She didn’t want to go.
A sob tore through her, but it didn’t manifest. Because crying was only for bodies. Tears only existed with eyes. She didn’t have either of those anymore.
“Honky-tonk crusted toilets,” she heard, as though through a wind tunnel. A woman’s voice. Familiar, but she couldn’t place it. “She’s in bad shape. Hurry! Run her this way. That goofy-eyed elf might not be able to see us, but if it can feel even half the magic I can, it knows something’s here.”
“It knows,” a man said, echoing through the darkness. “It just doesn’t know what. They keep their composure until the moment before they strike. It won’t be able to tear through our magic by itself, but if it figures out someone is messing with its eyes, it’ll start searching for us. We need to get out of here.”
“You sound like you have experience with this.”
“I have a lot of experience with this. Don’t ask about it—it’ll give you hives,” the man said.
“Move. Go.”
Devon!
Charity wanted to cry out to him, to beg him to save her, as he always seemed to. Her heart ached, the pain of losing him filling her whole world.
No, not her heart. Not even her person. She didn’t have any of those anymore.
Her soul.
The thought of saying goodbye to him now, so soon after they’d found each other, made it feel like her soul was on fire. She couldn’t bear the pain of it. She couldn’t bear to move on to a place he couldn’t follow.
“Help me,” she cried into the darkness. “Help me! I’m still here! I can hear you. Please!”
“Crying babies holding lollipops, I can’t—” There were tears behind the woman’s words. “I can’t bear it. Emery, it feels like distress. Intense distress and suffering. Can you feel that?”
“No, babe. I can’t feel the magic, remember? She’s alive, though. She hasn’t given up. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
“Clichés, yes. You and my mother love clichés.” The woman fell silent, and Charity felt a pulling within her being. Then a pushing. Which should have been impossible without a body. Right? “She needs… She’s lacking…”
“Words, babe. We need words.”
“Energy. She needs… She has so much magic. So much magic. More than the last time I met her. It’s like a wildfire raging within her. But she doesn’t have enough energy to sustain it. Reagan had something like this, I think. She suppressed half her magic until she could handle it. This lady—Charity—can’t possibly do that. There is no half. There is just the whole. And that whole is like a fire needing oxygen.”
“Tell us something we don’t know.”
Steve!
Charity tried to take a deep breath, forgetting the separation from her body.
“There—did you see?” the woman said excitedly. “She is present. She just needs a little help to blossom.”
“How do we help?” Devon asked, the desperation clear in his voice. Charity felt a deep pang of longing. She missed him. She hadn’t been herself these past few months, forcing him to be better. More. The easy banter they’d enjoyed from the beginning had fallen to the wayside recently. He was always worried she’d randomly explode.
She was always worried she’d randomly explode.
She wanted her life back.
“Help me!” she cried out in the darkness, reaching. Straining to get back. To open her eyes and see the light. “Please!”Chapter FourteenDevon knelt next to Penny as she looked down on a pale and lifeless Charity.
“What can I do?” he asked, trying to keep his voice hard and in control. He could barely think for the fear of losing her. Until Charity had slammed into his life, he’d shunned meaningful relationships outside of the pack. He’d invited bitterness to creep inside and stay. She’d woken him up, like a breath of fresh air in a stagnant room. She’d helped him become a better alpha. Her magic, even when painful, felt like a natural part of him. He couldn’t imagine walking through life without her.
“Okay.” Penny lifted one of her hands, waving fingers in the air, and stared sightlessly down at Charity. Emery watched Penny from the other side of Charity, poised as though ready to move at a moment’s notice. The rest of the pack fanned out in the thick trees, watching for passersby.
They were a quarter of a mile from the portal, having run as fast as they could to get clear of whatever invisibility magic the dual-mages had erected. Any closer and they’d be too close to that elf sentry if he started to piece things together and went looking for the source of the magic.
“What are you…” Emery’s eyes flicked from Penny to Devon. “How much do you want her to live?”
“What kind of a stupid question is that?”
Devon ignored Steve’s outburst, mostly because he was thinking the same thing. “With everything I have and am.”
Penny’s luminous eyes lifted, latching on to Devon’s. “You would give your life for hers?”