The Morph’s brown skin had gone very pale. The blue light cast by the gate washed it out further. But he reached into his cloak and removed the bit of braid that Cara had given him. The crystal within it answered the gate’s pulse with a gleam of its own.
“It might not work.” Lucas’s fingers closed around the crystal.
“But what if it does?” she answered.
With a sigh, Lucas handed the crystal, still wrapped in the braid, to Nikolai. “If you focus on this, it might reorient the gate to the Watcher who spoke with us. She lives in the human realm. She was the one who wanted to train you.”
The big man took the crystal. His fingers danced over the white braid woven around it. “I opened Demeti’s gate,” he admitted. “But I really just followed him. This is different.”
“Just try, Nikolai,” Aria urged.
“What do I do?”
Lucas stepped forward. “Hold it up to the gate. What do you feel?”
Aria met Nikolai’s gray gaze. Black drifted across his eyes, proving he wasn’t as calm as he sounded. But Lucas was right; she’d seen the gatekeepers hold crystals up to the gates to focus them. “Yes, try that.”
Nikolai shot her a doubtful look, but he stepped forward and held the crystal close to it. His brows drew down, and more black drifted across the gray. “There is a link extending from the crystal into the gate,” he said. “But the energy from the Watchers is much stronger.”
Aria swallowed. “Can you push past it?”
A muscle jumped in his jaw. The surrounding energy changed, and Aria’s heart rate accelerated wildly. Small wisps of black fog came off Nikolai’s skin.
“Not sure this is a good idea.” Lucas took a step back.
“They are fighting me. Trying to keep the gate where they want it,” Nikolai said.
“Fight back, Nikolai. You’re stronger than them.”
“That’s what he said,” Nikolai whispered.
“Who are you talking about?” Lucas narrowed his eyes as he regarded the big man.
Nikolai didn’t answer as he raised both hands, the crystal firmly clenched in one. Something squeaked from beneath his hair, and Aria caught a glimpse of tiny, bright-blue eyes.
“Hold on to me,” Nikolai said through clenched teeth.
“What?” Aria was shaking and sweating heavily, and she didn’t think it had anything to do with temperature.
“You need to touch my skin,” he said. “Put your hands under my shirt. Lucas too.”
“No bloody way.” Lucas stood at the other end of the room, looking as though he contemplated bolting.
Nikolai shot him a look. “You cannot run far enough, fast enough. Hold on to Aria, then. It should protect you.”
Aria swallowed and moved closer to Nikolai. She slipped a hand up under his cloak, and sought beneath the tattered undershirt.
Warm. His skin was warm, a silken soft sheath over muscles hard as rock. But the moment she touched him, her heart changed rhythm, and she stopped shaking.
Aria turned and reached for Lucas. “Take my hand.”
He stared at her, his eyes flooded with emerald. Even from across the room, she saw how he trembled, and how he leaned against the wall as Nikolai’s power drained him of strength.
“Lucas! There’s no time for debate—take my hand!”
He flung himself toward her, hand outstretched, and she folded her fingers around it. Nikolai’s sustaining life energy flowed through her to Lucas. His eyes widened, and he straightened. His grip on her hand shifted, holding on tight.
Nikolai uttered a satisfied sounding grunt and leaned toward the gate until his hands touched the glowing archway. Black fog swirled outward to weave through the Watcher’s blue energy, and red lightning crackled. It flung around the room, leaving scorch marks everywhere it touched. But although Aria and Lucas flinched each time, it never came close to them.
