(Continued from day 30: Failure)

Silence filled the room. Katherine looked around, some comfort existing in seeing everyone else equally at a loss, but then her eyes returned to Leo even as her hand found comfort in the familiar palm of her love.

“What do we do?..” Remi asked, unable to hide her growing panic.

Leo exhaled shakily. The strands of red hair clung to his face, soaked in sweat, and in the dim light of the lanterns they looked startlingly like blood. He was pale, his hands shaking, but his voice was steady as he spoke, “Once we break off the ritual, or in about ten minutes if we don’t, the energy of the leyline will fire back at us. The eight seals will probably hold for a few hours after that, but once the leyline fully collapses, so will they unless we manage to complete the remaining four seals.”

“Once we take on the backlash… I doubt there will be many left to finish the seals,” David’s somber baritone broke the ensuing silence. “An experienced caster has to lead it; and with due respect,” he extended his hand towards the center of the circle, sparkling eyes assessing the flow of magic, “I highly doubt I personally would survive such a blast.”

He had a point. He was also avoiding talking about a possibility he had to know existed.

Katherine couldn’t blame him.

“It’s possible for some people to exit the circle before the ritual collapses,” she said, locking eyes with Leo. “Then they would not be parts of it anymore, and the backlash won’t touch them.”

Leo closed his eyes and replied with a shallow nod.

They all knew he had to stay alive for the next attempt. Katherine and Jacob knew the mechanics, but lacked the raw magical power to guide the making of the seals. Remi, David or Odri had the abilities, but not the full understanding of the underlying principles.

Leo was the only one who could do both.

He must have felt guilty for having the security of such a position. Silly Leo. As if he wasn’t bearing the heaviest burden of them all.

As if even this solution guaranteed his survival.

“Hey, if anyone can take it, it’s me!” Molly smirked, but everyone knew she was putting on a brave face. Among other things, Leo had calculated, carefully, how bad the backlash would be if they’d succeeded, making sure that even worst-case scenarios saw them all barely, but alive.

The price of failure would be so much steeper.

“I’ll stay, too,” Katherine squeezed Molly’s hand. The words came naturally, before anyone else could utter a word.

“Are you sure?” Molly asked, worried and far too tender for someone who was covered in blood and ichor. “You should go. Your brother’s getting married in three months. If nothing else, you should be there for him.”

Katherine swallowed back the bitter feeling in her throat and the stinging in the corners of her eyes. Molly was right, of course she was, and it wasn’t fair for Katherine to have to choose between being there for people she loved equally fiercely.

“If we fail here,” she whispered, “there will be no wedding. It’ll be more stable if the two of us stay.”

“Kat…” Molly started, but Kat squeezed her hand tighter to stop her.

“Please… don’t.” With effort, Katherine looked up at her, still refusing to let the tears fall, and tried to will her voice into not shaking. “It’s my choice, and I made the decision. He will have others there for him. You… would be alone, if I don’t stay.”

“I’ll stay, too,” Lucas blurted out. Katherine wasn’t surprised in the least, but she shook her head, “The two of us should be enough. Right, Leo?”

Maybe it wasn’t fair to drag him into this, but Katherine didn’t feel like letting anyone else take the fall. Lucas was strong, and the true embodiment of his self-sacrificial goddess, but he was also young and deserved to find the meaning of his life once more.

Leo didn’t answer, but Orion spoke up, “We don’t have time to argue. Leave one by one until it collapses, Leo goes first, you three can be the last ones. Time is ticking guys, even I can feel it’s about to implode.”

No one had the energy to argue.

Leo left the circle and stood by the entrance. With a pained heart, Katherine noticed the blood dripping down his hands from where he’d squeezed his fists too tightly. Remi muttered quick prayers, renewing the blessings on both Molly and Katherine, and Katherine forced a smile for her old friend.

“May the Twin Moons guide your souls,” Remi whispered as a goodbye, an empty prayer to the now-dead gods.

Jacob unleashed a whole arsenal of tinctures on them, healing most of the damage from the previous battle. “No dying,” he said frantically. “You hear me? You better be out safe and sound once this is all over.”

Lucas was the last to leave. He lingered, looking at the two women with hard, empty eyes. They were taking the place that should rightfully have been his, but he also couldn’t argue over their choice.

Silence fell once more.

The pulsing energy inside the leyline suddenly stilled, a calm before the inevitable storm.

Katherine gripped Molly’s hand tighter and braced herself for whatever would come.

In the end, she had no regrets in life.

—–

(Katherine and Molly gave up their lives to allow their friends to make another attempts at making the seal; that second attempt was successful, but with two people missing and the first failed attempt, the stakes were much higher. Leonard, Jacob, Orion and Lawrence died from the backlash, and the collapsing leyline caused cataclysms upon the city, among other things interfering with the work of magical items, including the mechanical body of Leonard’s sister Faye)

—–

And that’s a wrap!