We left at dawn which felt dramatic and also appropriate because I was about to temporarily die and apparently that required atmospheric lighting.
Eight hours back to Millbrook with Draven in the passenger seat and his veins had spread past his jaw into his cheeks now, black tendrils crawling toward his eyes like the corruption was racing his heartbeat, and watching it happen while my brain counted down the hours until his heart stopped entirely was not helping my mental state.
Morgana had spent all night preparing the ritual components—candles and crystals and herbs I didn't recognize plus a whole lot of equipment that looked suspiciously medical, which made sense because we were going to stop my heart and hopefully restart it but also seeing defibrillator paddles just sitting there was doing things to my anxiety levels.
"You don't have to do this." Kael's voice came quiet from the driver's seat. "We can find another way."
