Page 54 of Silver Claw

“Alive,” Ael said. “She is of no use to us if she’s dead.”

“What do I get out of the deal?” I asked. “Telling me thatmaybeyou can return my magic is not enough.”

The old vampire smiled serenely and lifted a pale hand. “Come here to me, so I can show you what your payment will be for the successful completion of this task. Come, child.”

Joe stiffened. “Kait…”

“It’s okay,” I told him.

Still, I balked. I wanted to ask the elder why he wanted me to come to him, but I didn’t. I went. There were short, glossy steps leading to the raised area upon which they sat, and I climbed them, my fingers brushing the hilt of my blade.

“Kneel down, Kait Silver,” he said when I reached him.

And as he’d done in the fake church when I’d first met him, he placed his palm on my chest, directly over my pounding heart.

The floor was surprisingly spongy beneath my knees, and though I didn’t look away from the elder, I could see in myperipheral vision that the “throne” area was much larger than it looked from the floor below.

Some of the chairs were empty. The only elders present were the ancient vampire, the wolf, and the fae, the three I was most familiar with, along with two other elders covered from head to toe in hooded robes. Their faces were too shadowed for me to see, but I did glimpse a red gleam from one of their stares. I thought it might have been the demon elder. I’d seen him before, and he’d coveted my blade. I wasn’t sure why he would hide his face now.

Maybe it wasn’t him at all.

“You remember,” the elder said, the heat from his hand growing hotter by the second, “when I said you had only to activate the blood magic inside you.”

It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t answer. I simply waited, attempting to close my eyes because he was very nearly too much to look at. It was like my lids were frozen, though, and I couldn’t lower them no matter how hard I tried.

Something was about to happen, and I should have been eager for it. Whatever he did could make me stronger. Fill me with power.

But I felt only reluctance and dread.

The last time, it was like he’d driven a nail through my heart. But this time, it felt like he reached through my chest wall, wrapped his fingers around my beating heart, and squeezed.

I couldn’t even scream.

Then he frowned and took his hand away, and I could breathe again. But only for a moment.

“Kronor,” the elder said.“Youmust show her.”

I had no idea who Kronor was until one of the figures pushed back his hood and stood. I stared up at him as he walked toward me, and for a few moments, I simply crouched there, frozen.

Demon.

He didn’t lean over and haul me to my feet, the way Ael would have done. He sent an invisible puff of power at me, and that was what forced me up. He also didn’t touch me. Maybe he knew that would have been too much for me to bear. Instead, he held his hand a couple of inches from my chest, and he did what the vampire elder had done once before.

He shared magic with me.

I felt a surge of sweet, cold power, and it filled the void left inside me when my magic was ripped out. It rushed through me like a drug and I laughed, gleeful and joyous, flying high on that moment, that feeling. It wasn’t the same as the magic I’d had, but it was strangely, inexplicably familiar.

And then, just like that, it was over. Gone. Only the memory of the feeling lingered, and I was living in grayness once again. And when Kronor released me, I sank once more to the floor.

“That,” the vampire elder said, as Kronor walked away, “is what we can give you if you bring us the siphoner. And it will not be temporary.”

But as much as I wanted to, I didn’t believe him. I believed the demon elder had shown me his power, had let it drift into me, but it didn’t feel like something they could—or would—implant inside me.

It felt like a lie.

I stood, my legs weak, and walked back down to stand on the floor before them. “Why do you want her?” I asked. “If you do to her what Lilah did to Farrow—”

Ael thumped his staff on the floor. “What we want with her is not your business, pup. We gave you a task. Do it, and you will be rewarded. Fail us again, and you will no longer be associated with the council. No status, no power, no access to the supernaturals you want to police.”