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A flash of something moving from the corner of my eye startled me, and I jolted. With another burst of energy, I could see that I was in someone’s arms as they panted and heaved, touching a large rock.
“Almost there,” a voice said. I recognized the voice. Baelen.
Suddenly I was awake, my eyes wide and my mouth agape as I remembered everything.Karin drugged me and wanted to kill Charlie to take me as her familiar, but how did I get here? How did Baelen get out of his cage? And where is Zaide?
My head lolled as I attempted to get a better look at my surroundings. We were in a cave. I couldn’t see anyone else. But the rocks were floating. I wanted to rub my eyes to clear my mind of the obvious delusion, but my hands continued to lie limply at my side, grazing the hard stone beneath me.Why are the rocks floating? How are they floating? Is Baelen doing that?
It didn’t matter how long I stared, the rocks rolled and moved and floated, rearranging themselves so the largest ones were at the bottom as a base and the others piled precariously on top of each other until they met in the middle, creating a large archway.
“What’s happening?” I slurred but couldn’t be sure how much sense I made since my tongue felt alien in my mouth.
Baelen groaned again, and I felt our bond straining through our touch, our magics being forced out.He is using my power, but how? I can’t move things.
Crack.
It wasn’t a physical noise. The stone arch remained upright. But something snapped inside me, and a piercing scream echoed around the walls of the cave. My scream. My back bowed as pain threatened to rip me in two. I could barely catch my breath as agony overcame me.
Baelen’s voice was a welcome distraction from the trauma. “Hold on for one more second, Clawdia. I need this. We are so close.”
But I had nothing to hold on to. My bond, the golden thread I’d tied to Charlie, had been obliterated. I had no witch. And Charlie … was he dead? I choked on a sob as tears rolled down my cheeks in rapid succession.
No. No. No. It can’t be true. Karin can’t have succeeded. Baelen and Zaide should have saved him.He can’t be dead. He can’t. I won’t believe it.
But the proof was when I choked, coughed, and spluttered on a thick liquid that began bubbling up my throat to my lips and poured out of my mouth. I was dying. My body echoed the death of my witch, being drained, and losing an essential bond. Baelen’s eyes widened as he looked down at me, but he didn’t take his hand from the rock. He didn’t stop pushing magic from us.
Baelen, my Baelen, would have stopped the moment he realized this was causing me pain. But without my witch, I was as good as dead. I couldn’t stop him. Couldn’t speak. Or move. The last vestiges of my power poured from me to him and into this cave.
Blue light suddenly flooded around us as the archway lit up, and Baelen’s breath caught.A portal? He was creating a portal?
He dropped me, and as I hit the ground, something happened. Something clicked. And my body changed into the smaller, fluffier form I loved so much.
I panted, lying on my side, unsure what just happened. Or why. Although I felt dreadful, I no longer felt like I was at death’s door. Blood didn’t seem to be pouring from my mouth, and if I were going to die, why would my body waste energy transforming me into a cat? Nothing made sense.
But this whole situation was like a fever dream. I just hoped my survival somehow meant Charlie was still alive. I couldn’t feel the bond between us anymore, but I didn’t let that stop me from hoping.
“It worked. It worked.” Baelen shuffled on his knees toward the portal.
And then collapsed.
I jumped up and ran over to him without thinking, and with my cat eyes, I could see more clearly as the darker spots on Baelen’s skin began to move, merge into a pool of ink on his chest, and then seep out onto the stone. I skittered back as the spot moved toward me, but then it grew. It grew until it looked like … a shadow. A shadow of a male figure against the cave wall.
And then it became solid, and I got a glimpse of the person who’d invaded my soul mate. Pale gray eyes stood out against his black skin, and thin braids of gray hair fell to the nape of his neck. A thin, flowing skirt didn’t conceal much beneath, and I averted my gaze.
He smiled at me, and I trembled, shaking with fear. This person had possessed Baelen, made him say cruel things to Zaide, and tried to be intimate with me. I felt dirty and uncomfortable and … wrong. But he stood there smiling.
Rage boiled up inside me, and I did what every cat did when they were mad. I fluffed up and hissed.
His smile turned to laughter, and I hissed again and took a swipe with my sharpened claws, which he easily dodged. “It’s been a pleasure, Clawdia. If you ever come to Ombra, pay a visit to the king. It would be an honor to see you again.” He stepped over Baelen and headed toward the portal. “You’ll understand why I don’t wait for Baelen to wake up. I’m sure he’ll explain the entire saga and paint me in a very poor light. But I want you to know there is very little I wouldn’t have done to save my people, and I will not apologize for those I have to sacrifice to get what I wanted.”
I couldn’t say anything in response. I just remained staring at him, hunkered down, attempting to cover Baelen. Although his words did give me pause to worry.The sacrifices were us? Did he have something to do with what happened to Charlie? Or Zaide? And why aren’t they with us?
Without another glance, he turned away, and the portal swallowed him in a cloud of blue.
It was a terrible thing to hope for, but I wished the portal didn’t lead him back to Ombra. I hoped he walked for years in the blue smoke and realized he’d failed.
Turning away and relaxing, I blinked, and the anger, and my claws, disappeared. Baelen lay still, which frightened me, and I clambered onto his chest so I could feel the rise and fall of his breaths. Despite being pained, confused, and exhausted, I couldn’t sleep. My mind remained buzzing with the remainder of my adrenaline and thoughts battered my fragile state of mind.
How did we get here? Did Baelen have any control when the shadow possessed him? Did the shadow know his thoughts and was able to act like him? Was it the shadow who gorged on my blood? Did Karin do something to Charlie? How am I alive and a cat when my bond with Charlie is gone? What happened?
