“Ring any bells, necromancer?” Jonathan laughed, but I barely heard him, all of my attention on the poor creature before me.
She leaned against the bars, her arms reaching through them, hands grasping at nothing but air. A low moan wheezed through her chest.
Her face was rotten in some parts, bruised in others where someone had obviously beaten her. Her clothing was in tatters, and while she’d been thin is a rail before, now I could literally count the ribs through her pale skin.
A blue unicorn hoodie hung off her shoulders, torn and dirty and stained with old blood.
My eyes blurred with tears, but I couldn’t look away. I owed her that much.
I’m so, so sorry Bean. You deserved better.
“I see you’re memory is coming back to you. I knew it would, Rayanne. You always were the smartest girl in school. And the prettiest. It’s really too bad you turned out to be a witch.” Jonathan had been rambling for so long, that when he finally shut his mouth, it took me a beat too long to realize why.
I turned to glance at him over my shoulder. He was holding a gun, pointed right at Bean.
“Don’t!” I shouted, but it was too late. He’d already pulled the trigger.
Bean caught a bullet in the chest. She stumbled back from the impact, but she didn’t fall. Didn’t drop. Didn’t die. Seconds later, she was at the gate again, reaching through the bars for something she’d never, ever find.
“Amazing,” he said, that twisted smile contorting his face.
I lowered my eyes, unable to watch the sick spectacle a moment longer.
“What do youwant?” I whispered. It was all I could manage without throwing up.
“Easy-peasy.” Jonathan grabbed my chin, his hand reeking with the sweet, metallic tang of gunpowder as he jerked my face up, forcing me to meet his eyes. “I want you to teach me how to make more.”
Thirty-Two
LIAM
Though only hours had passed on the material plane since the vampire notified me of Gray’s disappearance, it felt as though I’d been stalking the edges of her realm for months, desperately seeking the faintest sign that she was still alive. Still within reach.
My human vessel was exhausted. I’d been going back and forth among the Shadowrealm, Gray’s magical realm, and the material plane, scouring the corners of the globe and beyond, hoping I’d find something. Anything.
So far, I’d come up empty. It seemed as if Gray had simply ceased to exist.
There was a time when this would have simply upset my plans, forcing me to move on to another Shadowborn, perhaps in another time and place. That would’ve been disappointing, but not devastating. I was used to waiting. I could wait eons.
But Gray Desario had come to mean something to me. Whether that was the result of compromising myself by spending too much time in my human vessel, unable to escape the vestiges of all its earthly concerns and emotions, or there were some other forces at work well beyond my immediate comprehension, I couldn’t say.
I could only say that when I thought of her now, something deep inside me ached in a way that brought back more memories than I cared to admit.
Memories of a time when I, too, walked the material realm. When I, too, willingly enslaved myself to the whims of my earthly concerns and emotions.
But that was neither here nor there.
Weary and losing hope, I shed my bone-tired human vessel in favor of a great grey owl, eager to rest in the black trees that surrounded her realm. Leafless and tall, they afforded an excellent vantage point from which to survey the vast lake and the dark tangled forests beyond.
It was here, perched upon the tallest branch in the tallest of these trees, that I finally felt the tug of her essence.
There—at the edge of the lake—a flash of blonde hair caught my attention, and I launched myself from the branch and spread my wings, soaring down to the shoreline.
I lacked the energy to quickly transform back into Liam’s vessel, so I opted for the shadowy form—human enough in its abilities that we could at least speak.
“Liam!” she cried out the moment I landed.
The breeze picked up, blowing her hair into her face, whistling through my robes with a chill I’d never before felt here.
