Shall now be made whole
I repeated the spell a dozen times, visualizing Emilio’s soul returning to his body, just like Liam had instructed. Even when my voice had finally given out and my throat was throbbing and raw, still I said the words, no more than whispers of breath now, finally fading out as the last of the magic and strength left my body.
On my final word, I collapsed, falling backward onto the ground, my eyes glazed, the glittery night sky a swirl of blue and white overhead.
I took deep, cool breaths of night air, waiting for my body to come back to itself. To stop its vicious trembling. To still.
I did not even have the strength to turn my head or ask Liam whether we’d succeeded.
But then, I felt the warmth of Liam’s touch on my cheek. Slowly, his face came into focus, his all-knowing eyes looking down at me, shining with something that looked a lot like pride.
“Gray, you did it. You did it.”
Before I could even return his smile, darkness descended, and thick, black smoke settled over us like a cloak. The ground beneath me rumbled, making my stomach pitch, my head spin. I tried to sit up, but couldn’t—some force far greater than my own weakness was holding me down, sitting on my chest like an invisible monster, crushing the breath from my lungs.
I couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear. For the longest seconds of my life, there was only fear, rising inside me like a new fire, ready to consume everything in its path.
And then, in the wake of seemingly utter chaos, a spark of hope.
The darkness pulled back, revealing the stars once again, and all at once, the sounds came rushing back.
Another breeze, stirring me back to life.
A sharp intake of breath from the body beside me.
A rattling cough.
Another deep breath, this one more steady than the last.
And the faint sound of a familiar name, the most beautiful music I’d ever heard.
“Querida?Is that you?”
Thirteen
LIAM
The earthquake in Gray’s realm was merely a warning. I had just enough time to send Gray and Emilio back to the material plane before the ground before me split wide open, trees toppling into the gash, the stone altar cracking in two. The pentacle-carved slab on top slid to the ground and shattered. The stars winked out, and darkness veiled the moon, turning the realm a murky gray.
And thentheyarrived.
From the newly formed chasm in the forest floor, a smoky essence emerged, dark and dense, its presence turning the air acrid, burning my eyes and my flesh, sending me to my knees.
It was nothing I hadn’t expected. I just hadn’t realized it would be so excruciating.
Known only as the Old One, the essence was nothing and many things all at once. Eternity. Power. Emptiness. Completion. The void. The end, the beginning, and everything in between.
And, for all intents and purposes, my maker.
The Old One surrounded me, filled me, claimed my breath. Its formless voice was both singular and infinite, slicing through my mind and echoing in my skull, the raw, uncut power of it nearly shattering my vessel’s bones.
“Lord of Shadows,” the voices boomed. “It is long since we have last spoken. Longer still since we have been called to investigate the breaking of one of our most sacred laws.”
It was an accusation, not a greeting, and though my instincts forced me to bow my head in deference to my superior, I wasted no time with return pleasantries.
“I could not let him pass into the Shadowrealm as such,” I stated plainly, eyes downcast. “He is tied to her destiny in ways we cannot yet fathom, even with the gift of foresight.”
“It matters not,” came the emotionless reply. “He was to pass on. That washisdestiny. The destiny of your witch is irrelevant.”
