“What’s that mean?”

Helix spoke up. “It’s like ripping the stuffing out of a teddy bear. The magic making the weapon will be gone. It’ll still be a knife, deadly in its own way, but it won’t have the power it did. In fact, with it being a softer metal, it will be easily destroyed.”

“I take it by the doom and gloom layered over your voices that this is a dangerous undertaking for both you and for your anchor.”

She nodded. “If I go too far, I can drag him into the depths of my magic too, leaving us both empty shells. The Black Mage could have done something to protect the weapon in the years since I’ve made it that might rebound on us. One misstep and I could easily kill us both.”

Fuck.

I glanced at Fin, but he’d already made up his mind to help her, if only to pay back the debt he felt he owed her for not protected her all these years. His guilt and anger were a bottomless pit. I didn’t dare go near it, but I clasped his hand tighter in mine, layering the other on top of them.

A surge of warmth and love hit my chest. I had to drag my attention back to Melinda who stared off into the fire again.

“Is that it?” I asked. “Anything else we should know?”

She shook her head.

Fin leaned forward, hand still tucked between mine. “I’ll do it.”

Chapter Seventeen

HELIX HELD HIS HAND out to bring Melinda to her feet. She allowed him to lead her from the room and gestured for us to follow. With Fin’s hand still in mine, I went first, Fin trailing behind me until we came to the staircase leading down into the basement.

When I hesitated at the top of the stairs, Fin came up against my back. “You don’t have to come. You can stay up here and relax while we do this.”

I knew he wouldn’t feel the least bit ashamed of me for balking right now.

It gave me the strength to continue. I walked down the stairs, catching up with the pair as they entered a room. This one was lined in brick from floor to ceiling. No carpet, only concrete under our feet. A firepit sat in the center and I caught the sound of a fan whirring from somewhere, but I didn’t see the vents.

At my questioning look, Melinda waved at the floor. “It’s built to keep the heat from becoming too strong.”

Even with the fans, the temperature of the room pressed around me, at least twenty degrees hotter than the surrounding hallway.

Helix closed the door behind Fin and we stood near the firepit until Melinda led us to a smaller area with a wood platform off on the far side of the long room. On it sat several cushions, and Fin maneuvered onto the platform to sit on a cushion as she took her own. Helix stood at the edge of the platform, no doubt attuned to any danger. I matched him on Fin’s side. The fact that he wasn’t behind me with a knife told me that Melinda must have spoken to him and relayed some level of trust for us. At this point, did any of us have a choice?

Melinda produced a knife from somewhere and motioned for Fin to scoot closer to her. They ended up knee to knee. The tension between them was thick. Fin’s guilt was a thick sludge in the back of my throat. Her jaw looked so tight it might pop off at any moment. I hoped her feelings about him, however they went, wouldn’t interfere with whatever she needed from Fin. If she hurt him, I’d have to kill her, and we’d be screwed.

She drew the knife across her palm in a line, and then did the same to him. A bright slide of red welled up against his pale skin. Then she pressed their hands together and closed her eyes, taking his other hand in hers.

His spine went rigid, at the same time a wall seemed to go up between us. I realized this anchoring caused him pain and he was trying to protect me. Seconds ticked by and I risked glances at Helix who watched the two of them with an indifferent sort of frown.

Fin shuddered, sweat beading on his temples to slide down his cheeks. She looked unfazed by the heat, but she shuddered, her hand flexing around his as if she had to maintain the grip on him for her life.

I poked at the wall he built, fascinated by it, until a bright shot of fire lit down my spine. I gasped, doubling over at the pain. If this was just a fraction of what they felt, then he’d done me a kindness by trying to keep me out. But the wall slowly failed, cracks turning into holes shooting white hot pain through my senses.

I breathed through the pain, crouching down in case I passed out. The agony came in waves, some small, some fast, and they weren’t easily predictable, as if whatever caused it wanted to inflict maximum damage.

My strength wavered as tears slid down my cheeks. I couldn’t go on much longer. How the hell were they still dealing with it? Especially if this was simply a fragment of what he felt right now.

I took one step forward. “Stop, please, we’ll find another way!”

Neither of them even looked like they heard me. Helix stood a couple of paces closer to me, watching me warily.

I waved him off. “I’m fine. I can just feel it through the bond. It’s intense.”

“It should be over soon,” he said.

“They need to stop. I can feel it and neither of them are strong enough to endure this kind of pain. It will kill them.”

Tags: Amelia Shaw The Rover Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net