And a giant yellow demon went squish.
I tried to swallow, but my mouth was bone-dry. “Mychael, I don’t know what to do here.”
He gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “I do. I’ll show you how.”
Tam pulled his left hand from the Hellgate and held it out to me. I expected it to be dripping Hellgate goo, but it was dry. I took his hand in mine; it was deathly cold. Tam gasped at the contact, and a shiver ran through him.
“You’re warm,” he breathed.
“Still being alive will do that.” I tried for a smile; it didn’t make it. I pulled the back of Tam’s hand against my chest, sharing what warmth I could, while I could. Tam’s power, his deep well of strength flowed into me and through me to Mychael, and it was my turn to shiver.
I felt a deep thrum of power run through us and down into the stone beneath our feet. The floor vibrated with it. My fear and exhaustion was washed away, a calm certainty taking its place. For the first time, I actually believed that this could work. My power, Tam’s power, Mychael’s power and guidance.
“Ready?” Mychael asked us.
I nodded.
Tam blew out his breath in a hiss.
We touched the Hellgate.
My magic flared, and my chest caught fire. Freed from the distortion’s restraints, my magic and the Saghred’s power flared and twisted until what was me and what was the Saghred became a white-hot cyclone. It filled me to overflowing, but it wasn’t like with the yellow demon, when its uncontrollable power felt like a wall of water crashing down on me. This water lifted me, like giant sea swells. Unfathomable depths of power surged beneath me, but it also held me up, supported me. I rode the power, flowing with it.
It was my magic. Mine. Not just the Saghred. The power that had magnified my magic had come from the Saghred, but the seed that it had grown from, the core of my strength, was all me. My father had been right. What I did with that power, how I used it, was up to me. My decision. My choice.
Tam’s power coursed like liquid fire through my body, red-hot and searing, my magic and his power erupting into an inferno that blazed through me and into Mychael, wrapping and entwining, joining the three of us together.
Mychael slammed all of that power against, into, and through the Hellgate.
Screams, agonized roars, and wails from a thousand nightmares rose around us as the light pierced the Hellgate to the other side, bright as a newborn sun. The light blazed and fed, an unrelenting and consuming flood of white fire, searing the darkness, cleansing the evil, and immolating the demons pressing against the Hellgate and beyond.
The blinding light exploded, and our screams joined the demons’.
Then darkness and blessed silence. I welcomed both with open arms.
Chapter 30
I opened my eyes and raised my head-and was nothing short of stunned that I was alive to do either one. The only thing left of the Hellgate was the stink. I could live with that. Better yet, so could everyone else on the island.
Mychael was on his feet, but barely. Tam was on his knees. Apparently, at some point, I’d decided that facedown on the floor was the way to go. Needless to say, no one was holding hands anymore. I rolled over and concentrated on breathing. A smoky haze lingered in the air where the Hellgate membrane had stretched between the two columns. That had to be the source of the rotten-egg stench. Other than that, there was no sign the Hellgate had even been here.
I loved it when something I thought was going to kill me didn’t.
The remnants of Mychael’s and Tam’s magic still rolled in waves through my body, but the intensity was gradually decreasing to calm, flowing ripples. That sensation brought on one big head-to-toe shiver-the good kind.
I sat up; past experience had taught me to take it slow. I had only minimal swirlies and no urge to be sick. A nice surprise for a change. But I did feel really, really light-headed.
Vegard ran up the stairs and knelt at my side. From the look on his face, I must have looked like I had one foot wedged in Death’s door.
“Ma’am, please don’t move. Sir!” he called to Mychael. “Blood loss. A lot.”
That might account for the light-headed feeling. I looked down at myself. No blood there. I couldn’t see the linen I’d wrapped around my neck, but I could feel it, and it was heavier than it should have been. The blood soaking it should have been flowing around in me.
Mychael knelt beside me and began carefully, but quickly unwrapping my soggy, makeshift bandage.
“Mychael, I’m fine,” I insisted. I tried to get to my feet;
Tam’s hands on my shoulders pushed me back down. I think I growled at both of them, or at least I tried. “We don’t have time for this. We’ve got to get through that mirror to-”
“After I stop the bleeding.” Mychael’s voice said no arguments.
I drew breath to give him one.
“Carnades knows,” Tam said from behind me.
Oh shit. Carnades. The first thing he’d do after he could stand up would be to look for a pen to sign our collective death warrant. That took the rest of the wind out of my sails.
I heard a sound out in the darkness of the Assembly, like the scuff of boots on stone. Tam was instantly on his feet, panther-quick and just as silent. Vegard drew steel and planted himself in front of Mychael and me. Tam’s dark eyes were alert to any movement out in what was supposed to be an empty chamber.
“What is it?” I asked Tam in mindspeak. With no Hellgate distortion, all of our magic was back.
“Someone.” He scowled. “I think.”
“You think?”
“They were there; now they’re gone.”
“Who?” Mychael asked.
Tam hesitated a little too long. “No one I know.”
“Human, elf, or goblin?”
“Couldn’t tell.”
Now I knew Tam was lying. Goblins had legendary night vision; if something was out there, Tam would have seen it as clear as day. Just what none of us needed-a witness to everything we’d done who knew Tam. People who knew Tam weren’t people we wanted to see what we’d just done.
Mychael’s blue eyes narrowed. He knew Tam was lying, too. “Keep watch,” he said tersely.
Tam nodded once and didn’t take his eyes from the spot. He’d closed his mind to us, but not before I felt something that I’d rarely sensed in Tam. Fear.
“Raine first,” Mychael said, back to business. “Then the Saghred. Then I will deal with Carnades.”
“Not if I get to him first.” Tam said it like a vow. And I knew Tam; if he vowed to do something-especially if it involved much-needed vengeance-the object of said vengeance better leave town, or in this case, the island.
“Phaelan’s following him around with a rock,” I reminded him. “You might not get the-dammit!”
Mychael’s palm felt like a branding iron on the side of my neck.
“Battlefield healing,” he told me, holding me still. “We don’t have time for fancy.”
I grimaced. “Do what you have to,” I managed through pain-clenched teeth. I did my best not to move-or scream. “I have payback due to some people on the other side of that mirror, too.”
The citadel was quiet. Way too quiet. Either nothing had happened yet, or everything already had. Or in my family, silence didn’t mean the fight was over; it meant everybody was catching their breath-or sneaking up on somebody to stab.
Tam swore to himself. I heard him in my head, and couldn’t have agreed more with his word choice. There was no demonic welcoming committee waiting to slice us to ribbons when we’d stepped through that mirror, but there weren’t any Guardians, either. As I’d guessed, the mirror was in a containment room, but the room was empty, and the door was standing wide open. Under normal circumstances, that’d be downright inviting. But I wasn’t about to stroll through that door and find demon hospitality at the end of a skewer.