She didn’t know if he’d heard because he seemed to sink into oblivion. She went back and forth between Magda and Cyn, trying to transfer her power to him. Magda Catalyzed to human in death, a naked, blood-covered woman sprawled on the black tile floor. The energy dissipated.
“Cyn, come back to me.” Tears flowed down Ruby’s cheeks as she pressed her face against his and whispered, “Cyn, please.”
His chest was still rising and falling, but his exhalation was nearly imperceptible. Her finger, pressed against the scales at his neck, picked up hardly any pulse. She fought the tide of grief that threatened to drown her. She’d gone against his orders, risked everything, and failed.
Then she felt a change in his energy. She sat up as he Catalyzed to human. “No. No!” She shook his shoulders, willing him to return to Dragon where he had a chance of healing. She buried her face against his chest and gave into the grief for a few seconds. But wait. His heart was beating. She sat up and searched for some sign of life. His eyes were still closed. The wound in his neck…it was healing.
His eyes slowly opened; then he jerked upright, sending her tumbling back. He patted his chest, searching for his fatal wound, then took in the room, Magda’s lifeless body, and then her. “What did you do?”
She Catalyzed, too, and smiled. He was alive, even if he was peeved. “I Breathed Magda’s essence into you. If there was a chance of saving you, I was going to do it.”
He got to his feet, pulling her up with him. Now he surveyed her. “You’re hurt.”
She glanced down at all the scratches, cuts, and swollen places. “They’re mostly healed. We have to get the reactor. Fernandez showed up. He must have followed us, desperate to find out where this place was. He grabbed it and ran. Purcell went after him.”
“Fernandez probably took it back to his house. He’s beyond desperate to save his wife.” Cyn led her by the hand down the hall and stopped near of one of the guard’s bodies. “We can’t leave here like this. We’ll have to borrow their clothes.”
“Oh, yuck.”
But she started wrestling with the man’s clothing as Cyn did the same with the second man. He nearly burst out of clothing that was skintight. She drowned in hers. Barefoot, they ran to the entrance and headed to Fernandez’s.
Chapter 24
Cyn had been surprised by a lot in the last thirty minutes: that Purcell got the better of him, that Ruby had risked everything to save him. He couldn’t dwell on them now or anything else but what lay ahead. Because what didn’t surprise him was finding Purcell’s car at Fernandez’s home.
They parked along the road and walked down to the entrance. Cyn automatically linked his fingers with Ruby’s as they stayed close to the shrubbery. She looked ridiculous in the black dress pants and white button-down shirt that swamped her, and adorable, and vulnerable all at once. She had blood in her braid, which had half-unraveled. God, but he wanted to pull her against him, feel her body, her heartbeat. No time for that either.
Voices floated on the air from the vicinity of the backyard. He nodded to go around the right side, where he knew the bushes grew thickest.
“Give me the reactor, you idiot. You are not thinking logically. Go get your wife, and we’ll return to the club. You can’t keep it to yourself.”
They peered through the bushes, where Cyn could see the two men facing off in the glow of security lights at the corner of the house. Fernandez gripped the reactor against his chest like an infant. His face was a mask of pain and desperation, no trace of logic left.
“And you can’t select who gets saved. Who made you God?”
“One of the gods did, as a matter of fact.”
One of the gods? Was he serious?
Purcell lifted his face to the skies. “Fallon, show this pitiful mortal your face!”
Amazingly, a mist formed several feet above the ground, luminescent against the night sky. A man appeared, his face long and his eyes angry. “Release the reactor, Crescent. You know not what you do.”
Cyn started stripping out of his clothes and leaned close to Ruby. “I’m going to grab Purcell and take him for a swim. Try to keep Fernandez calm and where he is.”
She nodded, gripping his arm. “Be careful.”
Fernandez held it closer to his chest. “I do know. This will save my wife, and her family. Our friends. I choose who lives! Me!”
“Kill him,” Purcell said, pointing at Fernandez.
“No!” Ruby raced out of hiding. “If you shoot him with magick or fire or whatever, you’ll detonate that thing.” She slowed as she reached the three faces looking at her now. “It’s a dangerous mix of magick and science, like a friggin’ hydrogen bomb. What you’re doing is going to kill thousands of Crescents. Why? Why are you doing this?”