Final Prophecy 05 - Blood Spells Read Online Free PDF Page B

dead,” she said to the others, who had gathered close. Tears dripped from her face onto his, adding to the moisture of the mist, as she bent over him, touching his face, his neck, his damp hair.
    Rabbit had pulled Strike off to one side, and was telling him something in a low, broken voice. She caught Iago’s name, but couldn’t think about that right now. Her entire being, both woman and warrior, was focused on Brandt.
    He was alive, but only barely.
    “Wake up,” she whispered, taking his hand in hers and forming a blood-link. “Please wake up.” She opened herself to him, offering him all the magic and strength she had left to give.
    The connection formed on her end, but nothing happened on his.
    Sick nerves drilled through her. “He’s not responding.”
    “He is trapped inside the Triad magic,” a multitonal voice answered.
    Patience’s head jerked up. Her nahwal stood there staring down at her. It was the only one left; the other ancestral beings had disappeared.
    “Trapped how?” she demanded, heart thudding.
    “The Triad magic cannot speak to the eagle until he makes peace with his ancestors.” The nahwal seemed to be speaking from rote, its expression blank. But for a second she thought she caught a glimpse of something more.
    The creature had spoken to her only twice before, and both messages had been frustratingly vague. She hadn’t made much of an effort to improve the connection through ancestor worship, preferring to focus on the living. Now that was coming back to bite her in the ass.
    It was too late to fix that now, though. All she could do was try to reach that spark of humanity, the hint that someone—some one —in there was trying to get through to her. “Please tell me how to help him,” she said, her voice low and urgent. “Please. I’ll do anything.” Almost.
    “You must help him become a Triad mage before the solstice-eclipse. The lost jaguar and the serpent have long, dangerous roads to travel, and he is the only one who can prevent Cabrakan from avenging his brother’s death at the hands of Kali’s children.”
    The nahwal took a step back, away from the group. Patience would have gone after the creature, but Brandt’s heavy body weighed her down. “What am I supposed to do ?” Her voice broke. “Tell me.”
    “Take him home.” The nahwal ’s form blurred as the gray-green mist closed around it. “Help him remember the debt he owes.” Another step.
    “Wait!” She stretched out her hand. “Don’t . . .” She trailed off as it vanished. Reeling, she looked up at her teammates, whose expressions ranged from concern to gray-faced shock. “What the hell is it talking about?”
    It was her nahwal , her message. But it was Strike who said in a ragged voice, “The lost jaguar and the serpent have to be Anna and Mendez. The other two firebirds must have gone to earth.” Which so wasn’t good news. Anna didn’t want anything to do with the Nightkeepers anymore, and Mendez was a rogue mage, a loose cannon who’d spent most of the past three years behind bars.
    “Why the hell would the god pick them?” Nate asked. “For that matter, why did it go for Brandt if he can’t complete the spell?” He locked on Patience, expression grim. “What debt was it talking about?”
    She wanted to weep and rage, wanted to curl in a ball and pretend the last ten minutes hadn’t happened. But that was the woman she had been, not the one she was now.
    Focus. Prioritize. Her warrior’s buffer might not be as strong as Brandt’s, but it would be strong enough. It would have to be. Calling on it to stem the panic and pump determination in its place, she tightened her grip on him. “I don’t know about any debt. But I’m damn well going to figure it out.”
    She had already been forced to say good-bye to her sons and winikin . She wasn’t letting go of her husband without a fight.
     
    Skywatch
     
    The magi materialized in the sunken center of the mansion’s great room, in