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He crouched and lifted Maebh’s sticky hands from Aleksandra’s chest to inspect the wound and gasped. Unconscious, the owl shifter didn’t even blink when her shredded heart was exposed. It pumped once.
Barely alive.
But not ruined. When he realized his hand was on the wrong heart, Legion must have pulled his punch.
Maebh cried, “Why did she do it? Why, after everything I’ve done to her… to all of you?”
He recalled her letter.
“She wants to do something right,” he answered, throat tight. “She’s fixing a mistake.”
“Mistake?”
“She regrets not fighting for those she loved against all odds.” Leaf sent his awareness down into his personal well, to where only puddles remained. Should he heal her or use the last of his mana to keep Nova alive for as long as he could?
“While I have breath in my body,” Maebh sobbed, holding Aleksandra’s wilted, frail, and graying face. “And blood in my veins.”
How could he deny them this? Aleksandra was here because of him. Exhaling, he tapped into Nova’s gift and repaired his friend’s gaping chest wound, knitting the lacerations over an empty heart that somehow still managed to pump blood through her veins.
He leaned down to study his work, to weave the intricate currents of mana through the abused flesh. Maebh’s tears fell onto the Prime’s exposed organs. Another drop fell—this one from Nova as she wept for a woman she barely knew, but who was a victim of her brother, just like her.
Leaf’s Guardian teardrop reflected against the tear-glossed organs. The reflections multiplied as the tears fell, and more surfaces shined. Like in a room of shattered glass, one drop became hundreds.
He suddenly realized why each Guardian and Mage had a single teardrop representing their dedication to the Well. Alone, a single drop of water was nothing. Together, they filled a well, powered a wave, or carried a ship.
Thiswas the point.
The people. Their connections. Their family. Not just one single obsession. All of them.
The Prime’s white lashes fluttered.
“Sandy?” Maebh’s fingers tightened on white feathers. “Can you hear me? I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I’ve done. It’s unforgivable. I deserve everything—”
Aleksandra’s gnarled hand latched onto Maebh’s. She licked her lips, glancing around with clouded eyes that sharpened upon seeing Leaf. Something like recognition flickered and then she said to Maebh, “We’ll go together.”
“Wh-what?” Maebh blustered, turning her bleary gaze in the direction the airship flew. “But Aurora… our—”
“You apologized to me. You owe me a debt. Aurora needs something to inherit. She needs to see we have atoned for our sins.” Her knuckles paled on her skin. “We mustshowher the right path home. We must be worthy of forgiveness, otherwise no matter what we do… she is lost.”
The Wild Hunt swooped, snapping its fangs. They ducked, throwing up their hands for protection. But the mindless beast continued back to the battlefield. Any soldiers or Guardians left fighting were tiring. The sun was up. Nocturnal fae retreated. A wolf’s haunting and melancholy howl prickled Leaf’s skin.
“They’re not staying dead,” he muttered, studying the corpses twitching, trying to rise despite missing limbs. “They don’t even release manabeeze.”
“No, they don’t,” the Prime agreed. “It’s almost like they have no souls.”
Leaf’s gaze clashed with hers. That was it, the reason why they couldn’t kill the undead.
He said to Maebh, “The Wild Hunt.”
“Can send its souls into the undead,” the Prime finished.
Understanding dawned in Maebh’s eyes. “Of course. To understand death, a soul must release.”
Maebh shielded her eyes against the new sun’s glare and gave a penetrating look in the direction the Six had fled. She seemed to consider something they weren’t privy to, but then nodded and stood. She wiped her dusty hands down her battered dress. A breeze brought a whiff of death and dirt. She steeled her spine, then hesitated, glancing at the Prime.
Aleksandra nodded, encouraging her.
Maebh’s skin crackled with energy. Her eyes became as fathomless as the Sluagh’s, echoing the cries of the unforgiven dead, claiming them as her own.
