“Except I know.” A rush of cold fear swept through me. “I’m a casualty, too.”
“Yep. Otherwise your friends and family would tear Sitia apart looking for you. And they are way too powerful for my liking.”
“They’ll do it anyway. Unless there’s proof of my death.”
“The searchers will find your backpack and if they dig deep enough, they’ll find a crushed female corpse wearing your clothes. She’s approximately your age, size and weight and has the same hairstyle. Although I must admit, the short cut looked better on her.”
I closed my eyes, letting grief for the anonymous woman overcome me for a moment. Then I shoved it deep. I would need to focus. “Why bother with this elaborate ruse?”
“I’m tired of playing in Vasko’s sandbox. I’ve a new partner. He’s a simple man and only wants one thing in exchange for giving me control over the black diamonds and the super messengers.” Galen gazed at me as if appraising a vein for hidden gemstones. “Aren’t you going to ask?”
“Who is it?”
“Aren’t you curious what he wants?”
“No.”
“Ah, denial. Doesn’t matter, you’ll find out soon enough.” Galen pulled a dart from his coverall and approached me.
“You don’t need that,” I said, thinking fast. “I’m lost down here. I can’t run away.”
“Nice try, but I’ve a few tasks to finish before we go.” He jabbed the dart into my arm. As my head spun, he dropped the null shield. I sagged forward and he caught me.
“Believe it or not, you’re better off with me,” he whispered in my ear.
A pounding headache woke me. I kept my eyes closed, wishing I was immune to Finn’s…er…Galen’s sleeping drug, since the magic immunity didn’t do squat against him. Immobilized and lying on my back, I smelled the familiar aroma of damp minerals. Opening my eyes didn’t change a thing. Pure blackness surrounded me.
The rough floor scratched my back as I squirmed, but I couldn’t move my arms or legs, so he must have secured them. The crook of my right arm throbbed.
As the drug wore off a strange feeling of being satiated welled. Alarmed, I confirmed my coverall remained on. What had Galen done to me while I was unconscious? I yanked and pulled and tried to free my limbs, but the bands holding them down didn’t budge.
I waited. The damp air seeped into my skin, numbed my hands and caused bouts of uncontrolled shivers. Keeping my thoughts on the positive, I ignored the panic building in my dry throat.
My muscles stiffened and ached. Galen had a nasty sense of humor if he thought this was better than… What? Vasko using me as a test subject? Sounded bad, but what tore my heart was my family and friends believing I was dead. What if I never saw them again?
My biggest regret was not apologizing to my mother, not explaining everything to her and not taking her into my confidence. The reasons seemed petty now. I had wanted to save her from worry and grief, but the real truth was I wanted to save myself from the hassle of having to explain my actions to her and dealing with her reaction.
And I had pushed Kade away, too. Running off after my blood, I only thought of myself and no one else. At least now, he’d be free to find someone to settle down with. What about Devlen? Would he continue his rehabilitation? I hoped so.
My thoughts lingered on all the people who would be affected by my so-called demise. Not only my family, but Nic, Eve, Yelena, Ari, Janco and Valek. The list lengthened when I added, Tama, Faith, Reema, Teegan, Fisk and Zitora.
With all these people in my life, how could I whine about feeling empty? What a brat!
After an eternity of blackness, a glow pushed it back and then burned my eyes. Squinting, I peered at my surroundings. A small cave with one opening that led to a tunnel which housed the source of the growing brilliance. Boots crunched on loose stones, coming closer.
As the footsteps neared, I shut my eyes, pretending to be unconscious. The light shone on my face, stabbing straight through my closed eyelids. After a shuffling scrape, a clink sounded.
“Opal?” Galen asked. “I know you’re awake.”
“The light’s…too bright,” I said. Speaking took effort and my voice rasped as if I had gargled rocks. I thought longingly of the cup of water he had offered me before.
Metal rattled and the glow dimmed. I opened my eyes. The lantern had been placed as far away as possible in the meager space. Galen crouched down and lifted my head with one hand and tipped a canteen full of water to my mouth with the other. I gulped it down greedily, making a mess and not caring if it was poisoned or not. The water poured over my cracked lips and soothed my throat.
He pulled the bottle away and shrugged off his backpack. With a hand dipping inside the pack, he met my gaze. “I forgot to ask. How do you feel?”
“Do you want me to list my complaints? Or should I just roll it all into one big tale of woe?”
“Sarcasm aside. Do you feel like your old self?”
A little zing of… What? Fear, hope and panic zipped.
Galen withdrew a package wrapped in leather. With theatrically slow movements, he peeled the layers off. The vibrations reached me first, humming deep within my chest. He uncovered a glass tiger—one of mine! An inner fire glowed from its depths and the magic trapped inside sang to me, welcoming me. My heart squeezed with a moment of joy. Then despair crushed it. Even though my magic had returned, it wouldn’t do me a damn bit of good against Galen.
He had watched my face as he sprang his surprise. “You can thank me later.” Setting the tiger on the ground near my head, he reached into his pack and drew out a vial filled with a bright red liquid.
My blood?
He flourished it. “This isn’t what you think it is. I already injected all your blood back into you.” To emphasize his point, he touched the sore spot on the crook of my right arm. “This blood is mine.” Galen set it next to the glass tiger, then retrieved a couple syringes from his pack, lining them up in a neat row.
“I told you Vasko’s been experimenting with blood magic. He hasn’t discovered the perfect combination, yet, but his tests have produced a number of strange results. A few of them caused the complete opposite effect—test subjects who craved even more power.”
Questions formed, but they stuck to the roof of my mouth when Galen began rolling up my right sleeve past my elbow. He picked up one of the syringes and filled it with his blood. Then did the same for the second syringe.
“When you inject a magician’s blood directly into another magician’s bloodstream, it doubles the receiver’s power. It also quadruples the consequences.”
He tied a rope around my upper arm and rubbed a thumb over the crook of my arm.
Panic burst from my chest with one word. “No!” I thrashed and strained, channeling every bit of strength I had into breaking free. Nothing worked.
Galen didn’t have to wait long until exhaustion swept over me and I stilled. No food equaled no energy. Unable to watch him, I turned my head.
“You may be interested to note that injecting a magician’s blood into a regular person does nothing but make them stink of magic. They remain unable to access the power source.”
A prick of pain then pure fire raced through my arm. Another prick sent it rushing across my shoulders. I screamed when it engulfed my heart and magical energy consumed me as if I burned alive. Power flowed through my body, sending a healing wave. All my aches and pains disappeared. Strength returned and instinctively I knew I could pick Galen up and smash him into a wall.
The magic swirled around me, loose and messy and growing. I realized I had grabbed too much just like Teegan. Modifying my advice to him, I imagined the power as molten glass. I gathered it and returned it to the cauldron or rather the blanket of power. The effort left me shaking.