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“How?”
“I don’t know!” Grey stood in the center of the circle, looking at each of them by turn. His eyes were begging each of them to come up with a solution. It was the final hour, the final chance.
“We can’t wait,” Clay announced solemnly. He extended his hand to Grey, palm up and open, waiting for him to return the stone.
“One minute, Clay.” Dane’s fractured voice cut across the silence. The healer stepped closer to Clay and the Earth Weaver immediately wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him in close.
All the mates were closing on the circle. Hale’s gaze jerked to the vine wall to see it shimmering slightly. He then turned to Wiley to find a weary smirk on his pale face.
“The protection spell will hold for a little bit. Buy us some time,” Wiley explained as he jogged to Baer. He launched himself into Baer’s arms, wrapping his slender body around the larger man.
An arm slipped about Hale’s waist, and he looked over his shoulder to find Harrison standing behind him, an expression of despair on his face. “I love you, Hale,” he whispered, and Hale felt his soul soar.
“You promised me,” Dane said softy. “I’ve already lost one soul mate. I can’t lose another. You promised to always come home to me.”
“I know, baby, and I’m so sorry. I never want to leave you. I—” Clay was saying but Hale nearly jumped to see Wiley’s head suddenly pop up and snap around.
“What did you say?” he barked, pointing right at Dane.
“What?” the other man gasped.
“What did you say just now?”
“I-I…I said you promised to always come home to me,” Dane stammered.
Wiley’s eyes were so very wide, but there was a new flush to his cheeks. Hale’s heart started to hammer as he watched Wiley shove out of Baer’s arms and land awkwardly on his feet, but it didn’t stop him. He scrambled across the circle to Harrison, grabbing two handfuls of the man’s shirt.
“Do you have your phone? The database. The spells. Can you pull up the spells?” Wiley asked with frightening urgency.
Harrison was already pulling his phone from his pocket as he nodded. “Yes, but there isn’t a spell to save them. We went through them all.”
“We can’t stop them from dying, but I think we can pull them back,” Wiley said.
“What?” The question was a chorus, but the artist ignored them all. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet beside Harrison as he watched the man tap away at the screen.
“It’s the stupid, do-nothing, pointless ‘Come Home’ spell,” Wiley explained. “It was written by a Weaver whose intent was to summon other lost Weavers to them. They’re able to do it because their souls are naturally intertwined as being part of the circle. But I think if the soul mates cast the spell, we can call their soul back.”
Harrison frowned. “But how? The Weavers Circle is a bound brotherhood. Their souls have been woven together through time. It’s how they find each other. This is the first time we’ve been together.”
“We call them home to us using the red ribbon. We each send the spell along the ribbon and pull them back to us.” Wiley was practically dancing in place now.
Hale’s eyes jumped to Harrison’s face, searching for his agreement. Could they do that? Could it really be that simple?
“Is he right?” Hale snapped.
“Um…I…” Harrison stuttered and glanced at the phone which displayed a picture of the spell. “I think he’s right. We could.”
The other mates rushed around the circle of Weavers. “Do you have what you need? How do we cast the spell?”
The questions were fired from every direction, and Hale’s heart was pounding so fast he was getting light-headed.
“The spell doesn’t have any ingredients. It’s just our magic,” Wiley quickly answered.
“How do we do it?” Gio inquired.
“Guys!” Calder shouted above the din. “We’re almost out of time. Wiley’s protection spell is about to give way.”
Hale looked over at the forgotten pestilents trying to break through the combination of vines, rocks, and magic to get at them. The golden shimmer was starting to waver and flicker as if the spell was breaking down. They needed to act now. If the pestilents broke through while they were trying to cast the final rift spell, all of this planning was for nothing.
“We can do this!” Wiley shouted suddenly. “Soul mates, stand behind your mate or mates.” Everyone scrambled around the circle while Grey handed the Heart back to Clay before taking his own position next to Baer.
Harrison squeezed Hale’s shoulder one last time before releasing him. “I’m not letting you go.”
And Hale believed him. His mate was determined to save him, or he’d follow him straight into death. Part of his heart broke at the thought of Harrison dying with him, but he didn’t believe that would happen. The odds might be astronomical, but so was finding his soul mate, and he’d already done that. They would not lose each other today.
