Ritual Magic

his eyes. “You can hear me talking to . . . and can’t hear me talk about . . . Great. Never mind the first thing, then. The second thing is that you’ve got two enemies.”
    “We’ve got more than that, but I assume you mean Friar and the Big B.”
    “Assume is for assholes. While you were fighting those dworg, you were also under attack spiritually. I saw it. Now, I’m not real experienced with this sort of thing, but I’m pretty sure it came from a different source.”
    “The Great Bitch.”
    “I don’t think so. At least, the, uh—call it the spiritual signature—on the attack didn’t look like what I saw on the monsters. Something protected you. I don’t know if it was your bond with the wolfman or that ring or—”
    “Which ring?”
    “The one with that weird little charm on it.”
    The
toltoi
? Her thumb rubbed it absently. “How did it—”
    “It’s Cullen,” someone called from the hall.
    Lily was on her feet before she knew she meant to stand up. Rule was faster. He was already halfway across the room when Cullen wove inside, green scrubs covering up the jeans and T-shirt he’d arrived in. For once, he didn’t look gorgeous. He looked like he needed to be admitted to this place, stat.
    Rule got to him before he’d taken more than a couple of wavering steps and propped him up. Cullen frowned blearily at him. “Rule. ’M sorry. Eric didn’t make it.”
    Rule’s face went tight. “Ill news.”
    “Yeah. I beat the doc here?”
    “You did.”
    Cullen nodded—and kept nodding, like a deranged bobblehead. “Cynna’s with José. He’s holding on.
Not
used to surgery. Bloody business. Didn’t throw up, though.”
    Lily guessed he meant Cynna, being unused to watching an operation, had been shaken but hadn’t thrown up.
    “Good for her. You need to sleep.”
    “Yeah.” Cullen ran a hand over his face. “Andy’s in recovery. Renewed his spell . . . should sleep another thirty, forty minutes.” He stood there, swaying, and frowned. “What was I saying?”
    “That you’re going to come lie down.”
    “Right.” He swayed some more. “Cynna . . . she’s got power, doesn’t have healing. Not like Hannah did. Can’t do much. Eating at her. You’ll talk to her.”
    “I will. You’re going to lie down now.”
    Cullen studied the floor in front of him. “Lie down here.”
    Rule picked Cullen up as if he were a child and carried him back to the small couch where he and Lily had been sitting. Cullen was asleep before he laid him down.
    Rule straightened, looking down at his sleeping friend. “I’ll call Isen.” He said that, but he didn’t take out his phone. Lily went to him and put her arm around his waist. He sighed heavily and rubbed his cheek along the top of her head. “One of the dworg had me cornered. Eric jumped it.”
    She knew how he felt. She knew so very well. “It doesn’t help much to know you’d have done the same for him. A little, but not much.”
    She felt him nod. He didn’t speak.
    Someone else arrived in the waiting room. She wore scrubs, too, and looked tired, though not as wrung out as Cullen. But she hadn’t been fighting dworg, just the damage they’d left behind. “Mr. Turner?”
    Rule’s call to his father was postponed as the doctor gave Rule the bad news he’d already heard from Cullen. Then another scrubs-clad person arrived, this one male and beaming. Andy’s surgeon. Dr. Alexopoulos was full of good news, questions, and amazement. He was new to Mercy General and had never operated on a lupus before. He found their ability to heal fascinating. He hoped to confer with Dr. Two Horses on the subject . . . “Oh? So sorry to hear that. Who’s her surgeon? Good man, good man . . . she’s recovering well, then? Ah! Didn’t realize that these, ah—what did you call them? Didn’t know they showed up in more than one spot . . . no complications, then? Excellent. I understand she’s quite an expert on your people. Now, I have a few questions about . . .”
    Rule eventually pried him off with a promise to let Nettie know he looked forward to conferring with her. Then he took out his phone and tapped the screen. “I need to get down to recovery. Andy can’t wake up alone.”
    “I should let Casey know about Andy,” Lily said. “Shall I tell him and the others about Eric?”
    “Scott is. Isen,” he said into his phone, “I have news.”
    Lily hadn’t noticed Scott leaving the waiting room. Someone