Found and Forged

by Ivy Asher

  “That’s not possible,” Tawv argues.

  “Saw it with my own eyes, bud,” I counter. “We all lit up like supernovas and…”

  I trail off, not wanting to mention about the thing that happened with the rune on our palms and how I drained my Chosen dry, doing whatever I did to the barrier. I know Tawv took us to go see Getta in the first place, and he might be Bond magic friendly. But I’m taking Getta’s warning seriously to keep our mouths shut about this to everyone. I freeze when something dawns on me. I hurriedly play back that moment in my mind again and add the soundtrack of Getta explaining how it all worked.

  “You can pull and give magic at will to each other. Each member of your Chosen will be able to share their abilities when this rune is activated.”

  Tawv says something to me, but I can’t focus on what past the ring of realization that’s happening in my head right now.

  Holy shit, could that really be it?

  I turn to Ryker, my eyes filled with exhilaration and shock. “I think I know how we can fix my dad.”

  His eyes snap to mine. “What?” he asks, his tone just as stunned as mine is.

  Tawv is still going on about something, and I cut him off. “Okay, yeah, we’ll do that. Um, we gotta go...nap. Yeah, slept like shit last night, so naps for all. Let’s put a pin in this and pick the discussion back up later. Cool? Okay, cool.” And with that, I turn around and bolt for the door.

  27

  I sprint for our rooms, and it doesn’t take long for the guys to be right on my heels.

  “Vinna, what’s going on?” Ryker asks as he pushes to catch up with me from behind.

  “I’m all for a good chase, but this vague-dashing is getting old,” Torrez grumbles.

  “I’ll explain when we get to the room. We don’t need any extra ears hearing,” I tell him over my shoulder, and thankfully, everyone keeps their questions to themselves until we get to the room.

  Chosen and Shields pour through the door to our suite, and as soon as they shut the door behind them, I call up a barrier to keep anyone from listening or looking in. The yellow-orange barrier coats the floor, crawls up the walls, and colors across the ceiling. As soon as we’re encased, questions come firing my way.

  “Okay, hold up,” I order. “I’ll explain.” I wait for everyone to quiet, and then I take a deep breath and start pacing as I explain.

  “Siah, when we were driving to Adriel’s cave compound, you told me about how lamia are made.”

  “Right,” he agrees, his tone perplexed.

  “You said that not everyone can do it, because you have to drain the other person of their magic without overloading yours and killing yourself, and then you need to feed your magic back into the person without draining yourself too much, which would also result in your death.

  “Yes, that’s right,” he confirms.

  “Well, when Adriel tried to turn Vaughn, he didn’t have enough magic to complete it. That’s probably because Vaughn is a Sentinel, and if his source is anything like ours, it’s massive. It would take a fuck-ton of magic to complete the process, and Adriel didn’t have that even on his best day. But guess who does?” I ask them.

  I’m too excited to wait for anyone to guess, so I hurry and solve the mystery. “We do,” I tell them like a magician that’s setting up a mind-blowing trick.

  “Wait. What?” Becket asks.

  “Getta said that when we activate this rune”—I hold up my hand and point to the six diamonds in a circle on my palm—“we could share magic; we can pull from each other or push it into each other. That means that we could send the fuck-ton of magic that my dad needs to complete his turn using this.” I wave my hand at all of them and watch what I’m saying soak in.

  “It could work,” Sorik says, stepping out of his room and into the conversation. “But we’re assuming that’s what’s wrong with Vaughn, that he’s stuck in the transition somehow.”

  “But what else could it be?” I ask, my hope deflating slightly. “He became like this after Adriel tried to turn him. Isn’t being stuck in the transition the most logical conclusion?”

  “Maybe, Squeaks, but it could be because he’s a Sentinel too. Lamia can be turned to Sentinels, but maybe Sentinels can’t be turned into lamia. This could be what happens instead,” Ryker tells me.

  “It’s worth a shot, don’t you think though?” Valen asks Ryker.

