want to defeat me.”
I didn’t want to defeat him. I wanted the real Vane back.
“He is gone.”
“Thanks for the tip,” I muttered.
He paused. “Why do you still care?”
The idiotic question didn’t deserve an answer. Not that I would give him one. He’d just use it against me. I only hoped the fleeting glimpse I’d seen of the real Vane meant something good. I rubbed my forehead. “I’m taking off the amulet, Vane.”
“Want to tell me where you are?”
Matt had one of the wizards put me to sleep so I wouldn’t know—a safeguard against Vane.
He groused, “He is too clever. And making things overly difficult.”
“What was that vision?”
“How should I know? It’s the first one I’ve ever had.”
“Great idea, then, for you to steal them,” I retorted.
“Forget the vision. It doesn’t tell us anything right now,” Vane shot back. “I need you to drink the Gorgon’s blood.”
The Medusa snake. Now I understood why he was still talking to me. “Why are you so bent on this?”
“Time is running out. We still have no idea what is going to happen, Ryan. What good is having the power of a god if you don’t know its purpose?”
I said aloud, “Another thing you might have considered beforehand. I’m sensing a pattern.”
“What pattern?” Matt came into the house.
My hand went straight to my neck. With a guilty grimace, I took off the amulet. The gemstone went cold and I knew Vane was gone.
Matt marched up to me, a scowl marring his otherwise supremely aesthetic face. “You’re talking to him.”
I answered evenly, “Yes.”
Matt pointed back in the direction of the funeral. “You still want to save him? Even after all he’s done! After Blake! Can you really tell me you’re happy about how all of this turned out?”
I blinked back tears. Blake’s tousled black hair and earnest eyes swam in front of me. “Of course I’m not happy!”
Matt gave a low laugh. “He’s taken everything.”
I couldn’t disagree. Still I tried to explain. “I saw what Lelex left inside you. It was spreading like a virus. He saved you.”
Matt thundered, “He saved me so that he could take my power. The visions were our one advantage. Now we’ve lost them altogether.”
I ground my teeth. “What was I supposed to have done? Vane didn’t give me a choice.”
“If I had my powers, maybe I could have changed what happened on the rooftop,” he barked. “Maybe we wouldn’t have lost Excalibur. Maybe we wouldn’t have lost…” Matt raked an unsteady hand through his hair. “So many.”
My eyes closed. I forced them open. “I didn’t see another way.”
Matt looked at me impassively. “You should have found one.”
“Really? How?” I took a long breath. “Look, you’re upset. I get it. I’m upset, too. I didn’t want this.” My voice dropped, and I said hoarsely, “It’s killing me, what I had to do, but I’m not going to take it back. I made the right choice to save as many as I could.”
“The right choice today, without a thought of the cost—”
I stood up, shaking. “I am well aware of the cost!”
A hard glint flickered in Matt’s amber eyes. “So it wasn’t without thought. It was with arrogance.”
I sputtered, “A-arrogance?”
“Yes, Ryan. Everything you do has consequences.”
“Is it that? Then, why is it okay for you to make unilateral decisions and not me? I don’t remember you asking permission before you took Excalibur.” I crossed the floor to Matt and poked him in the chest with my finger. “You say you want me to step up. Well, I did. I made a choice. Me. Myself. I.”
“If I hadn’t used Excalibur, we wouldn’t have gotten off that rooftop.”
“You should have found another way.” I spat his words back at him. “You could’ve bargained with the Medusa snake. This battle between the two of you has got to stop. We want the same things—”
“No!” Crossing the short distance between us, Matt grabbed my shoulders. His eyes locked on mine and he stared into them as if he could impress his beliefs onto me by sheer force. “There wasn’t another way, Ryan. There is only enough blood left for one more vision. I would never have surrendered that to him.”
My jaw jutted out. I said his words back, “At what cost?”
He didn’t answer.
“Let me go, Matt,” I said evenly.
“You heard her, Emrys. Back off,” Grey walked into the kitchen. His arm was around Gia’s shoulders, offering her support. “It’s been a long day.”
Gia laughed. It wasn’t a pleasant sound. “Yes, it has.”
Ignoring them, Matt released me.