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her face and her hand came away smeared with blood. Her sense of Telos attenuated.

She didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t.

She wasn’t going to let Telos die for her.

She lunged for Michael and in her mind, she got a hand on his knee. He kicked back, but she dug her fingers into his leg until she was sure the bones of her hands were breaking apart. She used her other hand to shield her head. Heat streaked through her body, pain like nothing she’d ever felt. She couldn’t get high enough to hit him in the crotch so she pounded away at his knee.

Her awareness of Telos vanished from her head. Her heart shriveled in her chest.

Turned to ash. Michael tangled his fingers in Lys’s hair while Telos stood rigid before Michael, his mouth open in a scream that had no sound.

Stop Michael
.

She couldn’t fail.

In her mind, she reached for Michael. Anything to stop him. His future was hers to shape. The fire building in her body flamed through her, burning her. Killing her.

Hot as the sun. She was made of wax. She was Icharus falling to the hard and unforgiving earth. Tumbling in the chaos of her mind, creating a future where Michael wasn’t a god.

Michael stands triumphant. Telos walks across the room to face the mage and kneel.

Across the room, the dark-haired woman touched another of the magehelds.

Like the other mageheld, this one stumbled. In the same motion, the woman touched the last one to have come in with Michael. The only mind left for Lys to touch was Michael’s.

“Kill the witch,” Michael told Telos. “When you’re done, kill this one, too.”

Michael stands triumphant. Carson walks across the room to face him. He smiles and
Telos flows so quickly too quickly to stop. The assassin steps in front of Carson and there is
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nothing more.

Telos whirled toward the woman. The air crackled with electricity.

The man who’d come in with the petite woman, so elegant with dark eyes and dark hair, moved with incomprehensible speed. He intercepted Telos, slamming him against the wall. Lys saw everything twice. In her head and then in front of her eyes, all of it melting together.

“Durian.” The woman spoke in a calm voice. “Do not kill him.”

“Do it,” Telos said. His lips drew back from his teeth. “Do it before it’s too late.”

“Quickly, Carson,” said Durian.

Carson touched Telos the way she had the others. He convulsed, gasped, then went still. Durian released his grip on him, but kept a hand on his upper arm. Carson turned around. “Mage,” she said. “It’s over.”

Michael yanked on Lys’s hair, forcing her to stand. “One more step and she’s dead.”

Carson stopped, hands on her hips. A telephone headset curled around the outside of her ear. “You were warned, mage. You know the consequences.”

“I don’t accept a demon’s authority over me.”

Michael stands triumphant. Lys faces him. He smiles and holds out a hand. She touches
him and the sun inside her incinerates him.

“I sent a team to your house, “Carson said. “By now, you must at least suspect that the magehelds you left there are no longer in your control.” She smiled and it was just about the scariest smile Lys had seen. Carson took a step closer to Michael, and, yes, she was small and dainty, but she didn’t look like someone you wanted to have mad at you. “Nikodemus authorized a sanction against you. If you don’t let her go, you’re dead.”

Michael wrapped an arm around her throat, tight enough to restrict her air. Telos Jewel/Future Tense — Chapter 6

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lunged then pulled up short when Carson raised a hand. “I wonder which of us is faster?” Michael said. “Me?” His arms tightened around Lys, squeezing off her air. “Or your assassin?”

Michael stands triumphant.

The assassin hadn’t moved from the door. He stood there, smiling. His smile was eerie because of the way it lit his eyes. Telos vanished from her field of vision. She went up on her toes in an attempt to relieve the pressure on her throat.

The sun inside her incinerates.

“No question about it,” Carson said. “My assassin is faster.”

She didn’t have any more time and she wasn’t going to just stand here and let Michael choke her to death. With the last of her strength, Lys punched back with her elbow, but Michael was already falling away from her. She gulped in air.

“But Telos,” she heard Carson say, “is closer.”

Michael laughed. Lys turned and walked toward him. She no longer knew what was real and what was the future. He smiled and stretched out his hand. She touched him. The way she had once before. Before she knew how to lock herself away.

The heat inside her flashed through her, through her skin, through her mind and into Michael and the world went white.

The sun incinerates.

The room shook, and then there was nothing. Telos pulled her to her feet. “You okay?” he asked.

She nodded, though
okay
was a relative term. She hurt everywhere, but she was alive, and that was good. Telos’s arm slid around her waist, and she decided she didn’t mind that. Michael was on the ground. Not moving. His wide open eyes stared at nothing. She grabbed handfuls of Telos’s T-shirt. “How did he die?”

Telos shrugged. “You touched him.”

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“It was a clean kill,” the assassin said.

“So,” Carson said. She gave them both a friendly smile. “You two love birds up to meeting Nikodemus while my guy Durian takes care of the clean up here?”

“I’m not doing the dirty work,” Durian said. He had a phone out and was already making a call.

Carson waved a hand. “Whatever. As long as everything’s taken care of.”

Telos turned to the witch. “How does Nikodemus feel about demons who hook up with witches?”

Carson’s smile broadened. “He’s open minded.” Her green eyes moved between Telos and her. “As long as everyone’s a consenting adult.”

Lys said, “I’ll listen to any and all reasonable requests.”

“I hear you’re a lawyer.” Carson kept smiling.

“Yes.”

Durian looked up from the quiet instructions he’d been giving over the phone.

“It happens,” he said, “that Nikodemus is looking to build a team of outside counsel. If you’re interested.”

“Can I have a corner office?”

“I am not in charge of the accommodations.”

Lys looked at Telos. “What do you think?”

“Counselor, we’re all safer if you’re on our side.”

Carson smiled again. “Damn right.”