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7
ADDIE
Days passed.
I stared at the ceiling, my boredom spiraling out of control. Being trapped inside sucked butt. I craved the wide-open spaces of the mountains. It’d been too long since my last camping trip. There was nothing better than the silence that stretched beneath the stars.
Therewasone thing that was better…
“Maddox! Where did you go?” I covered my face with my hands and groaned into my palms.
My doorbell chimed, sending me to my feet. I excitedly threw the door open only to pout when I saw Cerri standing on my doorstep. Though it was the first time I’d seen her in days, I still wasn’t happy.
“Sorry,” I muttered rather sheepishly.
“I wish I could say I understand, but I can’t relate like Ness or Vi could. He’ll be back, though. If he’s your mate, he won’t be gone long.” Cerri pushed past me.
She had a paper grocery bag cradled in her arms. A reusable tote hung over her shoulder. When she set it down on the counter, I heard the clink of glass bottles. They were unremarkable at first glance, but I knew better.
Cerri had been born into a shifter pack, but she didn’t have a beast of her own. That made her turn to other practices in order to find her own power. Over the years, Cerri had perfected potion making, rendering her capable of brewing all sorts of concoctions.
That wasn’t the only power in her arsenal, though. Together, she and I formed two halves of a natural whole. This wasn’t like how mates completed each other. Cerri’s arcana complemented mine in a way that nothing else could. Where I dealt with death in all its forms, Cerri had a similar control over life. Together, we were able to break curses and create beautiful monstrosities of foliage and bone.
That last one had been kind of fun, even if Queen Beryl had been breathing down our neck at the time.
I fingered the cork of a potion bottle. The blue liquid shimmered with little green flecks. “What exactly is this?”
Cerri pinned me with a somber stare. My blood churned with ice.
“Ah,” was all I could say as I jerked my hand away from the bottle.
Of course, I managed to tip it over in the process. The bottle lurched over the edge of the counter and careened towards the floor. I fumbled, the bottle tipping from one hand to the other. My heart pounded, but I managed to keep it from crashing to the floor.
On the other side of the counter, Cerri groaned.
“At least that’s not the binding potion,” Cerri said.
“Wha—” I gaped at her.
This whole time, I’d assumed this had been the potion meant to bind my arcana. The green flecks inside the glass bottle danced, as if laughing at me.
“That one,” Cerri said after rounding the counter and plucking the bottle from my open palms. “That one is for your dead plants.”
She uncorked the bottle with a satisfying popping sound. I listened to the glug of the liquid as she poured it into my dead spider plant. To be fair, I’d been kind of distracted by current events. I didn’t have time to take care of house plants anymore. The fact that my cat was already dead kind of worked in my favor.
Cerri bent and scratched the top of Potato’s head in passing. Potato pulled back and hissed at her. I chastised my cat, but Cerri said that it was fine.
“After all, I did bring the binding potion. I think Potato knows. If you decide to go through with it, then you can’t bring Potato back if anything happens to her.”
I glanced at the tortoiseshell cat. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
I really needed to think about things. Lately, I’d been rushing headfirst into everything. I gave no thought to my decisions, letting my gut run the show. It’d been working in my favor so far, but time would run out eventually.
Potato deserved better. Besides, Maddox needed my arcana. I couldn’t get rid of it.
“I’m…I’m not sure that’s the right option for me. I get how Vi thought it might work for her, but I need my abilities. And I’ve finally got them under control.”
Cerri smiled sweetly. She was proud of me, and it showed. I couldn’t help the warmth that reached my face. If it hadn’t been for my friends, I never would have made it this far. They showed me that we could overcome anything, even the apocalypse.
