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“Pull it to your heart. Gently. Imagine that the strand ties itself around you.”
Again, I did as he said, not opening my eyes, but using my mind like the muscle it was supposed to be. When my hand hit my chest and I imagined my heart with a little gold bow wrapped around it, I froze. Power enveloped me. And then cold flooded me. I shivered as if I’d just gone skinny dipping in the arctic.
I curled in on myself, trying to conserve heat, eyes still shut. “Zaide, I can’t breathe. I’m cold. What’s going on?”
I thought I’d fucked up, that I’d done something wrong, and pinched my eyes tighter, physically pained by the thought that I hadn’t saved her.
With the hard thump of a large, warm hand on my back, my eyes popped open, and Zaide whispered, “It’s okay, Charlie. It worked. You’ve tethered Clawdia to yourself. You are a witch with a powerful familiar.”
I sighed; my relief was so great I thought I’d lose all the air in my lungs. I unclenched my body and peered at him. “Then why do I feel like death?”
“Because you feel what she feels, and she feels what you feel. She is recovering from a near-death experience.”
I looked back at her and noticed that all the previous signs of death were fading. Color was coming back to her skin, her chest rising and falling. I realized that if I felt everything she felt, then I’d better learn to be a decent fucking witch to protect her and myself, to make sure this didn’t happen again. “Fuck. Well, she’s not allowed outside again.”
Zaide laughed. “I’m sure she will have something to say about that when she wakes up.”
I raised my hand to stroke her cheek. I knew she was alive. But I felt so horrible. I couldn’t imagine anyone surviving this feeling. “You’re sure she’ll wake up?”
“She’ll wake when she’s healed. I know it.” Zaide stroked her hair and sighed happily. It didn’t seem weird that we both sat around her, stroking her. We were both bonded to her. We both wanted to reassure ourselves she was all right. “Thank you, my friend.”
I choked out a laugh. “Not going to say it was my pleasure, because it wasn’t, but … you know I care about her, too. I’m just glad I got here in time.”
He nodded and then asked, “You and Daithi were successful?”
I perked up at the memory. “Mate, you should have seen me with my tree branch taking out those jars of fire.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure I would have been very proud of your puny human strength.”
I grinned. “Let’s get back. Savida might already be awake, and I want to tell him the story. You guys won’t add the proper embellishments.”
And of course, because it was all too easy, as I moved to stand, I felt myself get pushed back down to the gravel. Gritting my teeth and hissing from the pain, I looked over my shoulder to see another magical cage surrounding us. A figure emerged from the trees.
An unfamiliar voice echoed into the night, the smirk evident in their tone, “You aren’t going anywhere.”
Fuck.
CHAPTER30
CLAWDIA
Fire laced my throat. With every small breath, pain rippled across my body until it was all I knew, all I felt. While my body instinctively fought for me to live, I counted down my heartbeats. As it became hard to breathe, air see-sawed in and out of my mouth but left my lungs untouched. I was gasping and desperate. I tried not to think about what I was leaving behind as I died.
My first death was not like this. My first death was a relief, freedom and peace. I’d wanted it. I’d needed to escape. I’d had no painless options. Death was welcome.
This death was anger and sadness and pain. It was wrong.
How could Mary kill Winnie? Winnie loved her. Why would she do that? Why couldn’t they just give Savida’s fire back and then we’d all still be alive? Why do I have to die too? It’s so unfair! I just found Zaide. I wanted more time with Charlie. I wanted to save Savida. I wanted Daithi to like me. I wanted … another chance.
Do cats really have nine lives?I wondered, my head feeling disjointed, separate from the searing pain of my body. I hoped they did. As my eyelids closed and I heeded the call of death, I felt a pop and opened my eyes to find I was staring down at myself.
I, or my body, lay still on the gravel, curled next to Winnie. The blood that continued to pour from Winnie’s neck drenched my hair. I watched from outside of my body as Zaide crawled toward me and touched me, his large, golden body heaving sobs as his hands came away bloody.
“He’s devastated,” a familiar voice remarked next to me. I gasped and swung my head to see Winnie. Or what I assumed to be her spirit. She looked … exactly as she did on the day that Zaide, Savida and Daithi arrived.
Her red hair was curled and bouncy. Her clothes were the same orange blouse and pencil skirt. Her dark skin was glowing, and the killing gash to her throat was gone as though it never happened. I looked at her body and then back at her ghost.
I blinked and remembered that she had spoken. “He’s my soul pair.” I looked back at the scene to see Zaide, motionless, bent over me in a prayer. “Was my soul pair,” I corrected with tear-filled eyes and trembling lips.
