My own heart raced as I realized what she was trying to say.
“I can’t place the heart inside of her, Avery,” I said, and the words hurt more than I was willing to admit. “There isn’t a hole where her heart would be. Her body was likelycrushed at the impact, and her bones were shattered. For all we know, they could have impaled her heart.” My voice cracked on the last word.
“Magic is will and intention,” Avery whispered. “And the heart still beats.”
Zaela’s breath caught at my sister’s words, and she reached for Veli’s hand, which lifelessly rested on my lap, and gently lifted it.
Carefully wrapping her hands around Veli’s talons that clutched the heart, she guided it to the sorceress’ chest, directly above where her own once beat.
“Listen here, witch,” I started, a false laugh leaving me. “I refuse to let you die. We have lost too many today and every day for a century. You’re not like those other witches. You aregood.”
Zae looked at me and then back down at Veli’s body before she spoke. “Our queen needs her aide…if you leave us, you are leaving one of the rest of us to be that for her, and only the gods know where that will bring the realm. So stop being so damn selfish and come back to us,” she demanded. “Come back to me.” Her last words were spoken so softly I barely heard them.
Zaela’s hand trembled as she held Veli’s in place.
“Zae,” I started, but she shot me a look, so I sat back on my heels in defeat. Her head fell, sagging between her shoulders as the loss slammed into her, too.
“Oh my gods,” Avery breathed from behind us, and both of our stares snapped back to Veli.
Right there before us, beneath Zaela’s hand that clutched her lover’s, shadows appeared—leisurely emerging frombetween the witch’s talons, dancing and swirling as if carried by a faint wind.
“Mother of the gods…” Zae gasped softly.
“Don’t move your hand,” I ordered.
She flashed her hazel eyes at me, nerves filtering through them, but she obeyed.
The heart emitted an unnatural, scarlet glow, casting an ominous light that shone through both her and Veli’s intertwined fingers.
With a sudden surge, the heart in the witch’s hand pulsed a brighter red as more darkness emerged from its depths until it burst into nothing but shadows. As if made of smoke, the dark tendrils glided and danced in the air, draping themselves over her lifeless body, cloaking her like a second skin.
Zaela’s hand snapped back toward herself, clutching it close to her chest as her eyes remained on Veli.
“How did you kill the crone, Avery?” I asked warily, half turning to face her.
“I stabbed her in the heart and twisted the blade,” she answered. “She erupted a second later.”
“Essence,” I breathed after a moment. “What she spoke of was literal—it truly is theessenceof a beating heart that a witch needs to survive.”
Veli’s body twitched as her bones snapped back into place. A flicker of movement stirred beneath her closed eyelids, and my lips parted as we all watched in awed silence. Everyone behind us rushed forward, looming over our backs as we all held our breaths.
The shadows enveloped Veli's entire body and seeped into her as if they were a phantom. My aide’s eyes snapped open, now aglow with their usual otherworldly radiance, except now they were a full scarlet hue.
Life surged back into her veins, causing her to take a sudden intake of breath. Her gaze, now sharp and piercing, surveyed all of us who stood over her.
“Veli?” I whispered in shock.
“What have you done?” she asked. “I was gone…no longer in my body, floating to the vale of the afterworld alongside my wretched sisters, and then I was called back…” Her eyes drifted between me and Zaela. “You called me back—willed it.”
Zae’s cheeks flushed a vibrant pink. “I don’t know how,” she answered, and suddenly it felt as if we were all intruding on a very intimate moment between the two. “This is impossible. We don’t possess magic.”
Veli slowly sat upright, both of us reaching out to catch her in case she fell. Her red gaze then drifted down to her hand, the one that had clutched the High Witch’s heart. “The realm itself is magic, Zaela. It has been woven into its soil since the day the gods conjured us all from it,” she stated. “It is why the land answers to the descendants of the first of the fae, and it is why the beating heart of a sorceress listened to her sheer, stubborn will.”
She paused. “Although, being bright enough to place it atop my corpse did help its essence sense where it was needed.”
A few nervous chuckles left me. Placing my hand on Veli’s shoulder, I said, “I have never been more thankful forstubborn will.” And she smiled—a genuine, beaming smile that I had never seen the witch bear.
She was different, though. An intense, ancient otherworldliness radiated from her like never before, and I had a feeling it wasn’t just because of her eyes morphing to that of a dark sorceress.
