“Let go,” Antonio whispered to the image. “Break it, Lil.”
But I didn’t break it. I hadn’t wanted to. They watched as I continued to give more of myself, giving everything I could to Ezra. The image only cut off when Bindi hit me with the candlestick, her infuriated face the last the image showed.
Silence descended on the room.
Antonio’s chest rose, fell heavily. He glanced at me once before he started pacing the room’s littered floor. “Ezra, search her. See if she has the knocker on her.”
Ezra’s palm moved from my chest, and instantly, I once more felt the rattle of death inside me. Oddly, it didn’t hurt. It was just a bizarre sensation, knowing what it was. I had knocked on death’s door, and death was knocking back. Kind of fitting for how this all started.
“You can’t be serious,” Cahal stated, even as Ezra laid me on the bed and began searching me.
Antonio shot him a special look. “And if it was Ezra in this situation?”
Cahal’s lips thinned, his eyes finding his son. He didn’t speak again.
“Don’t,” I wheezed, “have it.”
Ezra stilled over my boots. “What?”
“She,” I sucked air, “took it.”
He braced his hands on either side of my legs, his glowing green gaze slamming to Antonio. “What now?” He paused. “Can’t I give some of,” his fist rubbed against the middle of his bare muscular chest, “this back?” I wheezed, and he blurred, rapidly lying beside me, his hand back on the center of my chest and giving me peace.
Antonio’s jaw clenched, and he glanced at Elder Harcourt. “I don’t know a spell against death.”
Elder Harcourt blinked. “That’s why I gave her the knocker.”
Antonio’s nostrils flared. “Being obtuse isn’t an attractive trait. She’s on f**king death’s bed. Tell me what the hell to do!”
“Why, Antonio, you do the only thing you can,” Elder Harcourt said softly.
Antonio sighed in aggravated frustration and began pacing again.
Silently, Elder Harcourt stared after him, rubbing his chin.
“You know how to fix this,” Ezra rumbled, staring hard at the older Mage. “You already said that you know her path. Just tell him what to do.”
Antonio shook his head. “He obviously can’t.” He rolled his hands in front of him, his feet still eating up the floor as he appeared like he was having an internal debate, even though he said nothing more verbally.
“It alters time if he wasn’t supposed to give the advice in the first place,” Cahal said offhandedly when Ezra began growling quietly, his son’s attention stuck on the older Mage.
“She needs life,” Antonio muttered to himself.
Elder Harcourt hummed in his throat, the sound neither good nor bad.
I turned my eyes completely from them as they began debating, and stared up at Ezra. He must have felt it because he looked down at me. He blinked and his eyes stopped glowing, just staring at me with his striking gaze and searching mine as he whispered, “You shouldn’t have done this.”
My lips tilted. Oh yes, I should have. “What would,” a sharp inhale, “you have done?”
His own lips tilted, his chest hitching. “Nothing different.”
“See,” I breathed, as everyone began arguing around us, then mouthed, “I love you, husband.”
“I love you, too, wife,” he mouthed, his lips thinning and his nostrils flaring as he swept his free hand over my forehead into my hair. His eyes instantly glistened, gleaming even brighter. Unshed tears. He cleared his throat, glancing away, up to his petting hand and his fingers threading through my hair.
My heart swelled for him. I wanted to comfort but was unable to move. “Ezra.”
“Shh,” he whispered. “You’re not going to die.” His chin trembled for the barest moment before he clenched it hard with an clicking noise. His nostrils flared again, harshly inhaling. His eyes met mine and I saw resolve there, a hardness that was all inner strength, all Ezra. “You’re not.” Green eyes slated to Antonio, who was arguing with Elder Merrick. “Blood, Elder Farrar. Blood is life.”
Everyone went silent enough to hear Elder Harcourt as he hummed, and this time, it was a hum of approval.
“I know this,” Antonio stated, eyebrows puckering as he glanced at Elder Harcourt. He stared at the Elder, deep in thought. He blinked. A pause. Another blink. “But her Core is almost empty.”
Elder Jacobs snorted. “Everyone knows that a parent can give their blood and a portion of their Core power to their child, healing their child’s body against anything mystical.” He paused. “I actually knew a parent that did it. It was rough going for a while for the parent and child, but they gained everything back.”
Elder Harcourt held Antonio’s gaze.
Bindi shook her head. “I remember her medical file saying her mother has passed on.”
“What about her father?” Elder Merrick asked. “Is he still alive?”
“Yes,” Elder Harcourt said softly. “He can handle the Core loss since he’s the most powerful of his four.”
Antonio stiffened.
Ezra stiffened.
Hell, even I stiffened, which hurt like a son of a bitch.
He knew who my biological dad was?
Cahal glanced at the three of us, his eyes piercing. “The most powerful of his four?” His voice could cut like a deadly blade, it was so sharp. “He’s an Elder?”
I was pretty sure the three of us didn’t breathe at all.
Elder Jacobs’s eyes danced between us. “I’m not sure what I’m missing here, but the important thing would be to find him. If he’s an Elder, he may already be here at King Cave, right?”
Elder Harcourt’s shaggy, golden eyebrows rose at Antonio’s regard, and he harmlessly placed his hands in his pockets.
After he had dropped that bomb on us.
Cahal asked crisply, “Antonio, what the f**k is going on? Your heart rate, and my son’s, are both going crazy, not to mention that Lily’s actually sped up.” He paused. “And now it’s faltering again.”
My breathing hitched, my eyes fluttering. He was right. Elder Harcourt’s pronouncement hadn’t helped my predicament any.
Antonio licked his lips, his golden gaze turning to me, and he whispered, “It’s the only way.”
“No,” Ezra demanded. “There has to be another option.”