Chapter 12

Mychael looked at me with a mixture of concern and relief. “You’re still here.” He left out “with Tam,” but his eyes said it clearly enough. “Vegard, allow no one in.”

“Yes, sir.” Vegard had the look of a man who knew a chewing out was coming. I knew it was my fault. What had happened between Tam and me wouldn’t have happened if Vegard had been in the room with us. I owed my bodyguard an apology-and myself a swift kick for not listening to him.

Mychael closed the door.

“I asked Vegard to stay in the hall,” I told him. “My fault, not his. So, if you’re-”

Mychael held up a hand. “The last order I gave Vegard was to get you out of watcher headquarters.”

“He did a fine job.”

“I expected nothing less.”

“After what happened in the Quad, I needed to talk to Tam, so I insisted that we come here.”

“I assumed as much. I needed to find you, so knowing exactly where to look saved me some much-needed time.”

Mychael’s sea blue eyes went from me to Tam, searching, assessing, and knowing-but not judging. At least not judging me. He knew. How could he not sense the umi’atsu bond between Tam and me? Mychael was the paladin of the Conclave Guardians, duty bound to be the scourge of black magic practitioners everywhere. If what Tam and I had wasn’t blooming black magic, I didn’t know what was.

“Tam and I have a very big problem.” I didn’t care what my family said; confession was good for the soul-or at least the nerves.

“Umi’atsu,” Tam said simply.

Mychael didn’t even bat an eye. “How far has it gone?”

“Far enough.”

I spoke. “He knows exactly how crappy my day has been.” I tried for glib, all I got was ignored.

“She doesn’t know, does she?” Mychael’s voice was low and quiet.

Tam drew himself up. “I won’t surrender to it, so I didn’t think it necessary to tell her. She’s been through enough already.”

I looked from one to the other. “As fascinating as it is to listen to the two of you talk about me as if I’m not here, would one-or both-of you tell just what the hell is going on?”

Mychael’s face was an expressionless mask. “You tell her, or I will.”

“An umi’atsu bond does more than link two mages,” Tam said. “It enables them to tap into each other’s power.”

“Like what we did under the embassy and in the Quad. I understand that. What’s so…?” Cold realization prickled down my back. “Back it up; did you say each other’s power?”

He nodded. “Magically speaking, we are becoming one. You can focus and use my power now.” He hesitated. “Eventually, I will be able to do the same with yours.”

“Tam, my power’s nothing to write home about. You’re talking about the Saghred’s power.”

“Yes.”

Just when I thought my day couldn’t get any worse.

“As far as the Saghred is concerned, we will be one and the same,” he told me. “Actually, I could probably tap the Saghred’s power now.” His expression was bleak and hard.

“Now?” Reality sank in, and lately my reality hasn’t been pretty. “You could use the Saghred.” Saying it out loud just made it worse.

“Or the Saghred could use him,” Mychael finished for me. “Either way is just as dangerous. You were only a moderately talented sorceress until just a few weeks ago. Tam has been a master of the dark arts for most of his adult life. He would immediately be able to wield the Saghred’s power to its full extent.”

Tam spoke. “Raine, it won’t happen, but the-”

“Damn right, it won’t,” I shot back.

“But the consequences would be dire if it did,” he pressed forcefully. “So we have to face all possibilities. If the Saghred ever gained complete control of me, the only way to stop me-and to destroy what I would become-would be to kill me.” He looked to Mychael like a man about to ask the ultimate favor of a friend.

“If it comes to that, I will be there for you,” Mychael promised with quiet conviction.

Tam inclined his head in formal gratitude. “Thank you.”

“Thank you?” I couldn’t believe this. “Thank you? No, no, there’ll be no thank-yous, no need to ‘be there’ for anybody, because none of this is going to happen.”

My heart was pounding absurdly loud in my ears. The Saghred didn’t want to use Tam; it wanted Tam to use it. Tam couldn’t get his hands on the Saghred, but he’d just gotten his hands on me. Use me, use the Saghred. Oh shit. The rock was starving and it wanted souls. There was no way in hell that I was feeding the thing and the Saghred knew it, so it forged an umi’atsu bond between me and Tam. Since I refused to feed it, given enough time and temptation, Tam just might.

I turned to Mychael. “In watcher headquarters, when I vaporized those demons, I didn’t feel anything holding the Saghred back. Are the containments-”

“Gone,” Mychael confirmed. “A few hours ago, I received a report from the citadel saying that the containment spells around the Saghred have failed, as have the wards on the room. The timing coincided precisely with what you did. I’ve ordered my men to guard the door to the containment room; it’s no longer safe to be in the room itself.”

That explained why Sarad Nukpana was able to put in a guest appearance in my dream-and why I couldn’t get rid of him. No restraints on the Saghred meant no restraints on Nukpana. The Saghred was free and clear to do anything it could persuade, compel, or trick me into doing; and in a matter of days, hours, or even right now, it could do the same to Tam. What we’d done with each other and to each other was the Saghred testing the waters, seeing how much it could get away with. It was a test we’d both failed.

I took a shallow breath and pushed it out, trying to calm down. It didn’t work, so I tried another. Calm wasn’t happening. Screw calm. “None of that will happen,” I repeated it like that would help make the nightmare any less real. “The Saghred can’t be invincible; there has to be a way to destroy it.”

“Raine, our top mages and scholars couldn’t find a way,” Mychael said. “Neither could the Guardians. The best of our order couldn’t even scratch it.”

I let the silence sit for a moment. “When was the last time anyone tried?”

“When your father brought the Saghred back to Mid.”

“Anybody tried to whack the damned thing lately? All it’s eaten in nine hundred years is my father and Sarad Nukpana. It’s starving. And it’s latched on to me, so we know it’s desperate. That rock is vulnerable-and it knows it.”

“It just tore through the strongest containments spells possible,” Mychael reminded me. “That’s not vulnerable.”

“Sarad Nukpana told me before that the Saghred is conserving energy for important things, so apparently it doesn’t have much to spare. But if that rock manages to get itself a decent meal, then we’ll really be in trouble. Uncle Ryn’s still alive because he doesn’t wait around for his enemies to get stronger. He kills them right the first time.”

“Raine, it repelled that Reaper,” Tam said. “That was not the act of a weak enemy.”

Mychael went very still. “Reaper?”

I waved a dismissive hand. “Yeah, one tried to suck all the souls out of the rock through me. It didn’t succeed, and I’m hoping it won’t come back for seconds.” I pressed on before Mychael started asking questions, then making demands beginning with me going back to the citadel.

I ticked today’s events off on my fingers. “I squashed that yellow demon, vaporized three of the blue ones, and held off a Reaper-all with the Saghred’s help.” I grinned and felt it turn fierce. “The rock’s been working hard today.”

“The most vulnerable enemy can also be the deadliest,” Mychael noted coolly. “To survive, such an enemy will risk everything. The reward is great, but the consequences of failure are greater.”

“So you’re saying we shouldn’t try?”