Chapter 74

The darker energy was rage. It was rage and hatred. It was long-simmering grievance that festered under the skin like an infection, and it stank. Cameron was about to give that energy exactly what it wanted. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was a great idea.

Jason stood guard over Reid. Cameron saw that he’d bulked up, just in the short distance between the tree and Reid’s summoning position. Reid crouched down over a copper bowl piled high with herbs and looked up at Cameron. “Go,” he said.

Cameron took a deep breath and made a shallow cut across the top of his forearm, wincing at the sting. That little bit of pain shouldn’t have registered to him. He’d had worse after all, but the enormity of what he was about to do probably made the injury seem worse than it was.

He let the bright red blood well up against his coppery skin for a moment. Then he scooped up as much of it as he could into his hand and smeared it onto the symbol carved into the tree’s bark.