Silver could hurt him. It had left a permanent mark.
What the hell would the silver do to his insides?25Niamh had never conjured anything as far away as Kiyo’s cell phone. Her whole body shook with exertion as she concentrated.
Fifteen minutes later, her hair and clothes damp with sweat, the cell finally popped onto the bathroom counter in front of her. Weary to her bones, Niamh had no time to celebrate. Instead she dialed Bran’s number and relayed to him what had happened.
“Isn’t the moon still in phase?” Bran asked, his tone far too casual for Niamh’s liking.
“Yes,” she snapped. “What of it?”
“Werewolves’ healing abilities are accelerated when they’re in wolf form. As soon as he changes tonight, the transformation will dissolve the silver in his blood. It has to. All my research on Kiyo tells me there is nothing on this planet that can kill him.”
In the end, it was Bran’s calm certainty that reassured Niamh. She thanked him and hung up after he told her to keep him posted on Kiyo’s status.
Niamh strode out of the bathroom and almost swayed into the door frame. She’d overexerted herself. If she’d practiced her powers half as much as Astra had, she’d be able to do all the things she’d done in the last twenty-four hours without it affecting her.
A groan drew her out of her self-recrimination.
“Kiyo.” She hurried over to the bed just as he opened his eyes.
After a moment of disorientation, he let out a grunt of pain and clutched his chest. As he pulled at his shirt to have a look, Niamh explained, “It was Astra. She injected you with silver. Right into your heart. I can only assume this was her chosen method to draw out your death for as long as possible.”
A sheen of perspiration coated Kiyo’s skin. He looked haggard and pale as he turned his head to her.
“I’m sorry.” Her hands hovered over his body uncertainly. “I wasn’t fast enough to stop her. But Bran reckons when you change tonight, your wolf will heal you.”
His face strained with a sudden shock of pain, his eyes squeezing shut as he grimaced.
Powerlessness swamped her. “Kiyo.”
Kiyo shook his head. “Don’t,” he gasped. “Not your fault. Argh!” He clutched at his chest.
“What can I do?” she asked, frantic.
His eyes shot open. “Bran … right,” he hissed. “Fuck … change will heal …” He gasped for breath, the misery in his gaze undoing her.
Tears burned in her throat.
“Knock me out,” he groaned, flinching either with pain or broken pride. “Until tonight.”
Wet escaped her eyes as she pressed her fingertips to his carotid and sent a flare of magic inside to squeeze it.
His body went limp.
Before she could give in to the panic slithering from the pit of her stomach, Kiyo’s cell rang. Hurrying into the bathroom, she saw Bran’s name on the screen.
“Yes?” she answered.
“Niamh?” It wasn’t Bran. It was Fionn.
“Yes, it’s me. Can you help?”
“That’s why I’m calling. I think Bran is right and the transformation will probably heal Kiyo, but is there anything I can do in the meantime?”
A sob swelled out of her, but she choked it down.
Fionn must have heard it anyway. “I can come to you. Rose will have to stay behind, but I can come to you if you need me.”
The offer made her feel less alone, but she doubted Fionn could get there before the full moon. There was nothing to be done but wait.
Yet something occurred to her. “You know things I don’t about our magic.”
“Yes …”
“I’ve had to knock Kiyo out. He asked me to. The pain was too much.”
Knowing it had to be an incredible amount of pain for Kiyo to ask that, Fionn cursed in old Irish.
“I’ll have to continually hit his carotid to keep him knocked out until the change, unless you know a way for me to keep him in a stasis of some kind?”
Rose’s mate was quiet a moment before finally replying, “You can hold him in that moment of unconsciousness by creating a cocoon around him with your magic. Pour your emotions, your want for him to be pain-free, into it. It should hold him within for as long you want.”
Feeling more useful, Niamh thanked him.
“Niamh, who is this woman?”
Knowing it was time to warn Fionn and Rose, she told him about Astra and her vision. About how she had the ability to use her mind manipulation against Rose and Elijah if they weren’t prepared.
“But we can still stop her?” Fionn asked once she’d finished.
“You know all futures are possible. And she wouldn’t be going to these lengths with Kiyo if I wasn’t destined for another path.”
Fionn considered that and then asked gently, “Does Kiyo know?”
“No,” she choked out, knowing what he was asking. Perceptive bastard. “And I doubt he’d want any part of it, even if he did.”