Edge of Pathos (Book 4 of The Conjurors Series)

Chapter 14

Light was everywhere, blinding Valerie. She had landed, with Dulcea and Gideon, in a lake in the middle of the Oasis.

Thai, Henry, Cyrus, and Jack splashed into the lake to help them get out.

"What happened?" Cyrus demanded, but Valerie couldn't reply through her sobs.

"Sweetie? What's wrong?" Jack asked as he gently took Dulcea from Valerie's arms.

Jack's eyes flicked down Dulcea's body, and her blood spilled all over his shirt. He clutched her close, making a low moaning sound.

Henry huddled on the ground. "No no no no no no no no," he said.

"Get it together, Henry," Thai said sharply. "Your sister needs you."

Thai struggled with Gideon's weight, dragging him ashore. Valerie collapsed next to her mentor on the beach.

"Step back," she said, though her tears still fell.

She wouldn't let her mentor meet the same fate as Dulcea.

She unleashed her vivicus power into Gideon, and this time, nothing stopped her. Her power poured into him, and the intense heat of her magic was a sweet pain that burned away everything else.

But then something changed. Instead of burning bright and clear, her power became sluggish, polluted with something dark—Kellen's dark dust. She fought against it, reaching out to Henry for his help.

Valerie and Henry's combined magic obliterated some of the dust, but its dark magic fought her efforts to expel it. Valerie gritted her teeth and pushed back, pouring more and more of her power, and herself, into Gideon.

"Valerie, stop!" Henry's voice sounded so far away, but then he was in her mind, and his presence had never been more immediate.

He pushed against the flood of her magic, forcing her to stem its tide.

"Stop! I'm not finished!" she said, but her voice sounded weak.

"Yes, you are. Any more and you'd be gone," Henry said.

"That isn't what Gideon would want," Thai added.

"I can't lose him, too. Please, I can't," Valerie said, turning in to Thai's shoulder and burying her face in his shirt.

"Shh, you didn't. He's still breathing. We'll take him to a Master Healer," Thai said.

"It's Kellen's dark dust," Valerie said.

Cyrus was already pumping light into Gideon. For several long minutes they both glowed, then at last, Cyrus fell back.

"I did as much as I could," he said, and Valerie could read the truth of his words in the shadows under his eyes.

"We'll take him to Nightingale. There's still hope for him, Valerie," Thai said.

Valerie nodded numbly, fatigue trying to consume her as it always did after she used her vivicus power. But before she gave in to oblivion, she reached in her pocket to remove Kanti. Henry knelt beside her, and she opened her hand. She saw light return to his eyes before she was overcome by darkness.

When Valerie woke up, she was back in her own room, and Cyrus was holding her hand. He seemed fragile, drained of his power. Light wasn't attracted to him, so he lacked his usual glow, and his eyes had never seemed so haunted.

He turned away to shake a sleeping form on the chair by her bed.

"She's awake," Cyrus said. "And I'm sure it's not me she wants by her side right now."