could and held him close. The remaining assassins wept around the fallen—some near Calem, the rest around members I didn’t know. Who I’d never get to know. Wrapping Noc’s hand in mine, I guided him back to Calem. We slumped to the ground by his head, and Kost and Oz looked up with bleary eyes.
What have I done? Throat thick, I swallowed and stroked the side of Calem’s face.
“Leena Edenfrell.”
My head snapped to the woman who spoke my name. She’d crossed the clearing to stand a few feet from us.
Dark eyes rooted me in place, and I sucked in a breath. “Kaori.”
“Wynn charmed you? Is that why you’ve returned despite your banishment?”
I nodded. “Yes. He brought me back a few days ago without notifying the Council.” A few of the members flinched, and angry scowls touched their faces. “I’m not the first person he’s done this to, either.”
Kaori studied me for a long moment before her pensive stare shifted to Calem. She scrunched her thin brows together. “An Effreft?” Effie snapped her beak and sank lower into his wound. Kneeling on the ground, Kaori extended her hand to Effie. Her sapphire symbol glittered against her skin. “May I?”
Kost, Oz, and Noc stiffened. Murderous stares targeted Kaori, and dark tendrils crept near their fingers. Effie eyed Kaori’s hand for a moment before gently clucking and moving aside.
My stomach threatened to upend itself. Mincemeat. My beast had turned him into mincemeat.
Kaori studied the damage. “If not for the Effreft, he’d be beyond repair. Even now, though, I can’t make any promises.”
“What are you saying?” Noc croaked.
Slowly, Kaori reached up and removed a white-gold leaf pin from her black hair. “Stella.” One of the legendary beasts moved toward her. Dipped in silver, the beast could’ve been carved from metal. Harsh lines. Daggerlike teeth. Piercing amethyst eyes. Stella brought her twitching nose inches from Calem’s wound. Kaori tilted her head toward Noc. “He will be different.”
“You can bring him back?” Noc gripped my hand.
“I can try. I can’t with the others, though.” She looked past Noc at his fallen brethren. “They’re too far gone and without the lasting life magic of the Effreft.”
Noc swallowed. “I understand.”
Tristan, one of the original Council, stepped forward. “Kaori, these people barged into our home—”
“That’s enough, Tristan.” Yazmin. Crown of the Council. She’d been away on a beast hunt during my first supposed transgression. A breeze swept her long, platinum locks across her face, and she brushed them aside. “We can debate later. If we can spare a life, it’s what the goddess would want. We aren’t meant to be at war.”
Stabbing the hairpin into the center of her palm, Kaori pressed her hand flat against Calem’s wound. “To ease the beast inside him, a bit of Charmer’s blood.”
Noc’s grip on my hand tightened. “The beast inside him?”
“It’s a condition of Stella’s gift.” Kaori shifted, making room for her beast. Stella dipped her head low and cracked her jaw wide open. As she positioned her fangs over the gaping wound, a thick silver substance dripped from hidden glands behind her teeth. A sharp heat cooked the air. “Stella’s saliva is a potent healing balm that has been known to bring back those on the brink of death. However, something so powerful requires sacrificing a sliver of humanity.”
I studied the faint track-work of silver veins on her hands. “You speak from experience.”
She nodded once. “It was a requirement for taming her. My blood should ease the pull, but it will still be there.”
Kost wrung his hands together, his voice breaking. “What kind of pull?”
Stella sat back on her haunches, licking her lips, and the gash nearly severing Calem in half sewed back together.
My heart stilled. This has to work. A soft purr brewed from Onyx’s throat. He waited in the background, heavy eyes tearing my soul in two. To love the thing that stole my family… They would never understand. I would never ask them to. Without looking away from Calem, I summoned my power and sent Onyx back to the realm. He didn’t need to feel guilty for my actions.
“The effects are different for everyone.” Kaori dipped her nose closer to Calem’s face. “For instance, I—”
Calem gasped, eyes flying open and chest heaving. His gaze bounced wildly from face to face until he spied Kaori kneeling over him. Confusion tracked canyons in the plane of his forehead. We all froze, shocked, hopeful, fearful—waiting. He had come back to us, but what would the change be? Would we know him