His power swirled around me, and my own met it head-on, drinking it without touching him. Insofar as energy was concerned, the link ran between us, just as it did between me and Matt.
His eyes widened slightly. “You are not afraid of me,” he said.
“Should I be? You are my brother.”
His lips twitched. “Most would be. But you are right. We may be linked by a man who is a monster, but we are family. And that counts.” His gaze dropped to Trix, who moved forward to sniff his knee and wagged her tail. He bent to pet her. “You are family, too,” he told her.
Even if he wasn’t my brother, I would love him for that,I said to Matt.
Let’s hope it’s a mutual thing,Matt commented.Did you see that fog? What the hell was that?
Nikolai straightened and nodded to us before moving off. Lucas sent me a worried look before he followed him.
My stomach muscles were so tight it was hard to breathe. “Just how lucky are we that Nikolai is mated to Lucas and Aria?” I asked Cara.
She regarded me solemnly. “Very, very lucky indeed. And now we have you, as well. The more leashes on Nikolai, the safer we all are.”
“But if he decides to not listen?” Matt pressed.
“Then there is nothing, and no one, that could stand in his way,” Cara said with a sigh.
Eli and Cass exchanged long looks. “If we can’t stop Galeran and Isobel, we may need him,” Eli said.
“If it gets to that point,” Cara said. “We have already lost.”
Cass swallowed. “So what do we do now?”
“We don’t have any of Galeran’s army healthy enough to question,” Cara said. “We have Watchers struggling to heal the few that survived. We are essentially stuck until we have a location.”
“We’re back to hoping that Sebastian can get a message to me, aren’t we?” I said, my heart twisting. I’d sensed a burst of something from him, and then, nothing. Attempts to contact him came back with such blankness—I was pretty sure he was just unconscious, but I didn’t know for certain.
How much more of this could I stand? I teetered on the edge of an abyss, and only Matt held me back. One more gust of wind, and I would be swept over.
Matt dropped his long arm around my shoulders.We have Galeran licking his wounds. It may create opportunities where none existed before.
I struggled to pull myself together.Is optimism really an Aussie trait?I asked.
It’s not optimism. It’s called faith.
I don’t know if I believe in that.
He squeezed me close.It’s not faith in a higher being, Angel. It’s faith in you.
I closed my eyes, grabbed the last vestiges of my sanity, and hung on.
46
Matt
Strewth.I didn’t bloody well know what to do.
Anna stood in front of Cara’s window and stared out across the meadow. She had her arms crossed, with Sebastian’s horn pressed beneath them, held against her skin.
Her body language and expression were upsetting enough, but what radiated from her terrified me.
“Give her this,” Cara said, handing me a mug. “And get her to lie down on my bed.”
I shot her a look. “You need to rest—”
