Willow.
I couldn’t think about her. There wasn’t room in my head to process her betrayal.
The agony of losing Alaric threatened to overwhelm me as I rested my cheek on his still chest. I recalled Maverick telling me how losing a soul-bonded mate usually killed the surviving mate because the pain was so unbearable.
As the trauma of Alaric’s loss dug deep into my bones, I understood that now.
It was like losing a limb or having a piece of my beating heart carved out of my chest. The gaping chasm left behind would forever remain empty. A festering wound that could never heal.
“I really thought this would push her over the edge,” Tiberius muttered.
“Be patient, my love.”
I closed my eyes, praying to the goddess for a divine miracle. I’d accept a surgical drone strike that turned Tiberius and Brianna into a greasy stain or a meteorite plummeting to earth that killed two people and left the rest of us intact.
Hell, I’d sell my soul if it brought Alaric back to me.
“No need to be dramatic, witch,” Kenji scoffed. I lifted my chin to find my familiar watching me from the other side of Alaric’s prone body.
“You can bring him back, but we don’t have long. Minutes at the most.”
“How?” Brianna and Tiberius watched me while muttering to each other, but for some weird reason, they hadn’t spotted my kitsune.
“I cast a shield,” he said, “so don’t say a word out loud.”
Good, if I lost him too, I’d raze this realm to the ground with no fucks given.
“Tell me what to do.”
Kenji pushed his way into my arms and licked my tears away. His unexpected kindness helped stiffen my resolve. Kenji had never oncesteered me wrong. He’d helped me defeat the demon at the solstice ball and also the sea witch.
If my trusty familiar thought I could raise Alaric from the dead without him turning into a zombie, then I had to trust him.
“He won’t become a brain-munching zombie, right?” I’d still love Alaric if that happened, but yuck, eating brains was gross.
“No, you stupid witch, of course not. Now focus!”
Thank the goddess, the Kenji I knew and loved was here to support me in my hour of need.
“What do I do?”
“Pull on your shadow magic, force it into the storm mage, and yank his soul back from beyond the veil.”
“Um, that sounds kind of complicated.”
“You are a necromancer witch. This is what you were born to do. Now hurry!”
I shut out everything, aware that Tiberius and the bitch witch continued to watch me. I had a feeling this was what they were hoping would happen.
The shadow magic in my chest didn’t need an excuse to burst free. Fueled by pain, loss, and vitriolic anger, it surged up and out. The cuffs around my wrists shattered.
Inky tendrils lashed out, striking the few remaining guards scattered around the room.
My ears filled with screams and horrible gurgling sounds, followed by thuds as bodies hit the floor. Sadly, Brianna and her asshole husband remained unaffected, protected by a dark magic shield.
I instinctively knew it would take no effort at all to break through their shield, but Alaric was my priority, so instead of targeting the gruesome twosome, I pushed my magic into him, along with all my love and pain.
The shadows vanished, crossing the veil between life and death, searching for my mate’s lost soul.
