AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Shit,” Rush mutters. “Fallon is on the move.”
“I can feel our brother, too,” I say to them. “He seems better.”
“When Lyra lifted the original curse,” Mags explains. “He was freed from the effects too. But it won’t last long.”
“Why?” Rush demands, grief in his voice. “We’ve waited centuries to get our brother back.” His hard eyes land on Lyra and he bares his teeth. “Restore him permanently, witch.”
Trembling, she backs away from the shifters. “I can’t. The spell is only lifted for a short time.”
“Stop it!” I shout at my brothers before they can advance on the frightened witch. “We’ll figure out what to do about Fallon later. We’re losing Vanessa right now.”
Chagrined, they stop but I can see Rush eyeing Lyra. His thoughts are on how to trap the witch after we’re done here, keeping her here rather than letting her return to the penal realm.
Have we learned nothing? We’re in this mess because we trampled Lyra’s wishes two hundred years ago.
“You don’t need me anymore.” Lyra’s unwavering gaze is on Lock and Rush. She hugs Mags and conjures a portal. “You don’t have much time. Finish your spell.” She disappears before the wolf shifters can stop her.
“Now comes the hard part,” Mags says, touching my arm. “I need you to hold her and infuse her with feelings of calm and peace, which means you need to feel it yourself. Transformation is violent business. Her soul is going to resist when it realizes what I’m doing.”
I gather Vanessa in my arms and sit on the rock, cradling her to my chest, my gaze never leaving her face.
“Humans, you can help by thinking about Vanessa. Keep her in your heart, tell her spiritually how much she means to you. Tether her soul to this realm so it doesn’t try to leave her body.”
She turns to the wall of witches in front of the humans. “Witches, lend me as much strength as you can while protecting the humans from any miscast magic. This could get messy.” To the shifters, she says, “You guys think wild thoughts. Encourage her spirit animal, whatever it may be, to come forth and join us.”
She ticks her fingers one at a time. “Humans, witches, shifters. What’s left?” Her voice sounds strangely amplified as she adds, “And me. The Rage Witch.”
She kneels in front of Vanessa, placing her hands on Vanessa’s faltering chest. A darkness creeps up her fingertips, bathing them in dark magic. Closing her eyes, she whispers, “She’s close to death.” Mags is in another world now and when her eyes open, they’re blank. No colour, no pupils, just a swirling black void.
Oracle murmurs to Lilith, but I don’t catch her words.
When Mags speaks, her voice sounds like a distant echo, as if each word is a great effort:
“In twilight's hush, a mortal's plight,
A fading soul in waning light.
With whispered chants and moonlit grace,
Transform their essence, life embrace.
Grant the gift of endless night,
Immortal shifter, taking flight.
In metamorphosis, secrets unfold,
A new existence, forever told.”
A minute passes, then another, and another. I continue infusing Vanessa with calm and peace, but her faltering heart is hammering at my consciousness, making it difficult to concentrate.
Mags’s expression is frantic as she reaches into her pocket, pulling out a spell bag. She empties a pile of herbs and dried flowers on top of Vanessa and spreads it with her hands, repeating her incantation over and over, faster and faster.
Finally, her body droops and she looks at me, agony creasing her face. “I’m sorry, Keenan. It’s too late. She’s gone.”
Chapter 38
The Flight of the Phoenix
