89afb7be779cad4d1f6d64e1d44d3446 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-17T16:00:00+00:00

13

The subway car blasted along as I dropped to my knees next to Ethan. I grabbed his hand, interlocking his fingers with my own. Rory slid away to give me room.

“Ethan, we need you,” I said.

“Can’t. Too tired.” The words fumbled from his lips, as if he were drunk.

Carson dropped down beside me and put his hand on Ethan’s chest. “He’s sliding fast. There is very little I can do other than keep his pain at a minimum at this point.”

My jaw dropped. “What?” He was not saying what it sounded like he was saying. He couldn’t be.

The mage put a hand on my shoulder and stood. “He’s dying, Wild. The sickness has him in its grips. He’s succumbing to it. We all knew it was just a matter of time.”

Guts twisting, I tightened my hold on Ethan’s hand. “No.”

His lips tipped up, and his laughter was there in his head, even if it wasn’t coming out his mouth. “No,” he whispered back. “There have been times . . . you wouldn’t have minded me gone.”

I ignored him, because while he wasn’t wrong, he also wasn’t right.

“Not happening, nobody gets to just check out in the middle of this mess.” I shifted my seat and looked at Carson. “So intent is what is needed for a spell, not Latin?”

Wally hurried to Ethan’s head, sat down cross-legged, and pulled his upper body into her lap. “I can keep Death at bay for a little bit. Bring him back, Wild.”

I still held my wand. “I’m going to draw from all of you.”

My crew settled around me without complaint, and Gregory snorted. “Anyone else wonder why it’s always Ethan needing to be saved? Isn’t the House of Wonder supposed to be the strongest?”

His sharp words didn’t mesh with the worry that infiltrated his voice and the bonds between us.

“Maybe because he is the most broken of us,” I said before really thinking about what I was saying.

I thought about the intent of healing Ethan, of stopping the sickness in its tracks.

Of purging him of . . . what? The contagion? Except this particular sickness only affected magical people . . .

What if a spell was causing it?

Staring at Ethan, I asked, “Carson, can you . . . can you make a spell reveal itself?”

“Yes, why?”

“Do it to Ethan.”

There was silence for a moment then Carson spun his wand and pointed it at Ethan. “Reveleo.”

A shower of tiny sparkles rippled through the air in a wave as they fell onto Ethan.

They revealed dark blue spikes all over Ethan’s chest. Pulsing with energy, they dug in deep, literally diving in and out of his body. I put out a hand, so it hovered over one of the spikes. Now that I could see it, I could feel the magic pulling on Ethan.

A burst of curse words flowed from Carson. “Of course . . . it could be just that simple!”

“It’s not sickness not at all,” I whispered. “That’s why the healing won’t work. Or would work for just a time.

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