28. Soren

Chapter twenty-eight

Soren

M y sister—my wild, impetuous sister. I can't help the tears that streak my cheeks. Her hand feels cold in mine and so small. Has she always been this small? I kiss her knuckles, looking up at Mari's face. She is studying Em intensely.

Winnie drops into the mud next to us. "Is she breathing?"

I nod, watching the shallow rise and fall of her chest.

"Her pulse is regular, too," Mari says, holding two fingers to Em's throat.

Winnie clicks his tongue, thinking. "Did you know your sister was one of the gifted?"

"I did." Then I gesture to the circle of family surrounding us. "We all did. We didn't know to what extent."

"I think they used her," Winnie says, taking in her still form. "I think whatever was looking for that creature used her gift to make contact. If that's the case…" He pauses, pulling a cloth out of his pocket, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Spirits bless that it's her when those eyes open."

Before my thoughts have time to process what Winnie truly means, Em's eyes fly open.

Black swirling irises dim down and fade into a soft brown, like watching the first drops of dye swirl into water.

"Em?" My heart launches into my throat as I feel the prick of tears sting my eyes. "Em, are you well?"

A long minute passes as her eyes shift from side to side. Her green skin looks lighter, almost sallow.

"Em, can you hear us?"

Her eyes focus on me, and a realization blooms on her face. It is as if all her memories are returning at once, and now she has to sort them in the correct order. "Sweets?" she asks, reaching her hand out and laying it on my cheek.

I hold it close, letting the familiar sensation of her skin calm my nerves.

"It's me." I laugh through the tears spilling from my eyes. "Is that truly you?" I ask back.

She thinks for a moment, as if she's not sure herself. "I believe so," she says, shifting and stretching her limbs, testing the body she's had her entire life, which I imaginefeels foreign—like she was banished from it and has to reconcile the difference.

She sits up slowly and focuses on Mari and me.

"What happened? I remember hearing a voice call to me. But it felt more intense than it usually does, more urgent. It also felt powerful." She holds out a hand, examining it as if it doesn't feel like a part of her.

"We don't know, but whatever took you was powerful. So much so that it controlled you and banished that horrid creature back to whatever hell it came from," Mari says, still trying to figure out what we all saw and what it means."Do you remember what the voice said before they had complete control?"

She thinks for a minute, biting her lower lip. "No, I wish I did, but the language. I've never heard anything similar before. It grated on my senses like each word was a curse. It felt old—ancient even." She wraps her arms around herself and a tremble takes over.

"Come on." Winnie steps in. "Let's get her back." He helps Em stand, and she towers over the dwarf. And yet, there is this strength in him, this presence that makes the height difference inconsequential.

We all walk back, Em being propped up by Aaron and Mari. Mari shouldn't be exerting herself, either.

Conjuring that memory of her lying still, at the mercy of a beast ready to eat every part of her I love so dearly causes a blackness to cloud over me, a desire for vengeance so thick I can reach out and run my hands through it.

If Winnie hadn't sensed the call of Mari's knife, she would have disappeared. Nothing left, not even her life force. Her energy lost in that black void, to become nothing, not even sky. She would exist nowhere.

I walk over, grasping her hand and pulling it to my lips. Experiencing her warm skin, anything to ease the anger and fear coursing through my bloodstream like a fever.

"How did you know I was gone?" Mari asks, watching the farmhouse lights grow brighter as we approach.

"I forged that knife you're carrying," Winnie chimes in. "When it's drawn, I can feel it. Luckily for me, Patti had little use for it. Otherwise, I'd get no sleep."

"Did you notice it? When I drew it earlier, the first time? On that thing. That soul eater."

"That I did. Patti was smart in giving that to you. Not only is the object forged with magic from the scorched lands. The wielder experiences a sense of safety. I suspect you needed that at the moment."

Mari breaks her hold on my hand to palm the knife again. It glints off the approaching lights. I don't see many dwarf-forged items, and this one is truly a beauty.

"So you sensed the knife and came running?"

"You have only unsheathed that knife twice, and I felt your fear as surely as if it were my own. So I didn't waste any time. I ran out and shook Soren out of his stupor. Everyone outside was under a sleeping charm. And we came for you. You are one of us now, whether or not you like it."

Winnie shoots Mari a wink. She drops the knife back into her pocket and looks up, considering.

"Why did it want me? Why did it keep coming for me? I watched it turn into a pile of black blood. Where I'm from, that means dead. Like really fucking dead," she says to no one in particular.

I want to answer her; I want to ease her mind. I sense her thoughts moving as quickly as my own. My Warrior, my heart.

Em's eyes cast over Mari, where she's hanging her head. "I'm retrieving fragments from whatever was in my head. It wanted you because you bested it. A human with no magic. It became obsessed."

Mari watches Em closely, terror flashing in those dark eyes. As if speaking of the thing that took her mind might summon it once again.

"Whatever took me wasn't alive, but it wasn't dead, either." Em thinks for a moment, concentration twisting her soft features. "It came into my mind because I have a connection to the spirits, but taking me over was wholly something only a living creature with magic could do. Something not of this world or the spirit world." A shiver rakes over her, and she clutches her arms tighter around herself."I can't recall anything said in my mind or otherwise. It's just a collection of sensations and feelings. All of them feel foreign and wrong."

The look of horror on my sister's face makes my guts twist. "It's gone now, right? You can't feel it anymore?" The hope in my voice sounds foolish, but I can't resist grasping for the positive. Finding the light in the dark.

"I think so," Em says, looking at the wet earth. "I don't know what I would do if it isn't."