Dark Summer (Book I, Witchling Series)

Chapter Nineteen

"To save her," Rania finished, attention on Summer's broken body.

"Maybe. She and Beck were meant to help restore the balance," Sam said. "The girl who dies tonight was not able to keep Decker from being absorbed into Darkness. The girl she becomes, well that is an altogether different story."

"Something must come between the Dark and its Master," she said, recalling what Sam told her long ago about her husband, Michael. "Beck can't do it alone, can he?"

"Beck can't repair the damage to the balance and save Decker. He can buffer both for a short time, but he will one day be forced to decide between them," Sam said. "Neither can be lost, or the Darkness will come again."

"I can't lose my boys, Sam."

"Their fates are not yet determined. They will be, if you don't take her to a hospital." Sam held out the bright amulet. "Remember the rules."

Rania took it. It was warm, amber streaked with black. Neither Light nor Dark. She gazed at it, able to sense the soul within and yet not knowing where it stood in the balance.

"How will you hide her?" Sam asked curiously. "Your magick will not heal her or care for her, and you cannot interfere with her trial."

"What my magick can't do, my bank account can," Rania replied. "I'll do what I must. I always have."

"You have," he agreed, sympathy on his features. "No matter what the cost."

"Yeah," she said. She held his gaze. "Don't take them from me, Sam."

"It is out of our hands, Rania. From now on, you are like me, a watcher."

The air warned her suddenly, crying out as the girl's heart stopped. All her other thoughts fled. Rania pocketed the amulet and dropped to her knees beside Summer.

"No, no, sweetheart," she said, gathering the bloody body in her arms. "Stay with me." Twisting to look up at Sam, she nodded her head in farewell.

He stepped back and raised a hand in response.

Her shadows claimed them so quickly, she gasped. They asked her where she wanted to go, and she hesitated. The nearest hospitals in Washington and Northern Idaho were too close. She chose another city in southern Idaho. The fog obeyed and carried them to the quiet street outside the emergency room of a hospital in Boise.

An orderly on a smoke break nearby started as she materialized. Rania didn't care who saw her. She carried Summer through the automatic doors and stood in the center of the reception area. For a long moment, the patients and receptionist stared at her without moving. The receptionist lifted the phone.

"Dr. Philips to the ER immediately."

Her words seemed to reanimate the world. A door opened from the other side of the waiting room, and two men in scrubs hurried out with a gurney. Rania set Summer on it carefully, looking at her in the full light of the room.

The girl shouldn't be alive.

Rania's hands shook. The orderlies rolled Summer away. Rania trailed as if in a trance. She'd killed men and women for most of her life without noticing how warm blood was. The metallic scent used to intoxicate her, for killing and soul-taking was addicting to the Dark within her.

But this blood burned, and she was horrified rather than soothed to see it covering her clothes and hands. It wasn't just Summer's. It was the blood of Decker and Beck, too, because Summer's life was now interwoven with theirs.

The blood of all three innocent souls was on her hands. Rania created the imbalance. She barely stopped Decker from going over a cliff. She'd stood by while Beck traded his soul for the life of another. She'd agreed to do nothing while Decker went mad and suffered the pain she had also endured for so long ago.