shaede assassin 05 - shadows at midnight by amanda bonilla

for.
    “I’m okay.” Louella sounded out of breath, but otherwise all right.
    “Me too.” Julian’s voice came from my right.
    “Yeah.” And Myles to my left.
    “Ash?” My voice hitched with worry and I swallowed the emotion down. “Asher?”
    “Seriously fucking cool,” he finally responded with his trademark cavalier snark. “Hey, Ty? How ‘bout a repeat?”
    We were answered by silence and that worry that I’d pushed away made an unwelcome reappearance. “Tyler?” I couldn’t get the word out forcefully enough for more than a whisper. “Goddamn it, Ty. Answer me.”
    “Fine.” The ten or so seconds it took him to answer damned near killed me. “I’m fine. I just need a minute.”
    Holy shit. My heart pounded against my chest with enough force to break right through my ribs. Adrenaline rushed through my veins, causing my legs to shake and my knees to go weak. It was the kind of fear that was tough to rebound from. Crippling. Devastating. In the span of seconds, my entire world had shattered and reformed itself.
    Icy cold snaked up my arm and I shuddered. Through the darkness, I felt my way to where I thought I’d seen him before the flash of magic burned out. The rest of the team was busy seeing to Liam. I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t help anyone. This had been my bright idea and I didn’t have the power necessary to protect us. If Tyler hadn’t done…whatever the hell he’d done…we’d all be dead right now.
    If I ever laid eyes on Padma again, I swore I’d make her pay for all of it.
    I sensed his energy before I was close enough to lay my hands on him. I reached out and he took my hand, pulling me tight against his chest, only it wasn’t to offer me comfort. He slumped against me and I braced one leg behind me as I balanced his weight. “Jesus, Tyler. Are you okay? How in the hell did you do that?”
    “Later.”
    “You and Liam should go back. The rest of us can go on and—”
    “Darian. I said I was fine.” His tone brooked no argument. “If you think I’m letting you take another step without me, you’re crazier than I thought you were. I need a minute or two. To gather my energy. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a little tapped out.”
    Yeah, no shit. For being in a place where magic was null, Tyler had done a pretty damned good job of using his. Jesus.
    “How much farther?”
    His voice dropped to almost a whisper. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
    I pulled the pendulum from my pocket and held it out in front of me. The crystal was no longer dark, but glowed with a pinpoint white light in its center that barely illuminated Ty’s face. We stared at one another for a moment that lasted at least a year. “Ty,” I knew this wasn’t the time but I couldn’t help it. “You have to come clean with me. I’m going fucking crazy worrying about you.”
    “Now you know how I feel.” His teasing words did nothing to assuage mine. “We’ll talk. After we get Xander out of here. We need to keep moving.”
    Thanks to whatever mojo Padma was working down in the tunnels, Liam wasn’t healing as quickly as he should have. Luckily the puncture wound wasn’t too deep because he refused to turn around and head back to ground level. Louella managed to patch him up with supplies she’d stowed in her pack. At least we’d been able to stop the bleeding. I doubted he’d be fully healed until we returned to the surface.
    Julian’s flashlight only illuminated a foot or so of the path but it was enough to keep us moving forward. Another half mile or so later, we came to a halt where the tunnels forked off in a Y and I dug out the pendulum to keep us on track. As leery as I was of human magick, I was damn glad Levi had thought to call Pamela in to help us. God knew how long we would’ve wandered the underground tunnels otherwise.
    The pendulum dimmed as I held it aloft to my left. I switched hands and the faint pinpoint of light returned to the crystal’s center. I stuffed