a wicked wave of death that cindered everything in the near vicinity. As their ashes rained around me, pain erupted through body and brain even as blood filled my eyes. I sucked in air, trying to calm the painful pounding of my heart, trying to gather the strength to at least move.
The danger wasn’t over yet. Not only did the cavern remain in a perilous state, but Luc was still out there, still fighting.
I wiped the blood away from my eyelashes and pushed to my feet, coughing as the sooty remains of the guardians stirred around me. I couldn’t immediately see Luc or the demons—the debris and dust remained too thick. But after a few minutes, I caught the flare of bloody red.
Hecate.
Luc was still standing.
The relief that swept me was so fierce, my knees just about buckled under its force. I sucked in another breath, then staggered forward. I’d barely managed two when Hecate’s glow softened and Luc’s big body appeared out of the dusty gloom. There was a bloody cut across his cheek and another down his left arm, but otherwise he appeared unhurt and whole.
His grin was fierce and bright. “Now that was a whole lot of fun.”
He smelled of sweat and blood and strength, and I wanted nothing more than to step into his arms and inhale it deep. “You’re insane, Blackbird.”
“That’s been said before.” He caught my chin and gently swiped at the trickle of blood running down my cheek. “How bad is the headache?”
“I can see.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I sighed. “It’s ten times worse than any migraine I’ve ever had, but I’ll survive.”
“You shouldn’t even be upright,” came Mo’s comment. She appeared out of the dusty shadows, her expression concerned as it swept me. “Sit down before you fall down. Luc, can you go find how these bastards got in here? I’ll fix our girl and then check whether this racket has managed to wake Mryddin.”
“The cavern won’t fall in on us?”
“I’ve shored things up as best I can in the circumstances, but keep alert. There may be some fissures that defy my efforts and resort to collapse.”
“Keeping aware is a motto all of us should be living by at the moment,” he said, voice a little grim. “Recent attacks have certainly proved that.”
He stepped around me, then strode deeper into the cavern, the sound of his steps quickly receding.
Mo squatted in front of me and placed her hands on my shoulders.
As her magic rose around me, I said, “Don’t—you need to conserve your strength.”
“Containing the earth didn’t take that much out of me, and the fact is, you’re useless to us all in your current state.”
“It’s still more important to contact Mryddin—”
“Yes, and I’ll need all my concentration to do it. It’ll leave me an easy target, which means I need you fit enough to defend me if necessary.”
“Which is a totally convincing argument to anyone who doesn’t actually know you.”
She grinned. “Your inability to take the things I say at face value is yet another reason why you’re my favorite grandchild.”
I smiled, but stopped protesting. Her healing energy washed through me, a warm wave that stopped the stinging in my eyes and erased the worst of the pain in my head. The niggling ache that remained was at least survivable, and there were painkillers in my backpack I could take once we got back to the car.
With a slight sigh, Mo released me and then sat cross-legged in the guardians’ ashy remnants. “This could well take hours. Keep alert.”
I nodded. “How do you actually connect?”
“Astrally. Kind of. Hence the reason he’s always been hard to wake—it’s very easy to ignore an astral projection.”
“You can’t use magic to poke him?”
She shook her head. “He has all sorts of wards set around the cavern’s inner chambers. Truth is, even if Darkside had succeeded in collapsing this part of the cavern, Mryddin would probably have been safe.”
“Then why were they even trying?”
“Wouldn’t you, if you were Max? Mryddin’s exploits are well enough written about, and I have no doubt Max has done his research. He’d be aware of my connection with him.” Bitterness edged her voice. “And he’s certainly heard me say often enough that it’s always better to erase a problem before it actually becomes one.”
I placed a hand on her knee. She cupped it and gently squeezed. “I’ll be fine. I’m just … annoyed I didn’t see what was in front of my eyes before it was all too late.”
“I had no