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Yep, I'm awake.
Kellan’s shadow moved over me, and his hands cupped my face. “Are you okay? Breathe, Josephine. Breathe.”
I gasped for breath, attempting to bring in a lungful of air to no avail. I inhaled sharply, feeling pain in my spine.
The sound of the portal disappeared, and Mother walked over to look down at me with concern. “You’re stronger than that, Josephine. Get up.”
Kellan stood up swiftly as I began to catch my breath and glared at my mother. “I understand you’re fixated on this spindle and yourself, but she is your daughter. Regardless of your selfish intentions, she is still your daughter."
Mother glared at him. “That you’ve known a few weeks, and suddenly, you’re in love. Come off it. And don’t tell me how to treat my daughter.”
Kellan helped me to my feet. I searched the ground for my bag and found it tucked away underneath a bush. It wasn’t until I stood up that I realized we were back in the forest that bled into the dark one.
I’d never wanted to go back in there again.
Kellan stepped beside me. “How is your back?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “I’m curious as to how Mother thinks we can help her with the spindle. Ernest is the only one with powers. She wants you to kill her own sister, and I can’t fathom why she needs me here.”
Kellan placed his palm on my shoulder, drawing my attention to his face. “Your mother thinks you have powers. She wants you to use them."
Fear slammed into my chest. I'd never cared about being like my mother before. Now, I would rather die than turn out like her. I couldn't, and wouldn't, conjure up this magic, so she could kill her own sister. It wasn't in the cards for me.
I wanted a normal life. As normal as one can get with an immortal soulmate and demented family. I wouldn't do it. I had to end this before it started.
I chuckled. “I don’t have powers. I must have taken after my dad. I don’t have them, and I don’t want them. I would try to conjure up some magic to appease her."
Kellan swallowed and ran his thumb against my bottom lip. “I love you, too, ya know. I hope you know that.”
The sound of him saying it warmed my heart. It slid over me like velvet. I wanted to wrap myself in the words and sleep in them. They'd never felt more real to me than in that moment. When Jacob said them, it felt overused. Like he thought it was what I wanted to hear.
This was different. This fed me in ways I didn't realize I was starving. “You should after everything you’ve done to save me.”
The corner of his mouth lifted into a small smile when Mother clapped her hands. “Enough,” she said. “Please come join the land of the living. We’re going to get ourselves together before we face her.”
Fern and Ernest both stood to the side. They’d been dragged around just as much as I had during this sideshow from Hell. It made what I was about to do easier. “I need Josephine’s help to get the spindle. Kellan and Ernest will take on Deidamia to defeat her. You two will strike first, while Josephine and I take the spindle back home. Little Faerie, you can go home. I don't care."
“Oh,” I said. “Just like that, right? Kellan can’t defeat Deidamia until she’s in her dragon form, Mother. That’s at dawn. We have a few hours before they can distract her."
She pressed her mouth into a hard line. “I know that. We’ll wait until then.”
Silence dripped over us. I shifted on my feet wondering how we got this way. How had my summer home before adulthood turned into such a cluster of mess? Memories of my family rolled around in my mind. It was the light before the tunnel.
A farewell to the mother I thought I had.
I cleared my throat. “I’m hungry,” I spat.
She looked angrily at me. “Always hungry at the wrong times,” she hissed. “Nothing has changed, has it?”
I dropped my bag and then bent down to my knees. “I brought some food from Kellan’s house. Anyone else hungry?”
I could feel my mother’s glare on the side of my face at my nonchalance. Hell, I could feel everyone staring at me. I began to pull out the food and sat it on the ground. I opened the lid to the leftover soup Ernest had made in the snug thermos and the small plastic cups we would use as bowls.
I settled back against the tree and took a sip. Mother seemed uninterested in the food and began to pace. Her nerves had me on edge.
Kellan wrapped his palm around my thigh and squeezed.
Fern poured herself a cup and sat on the other side of me. "Are you okay?" she asked. "That was a gnarly fall."