  “I mean, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, but at least we tried,” Bastien adds, agreeing with his brother.

  “But what if this could hurt us? None of us knows how much power it would take to complete Vaughn’s transition into a lamia. Even if we can pull it off, it could drain all of us badly. We’d be vulnerable in a time that we really can’t afford to be vulnerable. What if the Sovereign comes for us?” Sabin asks.

  Everyone goes quiet as they think through the shit ton of info I’ve just dumped all over them. My heart speeds up, but the hopeful little shit has gotten me in trouble too many times for me to just follow it blindly.

  “So we’re smart about it. We set up barriers around us, and we don’t push past what happened to all of us when we crossed over into Tierit and altered their barrier. You guys were out for about three hours. Enoch, Kallan, Becket, Nash and Sorik can watch our back for that long,” I propose.

  “So what would we do?” Siah asks hesitantly, and I try to take a deep breath and calm myself down. This is going to happen. I can feel it, but I don’t need to get carried away with excitement until it works.

  “We would push our magic into you, and you would push it into Vaughn.”

  “That’s it?” Knox queries.

  “That’s it,” I confirm. “Siah would finish the turning with our help.”

  “Is that safe for Siah?” Kallan asks.

  “I would never do anything to hurt any of you,” I defend.

  “I know you wouldn’t purposely do something, but didn’t you say if he has too much magic or too little, he could die?”

  “That was before though. He’s Chosen now. He’s a lamia Sentinel hybrid who can share magic with me and his compeers. There should be zero risk. At least not to him.”

  “So what if Vaughn needs more magic to heal him than the barrier did, what then?” Nash asks.

  “I don’t know. We won’t know what might or might not work without trying,” I counter.

  “So should we try to drain him again and start the process all over or just push magic into him and see if anything happens?” Valen asks.

  “I think we should push magic into him and see if that heals his mind enough to pull him out of this functioning catatonic state,” Sorik proposes, and I nod my head agreeing with him.

  “So do we want to do this now or wait until after we get out of here?” Sabin questions.

  Mentally, I try to weigh the pros and cons of attempting this now versus waiting. Maybe it’s dumb to push for it now with everything going on around us, but I just feel in my gut that we need to try and now is the time to do it.

  “I feel like now is the best option,” I tell them. “Enoch, Becket, Nash and Kallan, would you be okay to stand guard in case any of us go down for a while?” I ask.

  They nod, and Becket immediately starts setting up additional barriers around our suite.

  “Well, okay then, let’s see if this works,” Torrez announces, and he pushes out of his seat on the couch and saunters over to Vaughn and Sorik’s room.

  The rest of my Chosen follow Torrez, and nerves trickle through me as I bring up the rear. Vaughn is sitting in a chair, staring at the empty fireplace, and anxiety begins to gnaw at my gut. What if this doesn’t work? What if it does? What happens then? Will he know what’s going on, be aware of everything he’s lost or that’s changed around him?

  I honestly don’t know which would be worse, him being stuck in there this whole time or him waking up to all of this like he’s been asleep through everything that’s happened. What if he doesn’t know that Grier is gone? My heart ach
es, and my mind whirls with all the endless possibilities. For a brief moment, I wonder if it would be better to leave things as they are. Waking him up could be devastating, but I banish that thought and hope that if this does work, he can overcome everything that’s happened.

  I wipe my suddenly sweaty palms on my armored pants as Sorik instructs Vaughn to move to the bed and lie down. I’m oddly aware of my breathing as Vaughn does as he’s told, and I feel like my heart’s going to beat out of my chest. I keep telling it to calm the fuck down. This may not even work. There’s also the possibility that if it does, I could be diving head first into another Lachlan situation.

  I beg my heart to stop with the hope, but each beat is filled with it anyway.

  “Okay, everyone ready?” Siah asks.

  He rolls his neck and shakes nervous energy out of his arms. I’m tempted to mimic him as my body starts to hum with adrenaline. Bastien’s palm lights up as he activates the six circular diamond runes. Slowly one by one, each of their palms light up. A blue glow fills the room, and it feels like everyone is holding their breath and waiting to see what will happen next.

