Torn. Part 31

I tried to keep my eyes open, but they were so heavy, way too much effort. All the knowledge, all the magic was gone. I was empty, hollow, afraid I'd cave in on myself. The temple was crashing down around us, and the wild sound of Luc's heartbeat filled my ears as he shook me, gently at first, then harder. "Mouse? C'mon, now. Come on. Maura!"

I looked up finally, and his features swam into focus. A few feet away, Colin was sprawled motionless on the ground, his shirtfront charred. I stretched out a hand, grazing the bottom of his jeans. "No!" A familiar ache rose up in me, and I wailed, crawling across the floor to him. "Luc. Please, please. Fix him!"

The arch glowed brighter and brighter, emitting a shriek, and Luc grabbed for my hand.

"Keep hold of him," he grunted, and we jumped Between as the arch exploded and everything went black.

CHAPTER 30.

To say that my uncle was unhappy to find me in the emergency room again would be kind of like saying the Chicago Cubs have had a stretch of bad luck, Series-wise.

And his relief at discovering it was Colin, not me, who had been admitted was short-lived.

He stood in the doorway, all outraged bl.u.s.ter, the familiar twinkling charm long gone. "This is because of you! If you'd done what you were told-" He broke off. Behind him, two guys I didn't know stood keeping an eye on the hallway and carefully not listening to every word we said. "I warned you there would be problems."

"I'm fine," I said, sitting up. I'd dragged a chair next to Colin's bed and fallen asleep, my head next to his shoulder, my hand covering his. "Thanks for asking."

"Tell me what happened."

His voice boomed in the tiny room, and I searched Colin's face for any sign he was waking up. He slept on, courtesy of the pain meds they'd given him. The muscles in my neck and back protested as I stretched and stood, unwilling to face down Billy while perched on an uncomfortable plastic chair.

"It doesn't concern you," I said steadily, no longer intimidated. It felt strange to be holding my own with Billy. I wasn't afraid-of him, or our family's secrets. Once I'd lost the fear, I found my voice. Now I intended to use it.

"Nonsense," Billy said. "You're my niece."

"This was never about me," I shot back, "which I told you when Verity died, but you wouldn't listen. Anyway, it's over."

"The h.e.l.l it is! You've one of my best men lying there, and I'll know why."

"He's fine, too, by the way." Luc had repaired the worst of Colin's injuries before bringing us here. Time and Flat medicine would take care of the rest. "I'm sure he'll be touched by your concern."

I smoothed the blankets and stroked the back of his hand, avoiding where the IV went in. Then I stepped through the curtains into the hallway and Billy followed, seething.

"Donnelly's like a cat," he said. "He's come out of worse before and landed on his feet. Joseph Kowalski is dead."

I stared at my nails. They were broken and filthy, but my hand was perfectly steady. "That must make you very happy."

Billy jerked his chin at the doorway, and the two thugs slunk farther down the hallway. "No accusations, Mo? No lip? Yesterday you thought I was the root of all evil."

Not all evil. There was plenty to go around. "You weren't responsible," I said, feeling the weight of everything that had happened deep in my bones. "I'm not saying you aren't capable of it. But you didn't do this."

He c.o.c.ked his head. "You don't seem surprised by the news."

"Not much surprises me these days." I folded my arms across my chest and met his eyes.

"I can see that." He leaned against the counter, smiled affably at a pa.s.sing nurse, reverting back to his kindly uncle persona. "Ah, Mo. You're changing. The world's changing. It's hard for an old man like myself to keep up."

"b.u.mmer for you, I guess."

"Watch yourself," he said, and there was steel in his voice again. "You might not like the choices I've made, but they've served you well enough. A good school for you, security for your mother. It's nothing to turn your nose up at."

"And all it cost me was my dad."

"Another man who made his choices." He clasped his hands behind his back. "We have a problem, Mo. Your display at the police station yesterday reflects on me. Badly."

I shrugged. My family had reflected badly on me my whole life.

"Believe it or not, there are people I answer to. People who are wondering why a slip of a girl thinks she can defy me without consequences. It sends an unwelcome message."

It was the opening I needed, the chance to put in play what I'd been working out during the long night at Colin's bedside. "Tell your bosses I'm a pain in the a.s.s. Tell them you're shipping me to New York just as soon as school's out. You'd do it now, to teach me a lesson, but you have a soft spot for my mom. You'll save face and I get to go to New York. Everybody wins."

I took a kind of grim pleasure in using my family's desire to keep things quiet as a way to escape them.

He seemed to think about it for a minute. Then, "Why do you care about helping me save face?"

"Because you're the devil I know," I said quietly. "All that power has to go somewhere, right? Better to run it through you than leave it up for grabs."

"That it is," he said. "It strikes me, Mo, I may have underestimated you."

"You wouldn't be the first." I peered into the room again, saw Colin's hand shift restlessly on the blanket. "I don't want anything to do with your business. It ends now."

