I backed away. “Silas…” I whispered the word, but Danny frowned anyway, obviously having heard me. “You need to stay away from his hands.”
“I’m right here.” Danny flashed a smile that managed to convey his annoyance. “You don’t have to talk around me. And what about you, Lela? You going to stay away from my hands too?”
“If you try to hurt me, my power will kill you,” I told him, though it began to occur to me that the same should have occurred with Weston. My power should have flipped out well before now.
Danny arched both of his brows. “You know Jayden didn’t give you the right pill. C’mon, Lela, tell me you’re not that stupid. I have something set up for all possible contingencies, and Jayden knows that better than anyone. If he aided you in any way against me, I would hit him where he’s most vulnerable. You aren’t his vulnerable spot, Lela. You can’t be everyone’s vulnerable spot.”
“Okay.” Silas snapped, pulling me back against his chest. “To hell with that plan, then. Time for plan B.”
“There’s a plan B?” I asked, as Danny’s annoyed smile melted into a deep frown.
“There is,” Silas announced, a second before he dove toward the knife on the ground.
Danny might have had a deadly power, but Silas was fast, and he had the knife up between them before Danny could reach him. They circled each other for a few minutes, but Danny couldn’t get close enough and Silas couldn’t strike out without making contact, so it seemed inevitable that they would give up. Silas seemed to realise that as well, because he broke the circle, backing towards me. Shielding me so that Danny couldn’t use me the way Weston had.
“I’m going to throw this knife,” Silas warned him. “And your power won’t be able to make it go to sleep. It’s going to sink into you whether you want it to or not.”
“That’s a nice threat.” Danny was watching the knife as he spoke, his eyes narrowed.
“How many times can you declare dominion over death?” Silas wondered out loud. “Every ability has its limits. Your ability has taken over, so when will it decide that it’s your time to die, Danny?”
“Stop talking and—” Danny looked down, at the hilt of the knife now sticking out of his chest. Silas had thrown it so suddenly that neither of us had even seen him preparing the toss— “throw… it…” Danny finished, a maniacal laugh bubbling from his lips as he stumbled forwards.
He pulled at the hilt, his face creased in pain, but the knife was lodged too deeply. He stumbled further forwards and just when I thought that he was about to faint, he lurched the rest of the distance and tossed out an arm. Silas twisted me away from the reaching fingers, but they brushed against him, and he dropped me, stumbling backwards himself.
“Silas!” I caught his arm, pulling him out of the way of Danny, who was now on the ground, attempting to pull out the knife even as his arms started to slump.
Silas turned to me, his eyes blank. White. He was clutching at me.
“Can’t—”
“I know,” I interrupted, reaching for the sides of his face. “I know. I-I’ll fix it.”
I closed my eyes, calling on the valcrick. It rose to the surface normally, which made me momentarily wonder which pill Jayden had given me, but I couldn’t allow my attention to wander further. I concentrated on a neutral feeling—since I wasn’t able to pinpoint anything positive in that moment—and pushed it quickly through my fingers, feeling the warmth spark between my touch and his skin.
“Limits,” he whispered, a hint of dread in his voice. “You should have them too.”
I ignored the statement, intent on my task until Silas caught my hands and pulled them away from his face. His eyes were back to normal and fixed somewhere over my shoulder. I turned around, expecting Danny to still be dead—even if only for a few more minutes—but there was only a pool of blood where his body had been.
“He’s gone?” I pulled away, running from one side of the rooftop to the other. There was no sign of him. “He’s seriously just… gone?” I couldn’t seem to come to terms with the fact. I returned to the puddle of blood, and then caught Silas staring at the spot where Weston had been pushed off the roof again.
“He’s gone…” Silas seemed to lose all of the fight in his body. He dropped to his knees, his eyes never moving from the spot.
He wasn’t talking about Danny. He didn’t even care about Danny.
And why would he?
Nothing puts a life-threat into perspective like a life lost.