Darkness, Kindled by Samantha Young

the loyalty she felt to him. At this point, didn’t Trey deserve her loyalty more?
    Stop it,  she chastised herself. She couldn’t think like that. She was breaking Guild Law to save Charlie from himself. They hadn’t gone through all this for her to give up on him now.
    As for Trey, he was fine. Well, not  fine. He almost died. However, Glass saved him. Neither Glass nor Trey would go into the details but Ari and Jai assumed Glass had taken Trey to Red’s healer, Kit. Kit had saved Ari multiple times and Jai once. The Jinn was truly a miracle worker.
    In the end, the real miracle was  Glass’s feelings for Trey. He’d never intended to let them face Pazuzu without backup. He’d waited in the wings in case Trey needed his help.
    Ari was astonished to realize that the  Glass King actually loved Trey. The event solidified and intensified whatever they had together. They were so close, Ari could actually sense Glass in Trey’s aura, even when Glass wasn’t with him.
    Ari would be forever grateful to  Glass and Red for once again coming to their aid.
    She winced, remembering the blood  spilling from Trey’s throat and the tears in Jai’s eyes when they returned back to the house with Charlie in tow. “What if I lose him?” Jai whispered as they tied Charlie in the basement. “He’s my brother. I can’t lose him.”
    “Maybe you’ll finally understand  how I feel,” Charlie had replied dully from his position on the chair, enchanted ropes wrapped around his legs and torso.
    Jai had winced and stumbled away.
    Ari had knelt until her face was in  Charlie’s, resentment toward him pushing to the fore. She told him quietly, “It does not excuse what you’ve done.”
    “Then why are you trying to save  me? That’s what this is, right? You think you can, what … dry me out?”
    She’d shaken her head at him. “What  you’ve done since Mikey’s death is your fault. You made a choice.” Tears brimmed in her eyes, exhaustion, guilt, and worry for Trey eating at her. “But what happened to Mikey was my fault. So I’m going to try one last time to save my friend.”
    Voices in the kitchen brought Ari  back to the present. She’d been trying unsuccessfully for three weeks to get Charlie to speak. The magic was waning from his system now and he had grown weaker, subdued. Today was the first time she saw a spark of the old Charlie in his eyes.
    Was the plan actually working?
    Jai had attempted to get her to  leave for more than a few hours, anxious about her and concerned that Michael was asking too many questions about her absence. If Michael grew suspicious, he might find out about Charlie. If that happened, Charlie was dead.
    “Do you remember when we were nine  and we buried a time capsule in Vicker’s Woods?” Charlie suddenly asked, his voice rough from lack of sleep.
    Ari sat up, her pulse throbbing in  her throat. He sounded like Charlie again. “Yes.” She smiled softly. “You kissed me. Just a peck on the lips but it was my first kiss.”
    Charlie’s mouth twitched. “You  tasted like strawberries. I bought you some cheap strawberry lip balm for your birthday that year and you wore it every day until the tin ran out.”
    Tears pricked Ari’s eyes and she  nodded, hope filling her chest. “I remember.”
    “I remember everything.” He hung  his head, his chest heaving with emotion. “Ari, I don’t know how to go back. I don’t know how to be okay anymore. The things I’ve said, and done.” When he looked up, the tears spilled down his cheeks. “The emerald … it changed me, it did. But before that, I couldn’t see past anything but myself and my own pain … and it killed her.” He cried harder. “It killed Fallon.”
    Ari tried to stem her own tears but  no matter what Charlie had done, she still felt his pain. She crossed the room to him and as she wrapped her arms around him, she cut through the enchantment holding him in place. The ropes fell and Charlie