“You don’t mean that.” I reached for her, but it was too late. Flames licked her feet, twisting their way up her legs like vines.
She glanced down, swatting absently as if shooing an annoying fly. “Now look what you’ve done.”
I dropped to my knees and tried to tamp down the flames, but my action only seemed to aggravate them. They surged upward, brighter and stronger, crackling loudly.
My mother turned black, burning away like paper in the span of a single heartbeat. In the dusty pile of ash and bone she’d left behind, another card materialized.
Judgment.
In it, gray bodies rose from a crypt, called forth by an angel’s trumpet.
Panic made my hands tremble. I knew who was coming next.
The bones of my mother reformed, the skeleton slowly filling in with flesh and hair. It wasn’t like Calla’s hair, though; it was dark and lanky, hanging in front of her face. She wore dirty jeans and a dark blue hoodie with a unicorn on the front.
“Bean,” I gasped, the sight of her almost more than I could bear. She’d died in an alley protecting me, and I’d resurrected her by mistake, leaving her to suffer at the hands of Jonathan.
I still hadn’t been able to deliver her soul to its proper resting place.
She pointed a shaking finger at me, and my peach sundress turned into a mirror image of her outfit. “You did this to me, witch.”
“I know, and I’m so, so sorry. If I could take it back, I would.”
“You can’t, though. You can’t take anything back.”
“Bean, wait. Let me help you. Let me free your soul.” I reached for her, but the moment my fingers brushed her sleeve, she disintegrated, blowing away on the breeze.
In the grass where she’d stood, another card bloomed like a flower.
I plucked it from its stem, looking at the beautiful ebony-skinned girl on the front, carrying a fish in a golden cup. The youthful, vibrant energy of the Page of Cups had always reminded me of Sophie, and I sighed in relief at the sight of it. Sophie would help me through this. She’d been with me always, and I needed her now, more than ever.
“Sophie?” I called out.
She materialized before me, leaning against the trunk of a tree, casually inspecting her fingernails. They’d been painted white, with tiny pink dots. Her skin was painted with blue-green swirls, just like it’d been the last time I’d seen her alive.
My jeans and hoodie transformed into a black linen dress and veil, like some kind of funeral attire.
“It should’ve been you, you know,” she said with a shrug. “Your boyfriend killed me. You led him right to me, just like you led him to your mother.”
“Sophie, no! I didn’t know.”
“You should have, though. That’s the thing.” She shrugged, and the swirls painted on her chest transformed into runes carved brutally into her skin. They ignited one at time, glowing as bright as candle flame.
“I would do anything to change it,” I said. “To save you.”
“That’s what everyone says.” She rolled her eyes, then blew on her polka-dot fingernails. “Nice seeing you again, Gray. Take care of yourself, okay?”
She turned to go, but I grabbed her from behind, tackling her down to the ground and pulling her into my lap like a baby. Everyone else got away from me, but she wouldn’t. Not like this. She struggled hard, bucking and kicking, but I locked my arms around her and held on tight, pressing my lips to her ear.
“Shh. Listen to me,” I pleaded. “Just listen.”
Sophie finally stilled. I tore the veil from my eyes and looked down at her again, but Sophie was gone. The warm body in my lap was now a newborn fawn, shivering and bloody. An arrow pierced his neck.
“Oh no!” Gently, I reached for the arrow, trying to see if I could push it all the way through, but the poor creature howled in agony. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do.”
“You’ve done enough,” the fawn sputtered, his blood dripping onto my bare thighs. Then he became a wolf.
Mywolf.