  Siah watches me as I activate my rune, and then his palm lights up with that same eerie blue light.

  “I’ve never changed anyone before,” he admits, looking to Sorik for help.

  “You know when you’re feeding and you can feel something inside of you latch on to the power in the blood?” Sorik asks.

  Siah nods and looks at me quickly before looking back at Sorik.

  “You’ll do that, but instead of pulling the power into you, you’ll push it further into him. You’ll keep doing that until Vaughn is full. If it works, he should wake up a lamia, and hungry.”

  “Okay,” Siah agrees, and then quick as lightning, he slashes across Vaughn’s forearm.

  My initial reaction is to defend Vaughn from any more injury, and I have to talk myself down from reacting the way my instincts are screaming for me to react. He’s okay, Vinna. Siah needs his blood. Would you rather he bit him, knowing what that bite can do? I roll my neck and open and close my fists in an effort to regain control of myself.

  Siah focuses on the line of blood that’s seeped into the scratch, and it’s as if time stands still. I don’t feel anything at first, but after maybe ten minutes or so, I start to feel tiny tugs right in the middle of my chest. The pull is soft, and even though I can’t physically see any evidence of the magic that Siah is pushing into Vaughn, I can picture it in my mind. I imagine that there’s a steady flow of blue light running from Siah’s hands into Vaughn’s chest. I can picture Vaughn filled to the brink inside and then sitting up, gasping for air.

  Sorik watches Vaughn and Siah closely, and I wonder what’s going through his mind. Is he as tangled up inside with conflicting emotions as I am?

  Torrez goes down first. My heart hammers with alarm, but Sorik gets to him before he can crumble all the way to the ground. Sorik lays him down gently and whispers something to him that I can’t make out. Knox is next, and then Sabin. Worry begins to consume me as one by one, Siah drains each of them, and there’s still no hint that any of this is working.

  “They’re okay, just sleeping like before,” Sorik reassures me.

  I nod and try to convince my heart that this will all be okay.

  Bastien and Valen both look pained, like they’re fighting what we all know is inevitable. Bastien grunts, and the next thing I know, Sorik is positioning both of the twins on the floor. I fall forward and grab onto the side of the bed to keep me from going all the way over. I don’t feel like I’m going to pass out, but the tug at the middle of my chest just got infinitely stronger. I feel like someone just harpooned me and is trying to drag me through the water to them.

  Ryker sways on his feet, and I prepare myself for the increase in the intensity of the magic pull when he goes down.

  “Vinna,” Ryker calls to me through gritted teeth. My eyes snap to his. “Call on the runes Siah gave you. I think they might heal. Lace that in your magic and see if it helps,” he tells me, and then he’s down for the count.

  I gasp as the harpoon in my chest gives another hard yank, and then I do what Ryker suggested. I activate the runes on my right shoulder that Siah’s bite left behind.

  I feel like someone just bitch slapped me with a lightning bolt. The runes I just activated said hold my beer as they shoved the harpoon out of my chest, cracked my rib cage in half and swung each side open like opulent French doors. Power pours out of me like I’m doing the fucking Care Bear Stare, and I grit my teeth and try to hold my ground. I look down at myself and see that my skin is still just kissed by the eerie blue light from the rune on my hand and shoulder, but I feel like I’m lit up like the fucking sun right now.

  “He’s close,” Sorik announces, and Siah inclines his chin, his teeth also ground together from the force I’m now feeding into him.

  I begin to pant. My insides start to feel like the sun as a deep burning starts in my chest and works its way out into my limbs. The burn becomes searing, and pain radiates through everything that I am. I grit my teeth and will against it and keep shoving everything I have into Siah. He growls and a drop of blood spills out of his nose. His face is filled with strain and agony, and I know my features reflect the exact same thing. A keening starts in my chest as I keep pushing power out of me and into Siah. It fucking hurts, but we’re so close.

