Chapter 443: Nona At Risk
Not even I could stay mad after that. The thought of Belaisle having Gram in his clutches made me weak with fear. I could only imagine how the Zornovs felt. I'd grown up supported and loved and sheltered whether I liked it or not.
All they had was each other. And their Nona.
"You weren't supposed to be here." Trill shrugged, without anger, without much of anything resembling emotion considering the bombshell she'd just dropped. Though I could only assume some kind of firestorm waited to be born. "Belaisle said if anyone interfered, he'd kill Nona. That we had to cooperate or she was dead." Trill wrung her hands together, voice still calm while her body struggled to express something, anything. "I had to turn you in when your power touched mine." She met my eyes, glasses a little fogged around the edges from the remains of her tears. "You would have ruined everything."
Deep breath. Let it out. And my bubbling fury with it. All of it, down to the ground, until I felt clean, purified by it. "I understand," I said. "I really do. And it's likely I'd have done the same thing if we had to trade places."
Trill just bobbed her head, though part of me wondered if she heard me. I could only imagine she was doing to herself what her brother had, accusing, beating. What I used to do.
Okay, what I still did. Sometimes. More often than I should.
"Is that why you ran off the second time?" Made sense. I was sure she'd gotten the hint the first time around.
Trill sagged, misery taking over at last. "Yes," she said, harsh, broken. "At the mansion, he reached me, told me about Nona. Let me feel her." She shook her head as she suddenly flared with anger all over again. Personally, I liked it better than giving up. "How could I just let her die?"
Probably wouldn't help to tell her thanks to what she'd done, she'd doomed the whole plane to a horrible ending. I may have been through enough to toughen me up, but even I struggled with the idea of letting someone I loved die in order to save the rest of the world.
Gram again. No crying.
Wait a minute. Gram. "Trill, why could I reach you when all of my other magicks are mute?"
She shrugged, snuffled. "I don't know."
Argh. "Yes you do," I said. "Think."
Again the lift of her shoulders, the tip of her head. "Because the maji made the sorcerers too," she said. "Maybe that means our power supersedes theirs."
You have got to be kidding me. "They did what?" Of all the idiotic, irresponsible, short-sighted-
Trill tossed her hands in the air. "I didn't do it," she snapped.
Count to ten.
"Does that mean I might be able to use the maji power to reach my family?" I hadn't even tried, considered it a waste of time.
Panic surged as she rushed toward me, hands gripping my sweater. "Please," she said, more tears trickling. "You can't. They'll kill her."
I turned to Owen who hugged his knees to his chest. "Well?"
His jaw tightened and he turned away from his sister. "Do it," he said.
"Owen!" Trill let me go, face wide open in shock. "You can't mean it. This is Nona!"
"Who taught us who we are is more important than what we feel." He didn't bother to raise his head when he snapped back at her. "Syd, just do it. We can't let Belaisle have access to Trill."
Not like I needed their permission, but it was nice to know he and I were on the same page. "I promise we will do everything we can to rescue your grandmother," I said. "Just, for once, please, can you trust I know what I'm doing?"
Would be a stretch since I was playing it by ear with a bad case of tone deaf. But Trill finally nodded, turning away, neither of the siblings meeting my eyes. Charlotte glared, nodded as I drew a breath and looked inside.
It took a moment to find it, the part of me that was maji. When I'd contacted Trill, tried to warn her, I'd done it on instinct, my usual mode of communication when I wanted to keep information secret. This was more of an exploration and search for power, enough boost to reach past the shielding and someone I knew.
And hopefully who wanted to help. Catching the edge of, say, Ameline's mind wouldn't do me much good. In fact, the ice-hearted sociopath would likely cheer the sorcerers on. And anyone in the Dumont family would be a total waste of time.
Okay, so focus. First, a test. I reached for Liam, keeping the feeling of him in my mind, my heart. Nothing. Fair enough. This time, I tried for Meira. Her combination of being my sister and a fellow demon might make the difference. Nothing. I could try Mom, but I was tired of screwing around.
Gram. This was so hard. I had no frame of reference, no way of knowing if what I was doing was simply bouncing back from the shields and hitting me or reaching my target. The feeling of the maji power was so foreign, I was lost for a moment, willing her to hear me, more than using magic.
Flutter.
Gram?
Flash-S-flicker. Syd-spark.
And then, nothing.
I gasped for air, remembering to breathe as I dropped my focus, bending in half, hands on my knees, feeling as if I'd just finished running a marathon.
"Did it work?" Owen didn't sound like he really wanted to know.
"I think so." I flexed my hands, feeling the blood rush into them as I relaxed the fists I'd seemed to be holding tight a lot lately. "I don't know." I slid my hands into my pockets, felt the smooth surface of the crystal against my hand.
Started to swear. Didn't stop for quite some time while I stomped my foot in impotent rage. Owen stared at me like I'd lost my mind, Trill the same, though Charlotte's eyes narrowed as she watched me pull the stone from my pocket.
"I'm an idiot." I held it up, curses cutting off as I showed it to them. "We might have all the help we need right here." I really needed to stop getting hit in the head. It had to be doing some permanent damage.
Owen's eyes lit up as he leaped from the bed and came to me, reaching for the crystal before he smiled a little. "May I?"
I dropped it in his hand. "Knock yourself out. Or better yet, get us out of here."
He studied it, fingers sliding over the polished surface. "You did it," he said. "And stone. I can work with stone." He beamed at me before his face fell a little, but not in sadness again, thank goodness. More in curiosity. "Syd," he said, "did you say you used one of these before?"
"Sort of," I said. "To channel power."
He drew a breath, suddenly tense, lips quivering in excitement. "You're right, Trill," he said. "I didn't think you were, but she has it too."
Trill joined us, eyes locked on the crystal while I scowled at the pair of them. "I have what?"
Owen ignored me, grinning like none of this had even happened. "This is a power source, yes," he said. "But it also amplifies the user's ability."
I told them quickly about my demon, how Demetrius trapped her in the first crystal. How her power remained though she wasn't diminished. How I'd used it to send the Wild Hunt back into slumber and how, ultimately, Sassafras used it to save Dad, the transformation of his effigy.
"No wonder the effigy is indestructible," Trill said, focused again, without the anger. I had to believe this was the real Trill I was finally seeing, the mask of her temper gone. "All that creation magic channeled through the crystal?"
Owen laughed. "Amazing," he said. "But it wasn't Sassafras's power that made it work. It already had hers in it."
How was anything they were saying not in code? And wait a second. "Hang on," I said. "Creation magic? Sassy killed himself. He used blood magic."
Trill wrinkled her nose. "You witches call it that." She touched one fingertip to the stone before dropping her hand again. "To the maji, using our blood is the purest form of creation, the very source of all energy, of life itself." She fixed me with her brown eyes. "And if you're going to be of any use to us at this point, you're going to have to use it too."
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