“H-hi,” Effie stuttered, intimidated despite herself.
Nord took one look at her and shifted his attention to Ronan. “Leave us.”
Ronan’s brows lowered and color tinged his cheeks.
Before he could reply, Lucian placed a hand on his arm and nodded. “It’s alright. We’ll meet up with you later.”
“I’ll go check on the others,” Ronan said tightly, throwing a glare in Nord’s direction before walking away.
Nudging the door open further, Nord stepped out of the way. Kael moved into the sumptuous room first, Effie trailing behind him. Lucian entered last, shutting the door with more force than strictly required.
“Looks like you have some explaining to do,” Nord said, his eyes landing on Effie’s face once more.
“You knew I intended to save her,” Lucian said, crossing his arms.
“Save her, yes. Turn her? Well now, that’s something else entirely, isn’t it?”
“Don’t be an ass,” Kael said, plopping down in the room’s lone chair.
Nord shot him an exasperated look. “You two have been traipsing around, free to come and go as you please for months, all the while leaving me to do the grunt work, and you don’t even have the decency to fill me in on the plan?”
“You would have tried to stop me,” Lucian said, resting one of his hands lightly on Effie’s waist. Despite the gentleness of the touch, there was no mistaking the act for anything but what it was: a claiming.
From the lift of his brow, Nord didn’t miss it either. “Nay, Brother. I wouldn’t have stopped you. You know as well as I that a new Guardian hasn’t joined the ranks in centuries. It’s cause for celebration. Especially knowing the world of shit you’re going to find yourself in once the others learn about her.” For the first time, Nord’s lips curled up in a smile and his eyes shone with amusement as he turned to address Effie directly.
“Welcome to the Brotherhood, little sister.”
Effie stifled a yawn. They’d been talking for hours, and she was well past exhausted. Kael had been right. When the adrenaline finally left her, she’d crashed, hard. Unfortunately, the three men didn’t seem to notice that it was all she could do to keep her eyes open.
Kael was still sprawled in his chair, one heavily muscled leg tossed precariously over its wooden arm. An arm that, under the weight of said leg, looked about as substantial as a toothpick. Effie couldn’t help eyeing it occasionally to ensure that the entire thing wasn’t about to collapse under his bulk.
Lucian was sitting on the edge of Nord’s bed, one foot braced on the low metal railing, the other flat on the ground. Effie was beside him, her legs not quite long enough to touch the floor. In her defense, that was because the bed was massive. She had a feeling—although she dared not to interrupt them long enough to ask—that Nord had used his Guardian’s power to enlarge it to better fit his towering frame.
Since bringing her back, Lucian had not stopped finding reasons to touch her. Effie wasn’t certain he even realized he was doing it. It was like he needed to keep subconsciously reminding himself that she was real. For the moment, his leg was pressed against hers, although if she shifted too far away, he would shadow the movement until they were connected again. She’d been amusing herself whenever the conversation got too tedious to follow by seeing how long it took him to realize she was out of reach.
Now was such a moment. Effie had just pried her fingers out from beneath his, only for his hand to slide across the blanket until his pinky covered hers once more. Effie bit back a smile and let her eyes return to Nord. He was pacing the length of the room, pausing only when he wanted to make a particularly emphatic point.
“All this time, the Valen Council was sitting on the answer we were searching for and no one even realized it,” Nord murmured, shaking his head and causing his hair to toss about like a Talyrian’s mane.
“Well, we were focused on trying to better understand the problem. It’s hard to know what the solution is when you don’t know even that much,” Kael reminded him.
Nord hummed his agreement. “So now we need to perform the ritual on a larger scale across all of the infected land.”
“While also seeking out any other victims,” Kael added.
“As much as I like Effie—and am glad that you managed to save her—we can’t just go around turning everyone into Guardians,” Nord said, stopping to look at Kael.
“We couldn’t even if we wanted to,” Lucian said, the sound of his deep voice making Effie want to close her eyes.
Nord and Kael looked at Lucian expectantly.
“Why not?” Effie finally asked when it became clear no one else was going to.
Lucian’s eyes warmed her as he met her inquisitive gaze. “Because I was able to restore what was lost. Without having access to the memories of those who’ve already started to become Shadow-touched, there’s no way to do so. We could save their bodies, but there’s no way for us to salvage their minds.”
“But even if you didn’t make them Guardians, couldn’t you at least cast out the corruption to save them? Even without their memories people could lead meaningful lives.”
Lucian took her hand, the empathy shining in his gaze almost painful. “It’s not just about the memories, Effie. I barely survived that ritual.”
Hearing him say it so plainly rendered her speechless. For Lucian—arguably the strongest, most powerful man she’d ever known—to admit such a thing, it must have been close indeed.
“The drain on my power . . . I’ve never come close to that kind of burnout.”
Nord and Kael gasped. Effie’s eyes shifted to their horrified faces before shooting back to Lucian. “Burnout?” she asked, afraid of his answer.
His lips drew down in a frown. “If a Guardian burns out, the void left by the missing power inside of them will demand to be filled. It will pull on their very life force until nothing remains.”
“It’s a painful way to die,” Nord muttered, his eyes shuttered and expression haunted.
“Lucian—” Effie started, shaking her head when she couldn’t find the words. The risk he’d taken to save her; it was almost impossible to comprehend.
“Is it?” he asked, his eyes searching hers. “If our positions had been reversed?”
Her answer was immediate. “I’d have done anything to save you, no matter the danger to myself.”
He squeezed her hand, his expression equal parts tender and fierce. “The drain on my power notwithstanding, the control required to channel the foreign elements through my physical body was damn near impossible. I could hardly think through the pain, let alone concentrate on what needed to be done. If I hadn’t been so single-mindedly focused on saving you, I would not have survived it. My need for you carried me through the ritual almost as much as my magic brought you back. That is not something that can be replicated for just anyone, let alone a stranger.”
Effie nodded, although she was still miserable at the idea of not being able to save other potential survivors. “No . . . I guess not.” Sighing, she looked around at the others. “At least we can do something about the land.”