  Will this work? Fuck, please let it work, I beg as I burn from the inside out, my keening on the verge of a scream. I release my plea to float out into the universe, and just as I do, Siah disconnects his rune, and his legs give out. Like a rubber band from hell, the magic I was pouring into Siah snaps back at me, and I get hammered by the force of it. I gasp and then cry out from the impact, and then the next thing I know, everything goes black.

  28

  I open my eyes and squint against the bright sun streaming through the windows. My Chosen are still asleep around me, and I’m not sure how long we’ve been out. I crawl out of bed and press Healing magic into each of them, but they all seem to be okay aside from the whole unconscious thing. I head out into the main room, and Kallan and Becket leap up from the couches.

  “She’s up,” Kallan announces, and then they both become hovering mother hens.

  “How are you feeling?” Becket asks at the same time I ask, “How long was I out?”

  “About seventeen hours now,” Nash announces from the doorway of Vaughn and Sorik’s room.

  My heart rate picks up like a galloping horse as I try to see past Nash into the room. My hopeful gaze falls on Nash, the question clear in my stare.

  Nash shakes his head, and everything in me drops.

  “Nothing?” I ask, my voice cracking with emotion.

  I thought for sure this was going to work. It just felt so right when we worked it out.

  “He hasn’t woken up; he seems to be in a deep sleep and doesn’t respond to instructions the way he was before.”

  Nash’s words feel like a sledgehammer to my heart. Each syllable pulverizing what I hoped would happen. We didn’t make him better, we made him fucking worse. I step back away from them. I choke on the acceptance I know I need to swallow, but I just hate the fucking taste of it so much.

  I really thought it would work.

  I look up at them and then around the room. I can’t be here right now. I need to go!

  “I’m going to go for a run,” I announce, and then I move out of the room and try to get as far away from my disappointment as fast as I can.

  “Vinna, wait,” Enoch calls, but I need to get out of here.

  “Just guard my Chosen, okay? Please,” I beg, and I’m out the door before anyone else can say another word.

  Sun beams in through the windows that line the hallway, and I easily find the stairs that lead down and out of this fucking useless castle. If I ran the show here, this place would be the first thing I’d tear down. I’d build a house that was normal and functional and didn’t have ostentatiousness
vomited over every square inch. Fuck the First House and all these ancient assholes who think somehow their opinions and blood matter more than every other Sentinel within this barrier.

  I make my way to the training facility I used the other day and once again wish I was home in my gym with a treadmill that won’t quit and every kind of punching bag imaginable. I stop in my tracks when I find Ory standing solitary at the doors leading into the facility. He looks a little surprised to see me, but it’s gone in a blink, just like every other emotion this guy shows.

  We both just stand and stare at each other for a moment before he seems to come to some sort of a decision and steps aside. I reach for the handles on the doors to the entrance and pass by him warily. I’m not sure what his deal is, but honestly with the way I’m feeling, I’d be game to fuck him up once and for all if he tries anything. I step into the facility and don’t hear any of the telltale signs that anyone else is in here like I heard last time I came.

  Good. Time to fuck some shit up.

  I start to stretch out and loosen my limbs. After sending a zap of Elemental magic into my phone, I turn it on and pull up Bring Me the Horizon’s “Can You Feel My Heart,” letting the lyrics scream me into action. I step into the arena-like facility and start to work out a circuit that will purge the frustration. Just as I’m about to get started, someone drops from the top of the tall wall that I’m pretty sure they practice flying over. They land and start sprinting for the next obstacle when they spot me and stop in their tracks.

  I groan, irritated, when hazel eyes meet mine. Fuck my life. Of course this bitch Suryn is here.

  I should fucking know by now that Ory is practically her personal guard. Where there’s one, you’ll find the other.

  “How did you get in here?” she demands.

  “Your boyfriend let me in.”

  She narrows her eyes at the word boyfriend. “Leave,” she commands, and she turns and moves back in the direction of whatever course she’s running, like she just expects to be obeyed.