CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The next morning we trained.
Well, first Verrill and I showered and toyed with the idea of round two, but then we trained. For hours we ran through every combination and attack pattern conceivable, every scenario, everything that might go wrong, we practiced countermeasures. More guards than we expected? Blow the fucker up. King not where we expected? Search quadrant by quadrant until he’s found.
I had two stipulations: save Emma at all costs, and leave Dex to me.
“You’re looking well,” Jadzeera said when we finished our last session. “Do we have my cousin to thank for that glow?”
I laughed but knew better. Verrill’s contribution to my glow was incidental. The combination of Shifter Realm provisions and the distance from the magic in general did wonders for my energy. Despite the training, my body was more able to handle the demand. Each day my figure and cheeks rounded. But it was only temporary. The moment I shimmered into the Blood Realm the magic from the overpowered hold would slam into me once more.
All the training and preparation couldn’t prepare me for that and I wouldn’t let my horde go to war without all the information. Not if it meant they might be hurt while my body fought to assimilate the surge of magic. “Thanks,” I said and headed downstairs to talk with Sorin, still doing his best to avoid me.
“I’ll tell them during breakfast,” I said from the doorway of his bedroom. The penthouse had more than enough sleeping areas for everyone but Sorin exiled himself to the lower floor our first night here.
“Good.” He didn’t look up from the blade he sharpened on a whetstone.
I leaned against the door frame. “I can’t go to war mad at you.”
“Then don’t.” The Shifter King met my gaze, metallic swirls full of pain. “Please, Zurie. Stay here. Let us take care of this.”
I crossed my arms. “Is that what this is? Is that why you’ve been such a jerk? Some misguided attempt to keep me safe?”
“Is it so wrong?”
“It’s wrong to turn something told to you in confidence into a weapon.”
“Perhaps. But we saw what happened to you when my sister ended that ward. We saw the pain it caused and we know what that means when you go back to our plane. Even the ones you haven’t directly told have pieced it together. I expect they haven’t addressed it to save your dignity but hear me now, Zurie. This is not your work. This is not your fight. Let us take on the burden. The cost to you is far too great.”
I nodded. “Maybe it is. But it’s my decision and I’ve already made it.” I shimmered back upstairs, not wanting to discuss it further but Sorin had succeeded. He’d planted a seed of doubt deep in my bones. Should I go? Was I making a stupid choice?
Everyone except Sorin assembled at the dining table, helping themselves to the feast Madga prepared. No one spoke. No one made eye contact. Today was the day, and the tension around the table was evidence of that.
I stared at my plate of hardtack and dried things, wishing for the poached eggs and salty bacon and seasoned potatoes everyone else had.
“I’ve reached out to the witches.” Jadzeera’s sharp, icy gaze met mine. “They’ve agreed to forfeit their portion of magic for the next twenty-four hours, providing me with a significant boost.”
I nodded. “That’s good.”
No one spoke as Sorin entered the room but I suspected a silent conversation floated among the minds of my leaders right before me.
I interrupted it. “You’ve probably figured out by now that my body is ill-equipped to handle the energy demands demon magic puts on it,” I said without preamble, hoping that diving in would help lessen the impact on my dignity. “It’s why I brought Raksha to the Arcane Realm, and it’s why the lot of you are on this plane. I can’t take the burden of magic, not in this form and not when I’m in the demon realms. I’m telling you this because I want to prepare you. When we shimmer into the Blood Realm, I expect to be incapacitated by the sudden influx of power. I don’t know for how long, but I suspect it will last quite some time given how much stolen magic lies within the hold.” I took a pause, without looking up from my plate. I didn’t want to see the any of their expressions of pity. “Do not, under any circumstances, stop the mission because of me. Keep going no matter what. Getting Emma and returning the power balance to all realms is why you’re there. Remember that.” I took my plate and shimmered to my room, staunching any rebuttal, any argument before there was room to voice it.
I tried to eat but each bite fell like stones into my stomach. Unilateral decisions were awful, especially when I wasn’t certain I’d made the right call.
But I couldn’t very well let them go alone. I had to be there.
Right?
I wished Emma were here. I could use her levity about now.
Hell, I’d settle for Chicken’s fickle attention. But Emma was trapped in the Blood Realm and Raksha mentioned that my cat wouldn’t follow me to the earthly plane.
“Why would a being ever give up magic? That’s what coming here would mean for her.”
I decided, instead, to find comfort in the arms of another, or in my case, many others. A last hurrah before the battle, I suppose. I waited until everyone had finished breakfast and scattered to their rooms to make preparations before making a move.
I knocked on Callum’s door first.
That should have been my first warning. None of us were in the habit of closing bedroom doors.
There was no answer. I opened the door slowly and peeked in to find it empty, bed made, battle leathers and the weapons he’d shimmered in to train with, gone.
I shimmered to the next room, Verrill’s, to find the same. Same for Jadz, same downstairs for Sorin. Even Raksha had cleared her things.
They left without me.
I shimmered back to my room for my leathers only to be confronted by a teary-eyed Magda.
“Why? Why did you let them leave without me?”
“There was no letting, mistress. They shimmered the moment you left the dining room without a second of conversation between them.”
“Then there’s still time for me to—”
“I’m afraid I can’t allow that, mistress.”
“Excuse me?”
“I won’t see you break yourself for our realms, for our benefit.” Madga waved a hand in front of me and my knees went wobbly. “I’m sorry, Zurie. It’s for the best.”
My vision blurred as I fell in slow motion to the ground.
Wow, this carpet is nice. Fluffy. Soft.
Blackness.