.” Spectre gently tugged the glass away. “You don’t want to make yourself sick.”
I leaned back against Curo and closed my eyes, taking short, shallow breaths. The amulet was a hot brand on my chest. I was no fool. I knew what was happening and the presence of Death confirmed it.
“How long do I have?” My question was directed at Death, but silence greeted my question and tears of frustration sprang to my eyes. “Answer me!” A cough racked my frame and Spectre pulled me away from Curo and against his chest.
“Let me help.” He nudged my chin up and kissed me. Power filtered into my body, giving me the strength to sit up on my own. “Better?”
I nodded, then looked back at the dresser. Death was gone. I wanted to take that as a good sign, but my body said otherwise.
My attention fell to Tobias standing at the foot of my bed.
“How long, Tobias?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m sorry. I should have been here. But the Mageri council called me in. They needed an update about the situation with Dralos. Assurances that the lock would be sustained. They took my cell phone. I couldn’t contact you.”
“You managed to send a text.”
“Not me. One of the sentinels owed me a favor. He sent the text from my phone.”
“Why do they care so much about the lock?” Dax asked. “How dangerous is this entity.”
“Entity? You mean necromancer.” Silence fell around me. “He’s not a necromancer, is he?”
“No,” Tobias said. “He isn’t. I’ll explain it all to you, but first we need to find Finley. Do you know where he might have gone?”
“What? No. Finley comes and goes as he pleases.”
“Shit,” Logan said.
“What’s going on? What’s Finley got to do with anything?”
“You know that mages require inanimate conduits to channel power,” Tobias said. “But necromancers born to your three families require flesh-and-bone conduits. Ones they find after their revelation. I told you that.”
“Yes. The Thornes have a book, the Crescents a goblet, and we have Finley.” He arched a brow… “Wait, Finley is flesh and bone.”
“He wasn’t to begin with. Finley was an obsidian statuette of a feline creature. But they were forced to use him to hold an alien power.”
I was so confused right now and the brain fuzzies didn’t help. “What power?”
“Dralos’s power.”
“You need to back up and start from scratch,” Spectre growled.
“There is no time,” Tobias said. “I need to find Finley. If Adi can’t help me, then I’ll need to prepare a locator spell.” He looked to Logan. “The blood you collected from the windowsill will have to do.”
My brain struggled to catch up. “It’s not Finley’s blood.” They all looked at me. “He said it wasn’t his. He had no idea where it came from.”
“Damn it,” Tobias said. “That makes it harder. If Dralos gets his hooks into Finley, if he manages to unravel the spell containing his power, then he can use that to break free.”
