Page 83 of Ignited

For a moment, they thought it was going to work.

Chapter 35

Maximilian’s eyes went wide as he felt the power draining from him. The arcs from his three spheres began to move toward the true controller in Thanatos’ hands. The blue went. Then the yellow.

Boomer burst through the door, headed for Karisma and Bro—but he was too late.

As the green arc began to move, Maximilian’s hand shot out, emanating a bolt of energy. It hit the green crystal—Karisma’s crystal—and hurtled out of the circle towards the stone wall, about to shatter, the piece of herself held within it lost.

Taking her—maybe all of them—with it.

Boomer bunched his hindquarters and gave a mighty leap, catching the crystal sphere in his mouth, his momentum sending him crashing into the wall, half-stunned.

Karisma reached out to him in her mind—and then her belly began to burn and she was sliding toward Maximilian, pulled by the thread he still held, slamming into his legs. He leaned down, grabbed the knife for her hand, and held it to her throat. He looked up at Thanatos.

“Give me the controller Orb, or I will kill her.”

Everything stopped. Thanatos’ hood was fixed on Maximilian from under his hood. “Or I could kill you,” he said.

“But you won’t. You need me alive. If you kill me, you will never learn what you came here to find out. Information you want even more than you want the Orb.”

Karisma knew it was true. She’d heard the near-desperation in Thanatos’ voice, during the mission meeting.

Maximilian must be taken alive. Too much is at stake.

Boomer struggled to get to his feet with the sphere, but he was still dizzy from the impact with the wall. Thanatos was powerful, and ruthless. No pity. No compassion. Some said, no heart. He wouldn’t sacrifice the mission to save Karisma.

“Give me the controller,” Maximilian repeated. “I will tell you what you wish to know, and you will let me go. And she will live. The wolves she is bonded to will not be destroyed.”

He doesn’t care about that, Boomer thought. He doesn’t care about anyone. We’re dead.

Thanatos’ hand moved. He held the controller out towards Maximilian. And as the sorcerer reached to take it, Thanatos put his other hand in the air between them and began to close his fingers.

Maximilian made a choking noise, his hand going to his throat. His eyes bulged out.

Thanatos continued to close his fingers, as Maximilian’s face grew red, then purple, then blue. By the time Thanatos had made a fist, he slumped to the ground, and he was dead.

Power rushed through Karisma into Boomer, the rest of the pack’s power that Maximilian had taken. It infused her, healing her cuts and bruises.

Boomer Changed and ran over to Karisma and Bro, still clutching Karisma’s crystal. He dropped to his knees by his brother, putting his hands on Bro’s chest. “Hey, hey there. It’s Dylan. Come on back.”

Bro stirred, the bullet wound in his chest closing up. Another wave of magic washed through the pack, strengthening and healing, and stayed among them, floating like a shimmering lake.

For a moment, nobody seemed to know what to do.

Then Thanatos said a few words in his strange language, and the five crystal formations still in the circle floated off their discs and attached themselves one by one to the controller in a complicated cluster pattern.

As the blue one arrived, Thanatos held it up to the edge of his hood, and Karisma could hear the exhale as he blew on it. The blue flame popped out of the ball and floated away through the wall. Karisma found herself hoping that was Jordi’s, and wherever he was, that flame would find him and help make him whole.

When it came to the sphere with the golden flame, though, Thanatos let it attach itself to the Orb with the others. Then he called out, “Boomer. Give the sphere to the tiger.”

Boomer handed Karisma the sphere with the green flame. She cupped it in her hands, tears rising in her eyes. It was right there, the piece of herself that had been lost for so many years. Boomer rested his hand on her shoulder, and she smiled at him.

“Nice catch,” she said, her voice shaking.

“Anything for you.”

Through the bond, the whole pack felt her focus on the flame, feeling its warmth, calling it home. It slipped out of the ball into her hands, its magic spreading up her arms and through her whole body.