Page 113 of Rose and Shadows
So, I’d managed to resurrect them all before they’d crossed from the Veil into the Valley itself.
I watched now as the Guardian members escorted them out, intending to take them to the infirmary at the Guardian Compound then rehabilitate them after the horrors they’d endured.
I just needed a moment.
I’d seen a lot before we’d even made it to this room.
Yeah, I was a Master of Death Magic, which meant I’d seen more death than most ever did. But this… the grotesque nature of it… the cruelty… it was something else entirely.
I jolted as Ryker burst back into the room, his green lightning let loose, and I watched as he decimated everything in seconds—the restraints, the equipment, even the dead bodies of thePuritasassholes who’d been in here murdering and torturing when we’d entered.
I’d told Ryker I couldn’t bring them back along with the rest.
Of course I could.
He was no fool either. But we’d left it unspoken between us.
He called his power back, hands shaking as he brought them to his face, scrubbing them over it and breathing heavily, before uttering a slew of curses.
As he started to come down from it, he registered me standing in the dark corner.
“I thought you were meeting me outside.”
“I needed a moment,” I responded, walking to him in the middle of the now completely trashed room that was just ashes and debris. “Great minds, it seems.”
He nodded, then shoved a hand through his hair. “We’ve been searching for this nightmare of a place for so long. Now it’s finally done with. But… getting to this point… so many who’ve suffered and died here at their hands… it can’t be undone.”
“Even with all your power and having the Guardian Movement at your disposal, the supernatural world pretty much wired—above ground, anyway—you can’t control everything. You can’t stop all atrocities.”
Our eyes locked.
“I’m glad you said that.”
“What?”
“It’s something you need to accept too.”
“Doesn’t seem like you’ve accepted it, Ry.”
“That outburst you just witnessed is a mark of me accepting it. Because it’s not easy, it’s painful to swallow down, so there are times when I need to unleash that frustration. But accepting itisnecessary. Otherwise you become a maniacal striver for ultimate power.” His eyes flashed. “Like Morien.”
“He didn’t become that way from a place of wanting to protect.”
“No. It was from wanting to be above control. They are similar. In both cases, if there’s not a line, one you live and die by, you become like him, like so many who’ve been corrupted by power.”
As those heavy words hung there between us, he stepped up to me. “The Guardian Movement is finishing with the cleanup here. The victims have already reached the Compound and are being seen to. ThePuritasfuckers still breathing are being processed. Cornelius will be here in moments to disintegrate this pocket dimension. Everything is in motion.”
“That gives you and me some time to talk.”
“Yes. We need to iron out the proposal. And there is also something else I need to make you aware of.” He gestured around us with a grimace. “But not here in this hellhole.”
“Agreed. But—”
“You need to check in with your loves. I understand. Believe me. Nor do we have time for an hours-long meeting of the minds.”
“You’re being pulled in every direction.”
“Par for the course as Head of the Guardian Movement.”
