Total Eclipse

I corked the bottle and slotted it back into the box. The avatar, in turn, threw me the next empty. This time, I targeted Ashan.

Ashan snarled and misted away before I could complete the incantation. Coward.

Rahel didnt run. She leaped like a spider out of the shadows as I turned my concentration on her, and sent me, and the bottle, flying before I could stammer out more than half the incantation. The avatar dropped what he was doing and grabbed her, wrestling her to a halt before she could rip my head off, and I finished gasping the last iteration out: bound to my service.

Screams. Mist. A cork in the bottle, which went back in the box.

But the rest of the Dji

David broke free of a knot of them and backed up to stand over me. He dragged me to my feet and said, Get us help.

He meant Rahel and Ve

One of the other Dji

It wasnt quite a needle in a haystack, but hanging as I was on the edge of death, it was close enough.

Keep them off me! I shouted to David and the avatarwhether Imara or Whitney was piloting it now, I couldnt telland lunged for the first bottle. I uncorked it. Nothing. I dropped it where it lay and went to the next. Nothing, again.

One of the bottles was smashed. I hoped that wasnt one of the two I was looking for, but I didnt see either Rahel and Ve

A Dji

I uncorked the bottle, and felt that rush of power and control settle in.

Ve

Then she turned to me and helped me up. I was now holding two open bottles, hers and Davids, and it occurred to me that balancing another one was going to be problematicbut I needed to throw Rahel in on their side. There were far too many possessed Dji

Plus, I needed healing, and I needed it fast, so that I could fu

Under normal circumstances, David could have healed me, and I could have replenished his power after I was feeling betterbut these circumstances were far from normal. We were in a smoking, radioactive hole in the ground, fighting for our lives against an enemy that could, at any time, destroy us all.

I went up into the aetheric, looking desperately for something, anything to help . . . and found it, heading our way at a very fast clip. Two bright, shimmering spots that radiated power.

Wardens.

They were still minutes away, but they were coming, and they were powerful. It would help. With two more Wardens to anchor the bottled Dji

But first I had to make it until they arrived.

Ve

David and Ve

Because I was losing ground, too. Adrenaline had sustained me for a while, but now I could feel my body starting to lose its way. Having the additional drain of the Dji

I didnt think I was going to make it until help arrived. That might have been a character flaw, but I could feel the resignation growing inside of me, the willingness to finally, ultimately just . . . let go.

David looked at me, and I saw the emotion in his face, the knowledge. He understood what I was feeling, and thinking, and he couldnt bear it. He couldnt.

He exchanged a look with Ve

No! Ve

Ve

She wasnt just healing me, she was undoing what shed done to me beforeand that was some serious magic. Whatever shed done to suspend me at the edge of death, it had been significantly more powerful than Id thought.

Ve

She had just given up so much of herself, so fast, that she was becoming a creature made up of hunger. She was losing herself, but not to the Mother; she was losing herself to desperation.

Her eyes turned black, all black.

Ifrit.

I think that some part of Ve

Ve

Shed destroyed him utterly.

The stronger the Dji

I was still shaking and sweating, on my hands and knees. I felt better, and much worse, at the same time; light-speed healing will do that to a human body. Id be dealing with the aftereffects for days. For now, though, I needed to overrule my bodys shock, and just get on with it.

David helped me stand. He was watching Ve

Ve