Back Magic Rises Save as PDF
Chapters (29)
  1. Praise
  2. Also by Ilona Andrews
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. Dedication
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. CHAPTER 1
  9. CHAPTER 2
  10. CHAPTER 3
  11. CHAPTER 4
  12. CHAPTER 5
  13. CHAPTER 6
  14. CHAPTER 7
  15. CHAPTER 8
  16. CHAPTER 9
  17. CHAPTER 10
  18. CHAPTER 11
  19. CHAPTER 12
  20. CHAPTER 13
  21. CHAPTER 14
  22. CHAPTER 15
  23. CHAPTER 16
  24. CHAPTER 17
  25. CHAPTER 18
  26. EPILOGUE
  27. Authors’ Note
  28. “An Ill-Advised Rescue”
  29. About the Authors

The door of the bathroom room swung open and Demet stepped out. Her teenage son followed her.

Curran rose. “How is he?”

Demet said something. Her son turned, presenting us with his back. “First injury.” Demet pointed with her fingers at the top of his neck, drawing an invisible line. “Cervical. Healed. No problem. Second injury.”

She swept her hand lower, indicating the small of the back and lower.

“Lumbar. L1 and L2.”

Demet held up one, then two fingers and tapped the boy on the shoulder. He turned.

“Full feeling here.” Demet drew her hand from his head down to his stomach. She struggled for a word. “Not full . . . ?”

“Some,” Barabas offered.

“Some feeling here.” Her hand moved from the stomach down through the pelvis. “Legs, no.”

Doolittle was paralyzed from his hips down. My mind ran against that thought and splattered.

“Will he ever walk again?” Curran asked.

Demet spread her arms. “Possible. I did everything I could for him.” She paused. “Time. Time, magic, and rest.”

She turned to me. “You have wounds.”

“I don’t care.”

She shook. “You not like them. No time. Must heal right away.”

“It’s my fault,” Eduardo said. “I couldn’t hold her.”

“She flew,” Keira told him. “And she was strong. All three of us couldn’t hold her.”

Eduardo’s eyes bulged. He turned in place, looking like he would break into a charge any second. He was going into a tailspin, fast.

“It’s my fault. I was supposed to watch him. I let him get hurt.”

He turned, stomping toward the door. Curran stepped into his way. “Stop.”

Eduardo skidded to a halt.

“Look at me.”

The big man focused on Curran’s face.

“Man up,” Curran said, his voice saturated with force. “We’re still in danger. I still need you. Don’t fold on me.”

Eduardo exhaled through his nose.

“That goes for all of you,” Curran said. “Later we can sit around and wonder what if and cry about what we should’ve done different. Right now, we work. We’ve been attacked. They’re still out there. We will hunt them down and take them apart.”

Barabas sat a little straighter. Keira pushed herself from the wall.

Curran looked back at Eduardo. “Okay?”

“Okay,” the big man said.

“Good.” Curran turned to Demet. “Heal Kate.”

* * *

I woke up with Curran sitting next to me. He didn’t say anything. He just sat next to me and looked at me.

“Were you watching me sleep? Because I thought we agreed that’s creepy.”

He didn’t answer.