“There and there,” Lindsay said, pointing. “That’s what she’s using to suppress their magic. The runes can be broken, but...”
Lindsay trailed off, shaking his head. He didn’t want to hurt Dane like that. In his experience, the runes breaking released magical energy that was inevitably dangerous.
“You don’t want to do it that way. Not if we can help it. If you can’t get the tech to release, don’t try the runes. I’ll do it. I’ve done it before.”
The voices grew louder as they came down the stairs. Noah and Dane.
“Look, if you want to take your chances with something, I’ve got a whole drawer of lighters you can play with.” That was Noah, and he didn’t sound happy. “I’ll even throw in a gas can and some candles. But you can wait until we know how these come off. You’re not going to use this as some fancy self-flagellation.”
“I’m not sitting around like a side of beef while you give your puppy back his big dog teeth. I know what I’m doing.” Dane’s voice lacked its usual growl, but Lindsay didn’t need that to know when he was upset.
“He’s not mine,” Noah snapped.
Dane laughed outright at that. “He’s yours as much as he’s ever been anyone’s.”
As Lindsay came down a few more steps, he caught sight of Jonas growling at Dane—from behind Noah’s knees.
“You know what you’re doing, Dane,” Lindsay said, “but Zoey hasn’t done this before.” He didn’t like the idea of using Dane as a guinea pig.
“Yes, that.” Noah glared at Dane before turning his attention to Zoey. “Do you need anything like wires or tools?”
“I don’t really know magic or technology,” Zoey admitted with a little shrug. “I just kind of...talk to the computers and stuff, and they talk back to me. I’m starting with him, right?” She moved toward Jonas.
She was a lot less skittish now that they all had clothes on.
“Come here.” Noah walked to the center of the basement, beckoning for Jonas to follow. “And stand up.”
Jonas eyed Lindsay suspiciously as he obeyed. Lindsay stayed back, but he watched Jonas just as warily. He didn’t want to see Zoey hurt by Jonas or the collar.
Zoey stepped in to look at the collar, muttering quietly. To herself, Lindsay thought, and not to the collar. Not yet. It seemed like she was still feeling it out, comparing it to the schematics on her computer screen.
“Don’t touch.” Jonas put his hand in front of her face. “Only Mother can touch.”
“He’s not right in the head,” Dane muttered. “He was missing a good chunk of it, and his hands and feet, for a while. The girl talked Moore into turning off the collar to let him heal, and mine too. It didn’t help his mind.”
Lindsay hardly heard Noah soothing Jonas. His mind seized on Dane’s admission that Lourdes had helped them. She had brought him information—he remembered the apprehension he’d felt as she spoke to him and knew now that not all of it had been his. She’d been afraid, and yet she hadn’t betrayed him to Moore. She’d betrayed Moore to her face by helping Dane.
In her strange way, she had tried to comfort him, more than once. Maybe she kept reassuring him that he would find Dane because of her connection to Jonas. It was hard to imagine Lourdes as human, but if she cared for Jonas the way he cared for Dane, he had something to use against her. Jonas was theirs now.
“It’s okay, Jonas,” Noah said patiently, still trying to get Jonas to put his hand down so Zoey could get closer. “She’s going to help. She’s allowed. Put your hand down.”
Lindsay had no idea what they were going to do with Jonas. Healing magic rarely affected the mind, and watching Noah had shown him just how ready the mind had to be for it to work. Noah was—not different, but whole, since Rajan healed him. If Jonas’s magic couldn’t affect his mind, they were stuck with a dangerous, barely functional mage who seemed bonded to Noah—making him Lindsay’s, and
Dane’s, whether they liked it or not.
If Jonas was whole again, would he leave Noah? Lindsay could see flickers of intelligence and comprehension in his eyes. Jonas wasn’t all there, but he wasn’t lost, either. Given the dedication with which Jonas and Dane had tried to kill each other, Lindsay didn’t think Jonas would be leaving Noah any time soon. Magic and will could form intense bonds.
“If he doesn’t let me see it, I can’t convince it to turn off.” Zoey took a step back.
“It’s fine.” Noah slowly pushed Jonas’s hand down by his side. “It won’t hurt you if Zoey touches it.
See?” He reached out to touch the collar himself.
Even collared, Jonas was incredibly strong. A single swipe of his arm took Noah off his feet and sent him crashing into the utility shelves.
“She knows!” Jonas went bounding in the opposite direction and wedged himself between a broken chest freezer and the far wall. “She will know! No touching!”
As soon as he was sure Jonas wasn’t going to attack anyone else, Lindsay ran over to Noah. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” Noah struggled to his feet, glaring at Jonas. “He’s probably right, in his own fucking batshit way. She may be able to track things through those collars. I wrecked everything I could, but...we really need to get them off, or turned off.”
“So, can we all agree I get to go first?” Dane snorted with annoyance.
Lindsay didn’t like it, but there was no way they were going to take Jonas’s collar off right now, not while the man was huddled in the corner, muttering to himself.
“Be careful.” He stepped out of the way as Zoey turned toward Dane.
She seemed more nervous now than she’d been before, but Jonas’s tantrum might have had something to do with that. Dane had to bend so she could see his collar clearly, and she started whispering to it, sweet, soft words that Lindsay couldn’t quite make out.
In spite of his trip across the basement, as soon as Noah was back on his feet, he made his way over to Jonas and started to calm him down and coax him out. He had some kind of natural charm to him; maybe it was his looks, but Lindsay wasn’t sure those worked on Jonas. Whatever it was, it convinced Jonas to wriggle out from behind the freezer. That thought was so surreal, Lindsay felt like the entire universe had tilted in the last few days.
Zoey seemed to be getting somewhere with Dane’s collar. The LEDs that dotted the circumference of it were flickering to life, one at a time. Lindsay hoped that didn’t mean the thing was about to explode.
As the last few lights came on, Lindsay tensed, ready to...something. He didn’t know what.
Once the final light turned red, though, the whole thing simply went dark. It fell from Dane’s neck with a clatter. Gone. Just like that. Cyrus had been right about Zoey’s value. They were in this because of her, but Lindsay could almost convince himself that she had been worth it.
He rushed over, eager to make sure Dane was all right. He touched Dane’s throat where the collar had been and leaned up on his toes to brush a kiss over Dane’s lips. He hadn’t realized how much seeing that collar on Dane had hurt until now, for everything it was and for how helpless he had been to stop it.
“I’m fine.” Dane wrapped Lindsay up in his arms and held him so tight that Lindsay could barely breathe, nuzzling in his hair and the curve of his neck, the way he used to when he was making sure Lindsay was well—well and his. “Okay. Go on, help your boy with the dog.” He kissed Lindsay on the temple, and let him go.
Reluctantly, Lindsay stepped back. “We’ll be finished soon.”
If Zoey’s progress with Dane’s collar was any indication, the only real trouble with Jonas’s collar would be Jonas himself.
With one last look at Dane to make sure he was really and truly safe, Lindsay went to help Noah with Jonas. Jonas was still protesting the whole idea, but Noah had managed to capture both his hands and hang on to them. After his outburst, Jonas seemed significantly calmer.