Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4) by Sarah Ashwood (free biff chip and kipper ebooks .TXT) 📕

Carter had been and he felt no humor, remembering being forced to offer his blood in exchange for Ellie’s life.

Thank God she isn’t here now, he thought, then recoiled mentally when he realized the thought felt more like a prayer. That wasn’t like him. Ellie was the one who prayed, not him.

Guess I’ve hung around her too long. He chuckled mentally, ruefully.

Seriously, he was glad she wasn’t here. He was thankful. And if that meant saying a prayer to the God she believed in—well, hey, whatever worked.

“We need the Talos’ blood,” Nosizwe said, looking pointedly at Carter. Sean looked at him too.

For a half-second, he was tempted to say, “What if I refuse?” What if he did refuse to go along with this? How bad would the situation get? Would Sean and his longtime rival team up on him? Fight him for his blood? Could he fend off the combined forces of the Minotaur and the Impundulu? Would the fight be worth it?

He restrained himself.

“I need a blade,” he finally said out loud. “Preferably something small and sharp. Not planning on opening the entire vein like last time.”

Last time had nearly killed him. If not for Ellie’s bravery, not to mention intervention from whatever forces had helped in that other world, he didn’t know that he would have recovered.

Somebody stepped up, handing him a tiny knife that looked like it had come from a surgeon’s kit, handle first. Carter accepted it, grimacing.

Handle first. Like we care about safety.

Every sense was shouting this was wrong. Ignoring his instincts, Carter half-crouched in order to reach the vein at the back of his ankle, even as he allowed the transformation into the Talos to overtake him. As he reached back with the knife to carefully nick the vein, he heard Nosizwe ask, “What about me? This doesn’t happen, Sean, unless you order him to protect me.”

The Talos’ smooth, bronze head came up, looking to Sean for orders. Sean didn’t hesitate.

“Carter,” he said, looking deep into the Talos’ eyes, “While we’re in this other world, you, me, and Nosizwe, I want you to protect her exactly like you’d protect me. Don’t let anything happen to her. Understand?”

That strange sensation fell over him, like a thin, warm sheet had been draped over his body and quickly dissolved into the coolness of his bronze flesh. Sean’s injunction had taken hold.

No going back now.

The Talos used the borrowed blade to carefully score the one vein in his bronze body that contained blood. This time, instead of his enemies rushing forward to collect his blood, he caught the warm, dark liquid that oozed out in his palm. Rising, he strode over to the nearest Stone, smearing his own blood across the etchings on the surface.

A faint glow in response. A glow that brightened from orange to deep red, to fiery red.

Carter knelt to collect more blood, painted the next Stone. Again, the same thing happened. The etchings across the Stone’s surface, the writing, the runes, came to life. He repeated the process until all of the Stone were awakened.

“Next we should see the portal,” he heard Nosizwe remark to Sean. “Are you ready?”

Sean grunted. From the corner of his eye, Carter saw Ciara leaning forward intently in her wheelchair. The big moment had come, the moment the quickened Stones were supposed to birth the fiery portal that would carry them to the other world. Only…it wasn’t happening. The runes on the Stones, smeared with the Talos’ blood, glowed brighter and brighter in the darkness, each individual letter lit up like a firefly. Still, no ring appeared.

“What’s going on?” the Talos heard someone in the crowd murmur.

The question was picked up, repeated by others. It spread, like flames on the etchings had spread, until the entire circle of shifters was wondering the same thing. What was going on?

Sean caught his stare. “Carter?” he asked. The Talos, Carter, shrugged. If they didn’t know, he didn’t either.

“What is this?” The glow of the firelit Stones, the wash of moonlight, cast Nosizwe’s scowl into twisted planes. Her anger was palpable. “Is this some kind of trick?”

Sean snorted. “You’d know better than me. You were there last time. I wasn’t.”

“Why isn’t it working?” The frustration was evident in her voice, along with a thread of fear and certainly anger. She pushed past Sean to face Carter in his shifter form. “What have you done, Ballis? Why isn’t it working this time? Did you figure out a way to beat the system?”

The Talos didn’t like her so close. For a split-second, he was tempted to shove her back. Had she been in her altered form, he probably would have. He’d sworn to kill her, after all. But he’d never laid his hands on a woman unprovoked, and this wasn’t the time to break that record. Instead, he stepped back, shrugging, shaking his head to indicate his own confusion. She didn’t know? Neither did he! Wasn’t like he was an expert at this.

While they’d been confronting each other, the glow from the runes had begun to flicker. Fade. Like any real fire, left unfed, they were going to burn themselves out. Somebody on Nosizwe’s side called her attention to it. She swung around to check, then spun back to him.

“Do something!” she demanded angrily. “More blood!”

He could try, but the Talos was certain that wasn’t the problem. Still, when he caught his mentor’s worried look, his nod of encouragement, he bent to squeeze more blood from the tiny cut on his ankle. Rising, he approached the first Stone he’d originally painted. The flames had nearly burnt out. The Talos tried again, swiping its own blood across the runes. He could feel the tension in the onlookers behind him, like they’d drawn and held a collective breath.

Nothing happened.

The runes momentarily flickered brighter, then abruptly fizzled. When they did, the dying fires on the other Stones followed suit. Instantly, all was darkness.

Chapter Twenty-Six

I clutched the sword tightly as we roared down city streets, passing