He kissed my cheek. "Sometimes, darling girl, you remind me of your father. Tell Donnelly he's still on the job."

With a wave of his hand, Billy gathered his minions from the end of the hallway and strolled out.

I watched until he was out of sight before letting out a shaky breath. My legs didn't quite want to hold me, but I made it back to Colin's bed just as his eyes drifted open.

"Hey," he said, giving me a weak smile. "You're alive."

"I had a really great bodyguard. Do you need anything?"

He shook his head. I curled up in the chair again, content to watch the rise and fall of his chest.

"What happened?" he asked after a minute.

"I'm not sure. The magic . . . it's different. But it should hold, for now." I didn't mention Evangeline. Later, maybe.

"You did good?"

"I think so." My eyes welled up and I reached for his hand. "You scared me."

He grimaced. "Now you know how it feels. You want to think about that the next time you decide to run off and save the world?"

I let out a shaky laugh. "I will."

"What about Luc?" There was more than idle curiosity in his voice, and I didn't know what it meant.

"He healed you and brought us here. Then he had stuff to do."

"Did you settle things with him?"

I touched my wrist. Luc had left without saying good-bye, which seemed pretty well settled in my mind. "Mmn-hmn."

Colin must have known I didn't want to talk about it, because he changed the subject. "Billy?"

I grimaced. "He's mad, but he'll get over it. He may have suggested I join the family business."

He brought my hand to his lips. "I'll talk to him."

"I can handle Billy."

Colin's eyes drifted shut again. "Question is, can he handle you?"

"Ha-ha." I watched him, studying the square line of his jaw and the sweep of his lashes, the stubble on his cheeks and the calluses on his hands.

"I'm fine," he said a little later, eyes still closed. "Practically good as new."

I bit my lip. "I am really, really glad you're not dead."

"Me too." He shifted to the side of the narrow bed and patted the mattress. "C'mere," he said.

I crawled up next to him, nestling against his shoulder. "You said it was too complicated."

"It was."

"And now?"

His voice was fading, with the careful enunciation of a person trying to fend off sleep. "Now I don't know." His hand fitted against my hip. "That's a start, right?"

"It's a very good start."

CHAPTER 31.

"I should have brought flowers," I said. "I meant to, but I forgot. It's been a little busy. You probably know that."

Memorial bouquets still crowded Verity's grave, though the petals were drooping and edged with brown. If I'd had magic, I would have fixed them. Instead, I knelt and placed them to the side, brushing away wilted blossoms and bits of dried leaves. The granite headstone sparkled in the late-afternoon sunlight.

In another section of the cemetery, a sea of navy dress uniforms gathered around Kowalski's family as the honor guard fired a salute. The noise cracked and hung in the air. I watched for a moment, then turned back.

"I keep thinking you'll call, or I'll see you in cla.s.s." I remembered the velvety blackness I'd touched in the nebula. "Stupid, huh? Luc said even magic has limits, and he was right. He was right about a lot of things. I would tell him so, but he's gone. Who knows? I may never see him again."

The thought gave me a strange ache, and I closed my eyes briefly, willing it away.

When I opened them, Luc was crouched on the other side of the grave. "She talked about you all the time," he said, placing a bouquet of delphiniums, a pure, deep indigo, in the s.p.a.ce I'd cleared off. "It was like I knew you before we ever met."

"Have you been waiting for me?"

The corner of his mouth turned up. "Only my whole life."

"Don't." My voice was sharper than I intended.

"I'm sorry." He looked genuinely contrite, and he straightened, holding out a hand to help me up. "How are you?"

"Fine."

"How's Cujo?"

"He's good. Thank you for saving him." Colin had come home from the hospital the day before, no one happier about his release than the hospital staff.

"You asked," he said with a shrug.

I twisted my fingers together, waiting. "It worked, right? We stopped the Torrent? Everything's okay?"

"For now. The magic's shifting. You did somethin' . . . we're still figuring it out."

"I was wondering what you'd do, after. This should keep you busy." He'd lived his entire life with the Torrent as his end point. How did he feel, having the rest of his life returned to him, free from destiny?

"You got plenty on your plate, too," he said, even as I shook my head.

"Can't argue with the fact you're the Vessel," he said. "There's work to do. Besides, the Seraphim aren't gone just because Evangeline is."

"She's really dead?"

"The Temple's destroyed. Hard to see how she could have survived that, even if the magic didn't get her." The magic I'd hit her with, he meant, the killing blow I'd delivered, the justice I'd wanted all along. I checked to see how I felt about it. Answer: Absolutely fine, thanks for asking.

He shifted. "We're still bound. Can you feel it?"

I concentrated, and there, light as a silk thread, was the familiar connection. "I hadn't felt it, since the Temple. I thought maybe it was broken."

"Not broken. Just quiet. Figured you might want some of that running room we talked about."

"I'm not running," I said. "Especially not from you."