The nectar thumped like a heartbeat inside the box, pulling me closer to it, whispering to me. I needed to hold it, to have that part of me back. Maybe it would tell me its secrets. I could understand what this all meant.
Leaning, my hand reached for the box, a jolt going up my arm, my finger about to skim the lid.
“Do. Not. Touch. It.” An emotionless voice said every word as though it were a battle. I jerked my head up with a gasp, my eyes taking in the outlines flittering out from the forest trees, their cloaks the color of the shadows.
“When I spoke of compromise?” Tad gripped his staff harder. “They were the concession. They wouldn’t allow me to bring it here without them.”
I stood immobile as seven figures moved in as silent as ghosts, the woman in front taking my attention. Her skin was pallid and thin, boney hands holding on to her scythe.
“M-mom?” I stared at her, panic and fear gripping my gut. My mother and her clan stood before me; the life in them drained away, leaving what was left…
Necromancers.
Chapter 18
“Br-ex-ley.” Eabha struggled over my name, her mouth moving stiffly as if it took all her concentration to speak.
Emotion choked me, making it hard to swallow. “I-I don’t understand.” I scanned through the entire clan, seeing the small differences. The life which warmed their cheeks and plumped their flesh was evaporating. The fact my mother spoke at all told me they weren’t completely gone.
Yet.
“What is happening to them?” I bounced from them to Tad, demanding an answer.
Tad sighed, his spine sagging more under the weight.
“They are returning to their original state.”
“But how? Why? I brought them back. My magic saved them.”
“Black magic is conjured from the darkest of magic. It goes against nature. Goes against a Druid’s magic. To use it… there are consequences. Ones that can never be erased.” His hand rubbed at his twisted spine, reminding me my mother had struck Tad with black magic the night of the fae war. He was the most powerful Druid alive, and yet he could not fix his condition. “What their father did is a sin they will carry forever.”
“But I thought…” I stared back at my mom, grief knotting my heart as she watched me blankly.
“I don’t know all you are capable of, my girl, but you shouldn’t have been able to alter the scars of black magic at all. The fact you did?” He shook his head, keeping the rest of his sentence to himself.
My eyes welled with tears. Before I even got to know my mother, she was being taken from me. As a kid, I dreamed of her being part of my life, of knowing her.
“You bring people back from the dead,” Tad said.
“Exactly!” I screamed, anger climbing up into my chest, ready to explode. “Then I should be able to save them!”
“They were never alive or dead.” Tad’s statement slammed into my gut. “They are in the in-between.”
Like the ghosts who slipped away from their bodies. I couldn’t bring them back or conjure a person from the grave back to life.
I shook my head in denial, moving to the pit where the nectar was. “I don’t care. I will try again. I will do it every day if I have to!”
Fingers wrapped around my wrist, boney but firm. I sucked in sharply at my mother’s sudden nearness. How quickly she moved.
“N-o. Dau-gh-ter.” Her expression was blank, but I noticed a flicker of sorrow float through her eyes. “Thhiss iss our currssse to bear.”
“I can do it,” I pleaded. “Please.” A pained noise came from me, my focus going over to my aunt Morgan, cousin Liam, to Sam, Rory, Roan, and Breena. The family I was supposed to get to know, to have in my life, to laugh with and maybe see on holidays. “I can’t lose you, not again.”
Eabha’s hold tightened, her gaze showing me something was still there. “I feel s-so lucky to have m-met you.” She reached up, her skeleton hand cupping my face. “Pr-proud of you. You. Are. Ammm-a-zing. Jussst like your f-father.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks, my head wagging in rejection of this outcome, while my heart broke into pieces.
“I love you, Mom.” A sob wrenched up my throat.
The only reaction I got was a squeeze from her fingers before she stepped back with her clan. Aunt Morgan dipped her head at me, then they melted back into the woods.
Grief clawed my lungs, forcing me to take small, stunted breaths, trying not to fall to the ground.
Warwick didn’t speak, but I felt him move behind me, his shadow grazing inside me, telling me without a word to take what I needed.
Stepping back into him, I used his physical body to keep me standing. The cruelty of getting my mother back to lose her before I had any chance to know her crippled me.
Tad turned, shuffling toward me, his mouth opening when a threatening growl came from Warwick behind me, vibrating into my back.
Tad dipped his head. “We’ll be inside when you are ready.”
Eliza and Zander helped Tad, all three retreating into the cabin, leaving us alone. The tap of raindrops dripping from leaves padded the damp earth. The pulse of magic from the nectar seemed to echo in the spot my mother had just left.
I could feel them near, forever guarding, forever close to me, but forever beyond my grasp. A family I had wished for, dreamed of.
“Brexley,” Warrick muttered against my ear. The sound of my name on his lips cut across my chest, where a guttural sob formed.
Raging pain.
Agonizing fury.
A tempest of anguish screamed from my soul. I was so tired of pain, of loss. I wanted to destroy. I wanted the world to feel what I did. To end it once and for all.
The nectar continued to pound inside the box, every thump telling me to take it, that it could end my pain. Give me the power to bring life to my family again and take the lives of those who had hurt me.
“No.” His arms went around me, stopping me from reaching the nectar.
“Get off of me!” I shoved against him, wailing and thrashing. Anyone stopping me felt like a threat. Blocking me from what I needed. I couldn’t take another breath if I didn’t act. If I didn’t open the container. “Let go!” I rammed my elbow into his stomach, only getting a huff from him.
“Go ahead, fight me, Kovacs. Hit me. Take it out on me.” His grip on me tightened.
Devastation turned off logic. Violence rose in place of my suffering, desperate to cut out the hurt.
With a cry, my spirit dipped inside him, siphoning energy from him. Using his strength against him, I rammed my head back into him, cracking against his nose. His hold loosened, allowing me to slip out of his arms. Swinging around, my arm flew out, clipping his chin, stumbling him back more. Adrenaline howled in my veins as I pounced for him. He spun, getting out of the way, a feral smile pulling his mouth as blood ran down his nose.
“Come on, princess, show me what you got.” He patted his chest.
Snarling, I lurched to the side, swinging out my leg and kicking his hip. He let out a grunt, the wildness in his eyes sparkling.
“I’m waiting for you to actually challenge me, Kovacs.”
I leaped back for him, my fists hitting, my feet striking out. Noises like a wounded animal howled in the air, and I knew they were from me as I slammed my fist into his gut.