Chapter

36

A moment later, he died laughing. His face was still skewed into an open-mouthed, howling laughter, but his voice was gargled and rough as he choked on his own blood. Then there was no more sound at all, his single eye turned glassy and his black pupil expanded as he died.

I was speechless, aghast at the wretched creature before me. Geranium stepped away from him and I stood up, wiping the blood from my hands onto what was left of the material of my pants. "Geranium."

The black wolf looked at me, waiting for a command. "Let the others know. The Tally are beginning their attack. There will he more where he came f

Geranium nodded his giant sh aggy head and disappeared through the trees, melting into the black of the forest

I stared down at the man at my feet. Somehow, without us noticing it, darkness had slunk back into our home. Looking down I wondered, maybe it had never really left

-Dorothy-

Gideon and Fae came to replace us along with Rita who had just arrived too. Fac cried out in alarm at the state of Angie and Cadeon's face was drawn and pale. Nothing like the mangled b*dy of your superior to shock you into sobriety.

They rushed to my side and Gideon lifted Angie gently from the ground while she rasped and spluttered,

"Angie Hey? You're going to be okay"

He didn't sound very sure of himself

Fae turned to me, her expression somber and tease. "Gideon has a van, we need to get her to the healers. It seemed like she was talking past me, reassuring herself more than informing me."She's going to be fine. They can fix her."

I could do nothing but nod quietly. We had all seen the extent of Angie's injuries. There was no fixing that

Fae worked to unlock the handcuffs that had just cost Angie her life. I felt a stab of guilt, like the point of a knife as they clattered to the floor, glinting silver in the moonlight and dripping blood:

There was blood everywhere. The smell of it, rusty and metallic made my stomach turn and I stayed frozen in place on my knees staring at the pool of red slowly soaking into the gravel

My own knife lay a few feet away from where I had fallen. Dark blood, almost black had gone sticky on the blade. The shifter's blood. I was afraid to pick it up.

Kita did the honors for me and wiped it clean on her own skirt, sliding it back into the sheath on my thigh now that it was visible. Somewhere in all the commotion, my dress had been torn. I hadn't noticed it Blood trickled down my forehead from whatever wound I had acquired when I hit the gravel.

Compared to the shove from Ignatius earlier, my second fall was a bad one. Rita kneeled down next to me and touched my head, I winced at the pain that shot through my skull "Dorothy, you're hurt. Come on, get up"

She helped me to my feet and we followed along behind Fae and Gideon who were carrying Angie to Gideon's beaten-up yan. Gideon was swearing under his breath as he placed Angie across the passenger seat.

Fae balanced Angie's head on her lap and took a hold of her hand, keeping up a constant spring of soothing words. Gideon climbed into the front and kicked the car into gear as Rita and 1 dimbed in behind them.

Angie's eyes were closed now and Fac was trying to wake her up, her pleading growing more and more distraught when she got no response: My head was spinning. I was aware that everyone around me was moving very fast - frantically- but it felt like they were going in slow motion

There was a ringing in my head growing louder and louder by the second and I struggled to keep my eyes focussed. I was aware of Rita speaking to me but I couldn't make out what she was saying. 20

Chapter 6

Far was crying, clinging to Angie as her life slowly slipped away from her and her blood pooled on the floor of the shuddering van

I wondered where Ignatius was. The noise in my head drowned out any attempts at reaching him. I hoped with all my heart I that he was safe.

I wasn't sure what I was doing, or precisely way I was doing it, but I maneuvered myself next to Angie where she lay across the seats and placed a hand over the cavity in her chest where, somewhere inside, her heart was ceasing to beat.

The ringing grew louder, blocking out every oder somad around us. I felt like I was in a trance, floating over the macabre scene and my own b*dy instead of down there with everyone ele

I could feel the slow feeble beating of Angie's heart av at pumped fresh blood from her wounds, I would not let her die.

It felt like my own blood was being pumped from my b*dy, lifchlood draining from my own figure, through my fingertips. and into Angir, Pri ckles like pins and neeilles traveled over my skin and my own heartbea slowed in my chest.

My eyes were wide open but I could see nothing, pupils rolling back in my head. A stream from Fac managed to break. through the ringing and I felt Rita's hands on me, shaking me, trying to tear me away from Angie.

1 ignored them boths, focusing all of my attention and pouring life back into the b*dy before me, on saving the still barely beating heart under my palm. I felt movement beneath my finges and looked down Visible energy white and blinding was pouring in waves from my extended arm, gliding down over my skin and through my fingertips, pulang through Angie's veins and illuminating her b*dy from the inside, I watched in ailazed as the skin began to regrow and knit back together, bones cracking back into place without so much as the seam of a fracture line left behind. Tendons reconnected and veins like blue threats realigned.

It was like time itself was moving backward, but I knew that was the case. Angie was healing before my eyes, her b*dy pulling itself back together while I myself was dying.

I recognized the white glow for what it was life, my life. My energy was pouring into Angie, reviving hers like a sacred

Transaction

1 felt myself weakening, my eyelids felt heavy and my shoulders drooped. I held on though, pressing my hand to her chest until every last tear had been sealed up.

The glow began to dull and so did my senses. Fae was still holding Angie's hand, her mouth hanging open in disbelief. Rita was yelling something. The van swung and rattled with Gideon's reckless driving. Something off was happening in my own head. Spots and colors exploded before my eyes and I saw half-images that 1 couldn't quite understand. A deer with antlers that sat just wrong on its uncanny head.

A headless wolf, a raging battle. A woman whose face I just couldn't make out. She reached her arms out to me, her features blurred and shadowed.

When Angie opened her eyes, wide and terrified, I felt my vision fade and I collapsed forwards onto her healed chest before the world around me faded to black.

B

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