Marked For Death: A Dark Urban Fantasy Novel by Becca Blake (english novels to improve english .txt) 📕

Celia shook her head. “They’ll never let us get that close.”

“Then, we’ll figure something out. We need Ed’s expertise.”

“One thing at a time,” Orion said. “We can figure out what to do about the Council later. We need to get Celia to a hospital first.”

“Nothing I haven’t dealt with before. What about you?” She gestured to his injury.

He grimaced as he attempted to move his shoulder again. “I’m not sure civilian doctors will be much help.”

“They’re better than nothing,” Ayla said. “That’s an infernal wound. You can’t just leave it alone.”

“I’m aware,” he said, shooting her a glare out of the corner of his eyes. “But unless your ability to use magic came back—”

“Let me try,” I said. “I defeated Raxael with magic.”

I rested my fingertips gently on Orion’s skin, as close to the wound as I dared. I’d never used healing magic before, but Ayla made it seem straightforward enough.

Closing my eyes, I thought about my relationship with Orion—all the times he’d been there for me as a child and as an adult, the way I saw him as a second father. I focused on the love I had for him, my only remaining family.

Nothing happened.

When I tried to search for the threads of my magic, I found nothing.

I shook my head. “It’s gone.”

“Don’t worry,” Orion said. “Once our magic returns, you’ll be able to heal me.”

“If our magic returns,” Ayla said.

“What about Celia?” I asked. “She wasn’t injected with that magic suppressing crap.”

“You’re asking me to do healing magic?” she asked, startled. “That’s dark magic.”

“Much as I’d love to have this argument again, I’m feeling like I just got dragged through the infernal plane.” Ayla leaned to the side and retched as another fit of sickness took her. When she finished, she wiped her mouth. “Let me know when you figure out what’s next for us.”

“So, there’s an us now?” I asked. “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with Arbiter business.”

“Well, I guess you guys aren’t Arbiters anymore, are you?” Ayla’s smile didn’t touch her eyes. Given how sick she was, she’d pushed herself way too hard.

Hell, we all had.

“Do you need help getting out to the car so you can rest?” I asked.

“I can handle it.”

We watched her shuffle outside, too stubborn to accept the help she needed.

“I’m worried about her,” Orion said.

“We’re just lucky to be alive. This could have been much worse,” Celia said.

“Yeah,” I said, glancing over at Maki, face down in a pool of his own blood. It would have been so easy for the rest of us to end up the same way—dead and forgotten.

If I hadn’t killed him to power up the amulet, none of us would have made it out alive. I supposed that was the best justice I would get for all those he killed.

At least he deserved his fate.

Orion followed my gaze. “I wish he would have just told me what he was doing when he left Haygrove. Maybe things could have been different.”

“Would you have believed him?” I asked.

He considered that for a while, then sighed. “No, I guess not.”

“We should give him a proper funeral. Do the rites and everything,” I said. Whatever fate Jay Maki deserved now, he’d once been a different person, and Orion deserved to know he would be at peace in death.

“Yeah. You’re right.” He started walking over to Maki, but I held out my arm to stop him.

“Wait. Let me.”

“I can handle—”

“You’re hurt,” I said sharply. “We don’t know how badly. The fight’s over, so you can stop pushing yourself now. I’ve got this.”

For a moment, he looked as though he might argue. Instead, he laughed. “Since when do you give me orders?”

“Well, you’re not exactly my commanding officer anymore, are you?”

“No, I guess I’m not.”

Something dark flashed across his face, and I wondered if I pushed on that nerve too soon. It had been hard for me to give up the only life I’d ever known, but I could only imagine how hard it must have been for Orion. The Arbiters had been everything to him, and he’d given them so much of himself over the years.

At least we still had each other. We would get through this.

***

Setting up a funeral pyre proved more difficult than I expected. While I’d been talking with the others, it had been easy to feel like I made it out unscathed. All three of them were far worse off than me.

But the fight with Raxael had taken a lot more out of me than I realized. Now that the thrill of battle had worn off, my entire body ached with injuries I hadn’t even noticed. I found cuts and fresh bruises forming everywhere I looked.

When I peeked under my shirt, I found the brand Raxael left on my skin. No longer invisible, it was now seared into my flesh, thick edges and swirls that looked almost like a tribal tattoo.

It was another thing to ask Ed about, if we found a way to get his help.

Despite the pain I was in, I refused to ask the others for help. They needed the rest much more than I did. So, I pushed myself through it and gathered wood from old furniture upstairs.

Before starting the pyre, I checked Maki’s pockets for weapons or money. Now that we were cut off from Haygrove’s resources, we would need whatever we could get.

His long trench coat had an absurd number of pockets, and it took time to empty all of them. By the time I was done, I ended up with a few hundred dollars, some bullets that may or may not have been enchanted, and a small first aid kit with healing herbs.

Not that those would do much good for any of our injuries now, since Celia and Orion’s wounds were both infernal, but I wasn’t sure when we would have another chance to get more.

As I pulled away from Maki’s body, my hand brushed against something else in