Hekima and Sanjay. He dropped them near me and disappeared again. Hekima came closer, freed from immobilization now that she was outside of my time-bubble.
“Veritas,” she said in concern. “You’re badly burned.”
I didn’t spare the concentration to reply. I would heal, if we survived this.
“Are you not speaking because you’re somehow trying to stop this?” she asked in a sharper tone.
My head jerked in a nod.
“Sanjay,” Hekima said in that same sharp tone. “We must clear the surrounding buildings of as many people as possible.”
Ian reappeared again, almost throwing Lucius and Fion, another council member, down. Lucius grabbed on to Ian’s leg before he could teleport away.
“I demand to know what’s happening!”
Ian gave Lucius a savage look. “One of those ‘unproven threats’ you were dismissing just detonated a volcano under your arse.”
Lucius’s eyes bulged. “Impossible!”
“Not for a god of earthquakes and volcanoes. Now, release me, or I’ll throw you into the volcano’s flaming center like I’m sacrificing a bloomin’ virgin!”
Lucius let Ian go as if he were suddenly scalding him. Ian disappeared, and Hekima took Lucius and Fion by the arm.
“Come, help us get the people to safety.”
They left, Lucius still arguing that this couldn’t be happening. Sweat burst out of my skin as more agony rolled over me. I tasted it on my lip and felt it beneath the remains of my burned clothes as it drenched my body. I hadn’t broken out into a sweat since I was human. I hadn’t known I still could. My time-freezing power had reached its limit; it wasn’t enough. The volcano Ruaumoko had instantly transformed the mountain into was too big and volatile for me to hold back much longer.
Ian appeared with two more council members, dropping them and vanishing almost instantly. The council members peppered me with questions that I ignored, using all my concentration to hold back the deadly eruption as long as I could.
Hekima called out, directing them to come down to her. They left, and moments later, Ian dropped off two more council members, and then in mere moments, reappeared with Haldam and Xun Guan. Haldam’s eyes were still smoking from the demon bone sticking out of them. Ian must have decided to finish him once and for all.
He’d saved the council, but there were over a dozen Law Guardians up there. Ian could probably save them before I lost control, and Hekima and the other council members might be able to get a few hundred people to safety, but that still left tens of thousands in the eruption zone. I couldn’t keep the mountain from detonating long enough for the majority of the people to evacuate. I could already feel my control slipping, but . . . this didn’t have to all be on me, I realized.
As Ian had repeatedly reminded me, I wasn’t alone anymore.
I summoned up the additional energy to whisper. “Ian.”
He knelt by me at once, shoving Xun Guan away.
“Mencheres and Vlad.” I could barely get their names out from how tightly I’d clenched my jaw against the pain. “Vlad can . . . extinguish lava, while . . . Mencheres holds . . . mountain together.”
“You’re barking mad,” he snapped. “Even if they both could, I’m not leaving you alone long enough to fetch them. Ruaumoko is clearly here, and Phanes and Morana could be, too.”
“Have to,” I gritted out. “All those innocent . . . people.”
Xun Guan pushed herself to her feet. Then, she faced Ian.
“Go. I will protect her.”
Ian looked at her as if she’d suggested he lop off his own head. “Think I trust you? You tried to stab her heart out half an hour ago. If I didn’t think she’d hold it against me, I would’ve left you right in that blast zone, and good riddance!”
Ian was shouting, and still, it was getting harder to hear him. I was folding myself into the power to maintain it, which meant everything else was fading away.
“I love her, too,” I heard Xun Guan snarl. “And I was not trying to kill her. I was incapacitating her to protect the rest of the council, but I swear on my life that she will survive this, even if I have to fly her away and leave everyone else.”
“Swear on more than your life.” Even though I could barely hear Ian’s words anymore, the death that stalked his tone was clear. “Swear it also on everything you hold precious because I will destroy all of it if she dies.”
“If she dies, everything I hold