light and energy, seeking darkness that had to be hiding somewhere inside her lifemate. While she didn't want to admire anything about Gregori, she couldn't help herself. He sorted through memories fast, processing each horrible event quickly and discarding it, looking for that moment Razvan had traded his body for his sister's life.
They reached that memory, so long ago, centuries, a young boy offering himself to a madman, to a killer, to keep his sister from harm. Ivory had to fight to stay in the form of energy. It was so difficult exploring those old memories, that boy beaten down but valiant, trying to shield those he loved, seeing too much evil every day. She examined everything from all angles of that memory, looking for something that had allowed Xavier to take possession.
Not here. Gregori moved forward in time quickly, sorting through data fast, looking for something that Xavier had done, some trigger word, something that might indicate he had possessed Razvan's body at will.
Wait! Ivory had been paying more attention to Razvan's memories of himself. The way he looked at what was happening around him. He was Dragonseeker, turned fully by his aunts in their effort to give him the necessary strength to escape. He had the mind of a true Dragonseeker. He had resolved to travel the world in spirit, rather than allow Xavier to continue to "use" him. He wasn't aware, but the use of his body at that time was an illusion Xavier created to make Razvan believe the mage was all-powerful.
Realizing he had little hope of escape, kept starving and weak, Razvan used his waning strength to shed his body, leaving it vulnerable to Xavier's attack. Ivory saw the exact instant Xavier entered into that shell and left pieces of himself behind. Now they knew the time and the how, but they still had to find the small pieces of Xavier and find a way to extract them.
Ivory began to chant softly in the Carpathian language, sending the words vibrating through both Razvan and Gregori.
I call to me all that is good to aid me in my desperate plight.
Sky send to me the purest light.
I plead for the song that I may sing to reveal that which is evil buried within.
Light of sky, burning bright, find that which is dark and make it light.
Evil one, I call forth the blight you left behind.
Light burst through Ivory and she directed it into Razvan's body, allowing it to seek out the darkness left behind. The light swam into his bloodstream, rushed through his mind and heart, and sought to go deeper into the very essence of his soul until Razvan's being was entirely illuminated. In his mind there was a dark scar, a very small ridge that Ivory recognized. There was one in his heart, one pumping through his bloodstream and the last in his soul. Four. Heart, mind, body and soul. No wonder Xavier managed to possess Razvan's body at will. Even with that, Razvan had fought back for centuries.
Razvan appeared splintered, as if he'd been broken apart and put back together wrong. Ivory's breath rushed out in a long, slow hiss. She had been in pieces, her body filtering through the soil, struggling to pull itself together, so fractured she couldn't even knit her skin and bones back together evenly. This was worse than mere flesh. This was the very essence of who Razvan was. As each point of darkness was revealed, Ivory attached a thread of white light, anchoring it so that all of the pieces could be kept connected.
Ivory knew without Gregori having to tell her that she had to provide the light to repair the fractures to Razvan's soul and drive out that small splinter of evil. Words were powerful, the truth and rightness of them to bring his fractured mind together. They could tune sound to the true rhythm of Razvan's body to restore balance and push the fragment of evil from his bloodstream. But the heart . . .
I do not know how to love, healer. There was despair in her voice. I lost that emotion a long time ago. He will be lost because of me.
There are all kinds of love, Ivory, and you are capable of all of them. He is a warrior first. Love him for that. He is a man alone who fought for all those around him and did not succumb to darkness when others embraced the darkness with far less to drive them. Love