Midnight Truth (Shifter Island #4) - Leia Stone Page 0,39

Midnight brothers. I yanked a blanket from a twin mattress, wrapping it around me like a toga, and beelined for the brothers and their mother.

“What’s going on?” I asked, stepping between Honor’s wolf form and Rage, who was nearest to the twin bed. “How is—?”

The question died on my lips as I stared down at Justice.

Strong, loyal, watchful Justice … just lay there, nearly as white as the hem of the blood-soaked sheet over him. His chest rose and fell in short, shallow breaths, but his emerald eyes were closed.

“Blood mages attacked his patrol squad,” Noble said from the other side of the bed.

Jerking my chin up, I looked at Noble and then turned my attention to Rage, my jaw dropping at his gruesome appearance.

Blood mage… Kian had mentioned them in the library. If he was behind this, I’d skin him alive.

Rage’s black leather armor was dark, wet with blood in several places and caked with mud in others. The two sheaths strapped to his thighs were empty, but he had one dagger at his waist and a broadsword fastened to his back.

“Blood mage?” I squeaked. Just because I’d heard of them once didn’t mean I knew who or what they were.

“Vampires,” Rage clarified.

WHAT THE WHAT?

Three deep gashes marred the molded leather across his chest, the congealed blood on his skin a testament to how close he’d come to occupying a space next to his brother. Additional scratches and scrapes were in various stages of healing on his neck and face, and his eyes glistened as he watched his brother struggle to breathe.

I reached out to my mate, and my heart squeezed with pain when he flinched. ‘Rage?’

‘It’s my fault.’ He blinked, and two tears spilled … one down each cheek. When he looked at me, his eyes still swam with guilt and pain. ‘I sent him out there to investigate.’

Shaking my head, I pushed past my mate’s guilt to deal with the most pressing issue. “Why isn’t he healing?” I asked.

Rage said nothing.

Noble cleared his throat. “I’ve poured several bottles of healing elixir—”

“Then get me some mage wine,” I growled. “And I’ll make more.”

“It…” Elaine’s voice cracked behind me, and I flinched at her sudden appearance. A small sob escaped her lips before she pressed on. “It didn’t work. They tried … everything…”

Everything?

I grabbed the knife at Rage’s waist and yanked it out. Without hesitation, I ran the blade over my palm, pushing it deep into the skin and muscle underneath. A searing pain radiated up my arm, and I dropped the weapon to the floor before pulling the sheet covering Justice’s chest down.

Elaine’s gasp registered, and my stomach heaved at the mangled mess that was Justice’s chest.

Bile burned the back of my throat, but I forced it down as I inched closer, pushing Rage to step back.

“Uh, Nai,” Noble said, reaching for me. “What are you—?”

If I opened my mouth, there was a good chance I’d vomit, but that wasn’t what bound my tongue. The air around Justice was shimmering, and something deep inside me told me I didn’t have time to explain.

He was on the verge of death.

With blood dripping from my fingers, I ran my hand over Justice’s shattered ribs and shredded flesh, pushing whatever spirit magic I had into his body to tie his soul to his mortal form.

You can’t have him, I thought to the Keeper of Souls. And then I begged every power within the universe: Please work. Please work…

My vision blurred, and my tears dripped into the wound, joining the blood and magic. I needed this magic to seal his spirit back to his body, and his body needed to heal so the two could be whole once more. I bowed my head and pleaded…

Mother Mage, please let this work.

There was something healing about my blood that I hadn’t yet learned enough about, but if my blood mixed with mage wine made a healing elixir, then maybe my blood plain was even more powerful? Justice was getting the bare minimum Spirit 101 here, and I was just going to have to try my best. Gramps was too sick to help, so I was all he had right now, and it had to be enough.

‘Is it … is it working?’ Rage asked, his voice filled with pain and longing.

I opened my mouth to say I wasn’t sure, but then I felt it. Sunshine and joy. Hope and love. Health and wholeness. Justice.

I gathered every ounce of spirit magic I could muster and threw