Shadow Kissed (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 4)
Shadow Kissed: Chapter 36

Jaxson

The world dropped away.

Stephanie.

My mind whirled, completely unable to process her words. “Are you sure?”

Savannah nodded and stepped close, laying her hand on my arm. Her touch calmed the heavy seas, and the pressure in my chest released as the world seemed to steady around her.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

I’d never had time to mourn my sister, only to put out the fires after her death. To keep the pack and the LaSalles from tearing each other apart. When I’d finally had a moment to look up from the chaos, too much time had already passed.

Yet I’d never imagined her as a ghost. I’d never thought of her as anything but gone.

When I opened my eyes, shadows of concern draped across Savannah’s face.

“Are you sure it was her?” I whispered.

“I think so. We need to meet her again in the Garden of the Wolves. She said you could ask questions…”

My mind reeled with the possibilities. Our pack had always prohibited speaking with the dead, but the chance to talk to my sister…it was intoxicating. I studied Savannah in every detail. Could it be true that my sister had returned to help us? Or to warn us?

I swallowed. “What did she say?”

Her hand traced up my arm. “We spoke about Billy. And the Dark God.”

“Is that why she came?”

Savannah looked away, out over the water. “She came to warn us that we won’t be able to defeat him unless I’m whole. She said we must travel to the land of the dead to get that shard of my wolf’s soul back.”

I sucked in a sharp breath and gripped her arms. “Savannah, I’m sorry, but no. Crossing the veil between the worlds is perilous. Our legends say that those who enter the Deadlands don’t return. We’ll be able to release your wolf once we stop the Dark God. Then you won’t be in danger of being controlled.”

She bit her lip. “There’s more. She said that without my wolf, we won’t be able to overcome him. We need to replace a way to do this—I don’t think we have another choice.”

Blood pounded in my temples as a million doubts tore at me. My sister wouldn’t lead us astray, would she?

Never. My father might be willing to throw me to the wolves, but Stephanie—I could always trust Stephanie.

I made Savannah repeat their conversation over and over, looking for any clue she might have missed. Finally, Savannah stepped back and threw her hands down. “Enough. My gut says she’s telling the truth. We need to try.”

I studied her, truly studied her: the fire that flushed her cheeks, the set of her jaw, the strength of her stance. My mate was the key to it all—to the prophecy, to the Dark God, to me. And she needed to be whole.

That had to come first, or we would all fall.

The others could handle everything else. The pack, the council, the preparation. Right now, my mate needed one thing.

I nodded. “Okay.”

Her expression transformed as the reality of the situation sank in: we were going into the Deadlands. She nodded, no longer quite as confident. “Okay, then. We do this. We need to go now. Stephanie said we didn’t have much time.”

We skirted the shoreline back to the portal, where we found the loremaster and Sam, who was perched on a large boulder.

Sam hopped down as soon as she saw us. “There you are! What took you so long? People have been filtering out for half an hour. The loremaster said you two survived the trial, so what happened to you?”

Savannah gave her a hug. “Thanks for being here and speaking up. For everything. This might sound crazy, but Stephanie appeared to me, and we need to go to the land of the dead.”

“Are you nuts?” Sam snapped.

Savannah explained everything, and when she was done, all Sam could do was run her fingers through her golden-blonde hair. “Holy shit. This is crazy—you know this is crazy, right?”

The loremaster thinned her lips and narrowed her eyes. “It will be very dangerous, Jaxson. It’s not wise.”

Savannah looked from the loremaster to Sam to me, flickers of doubt and despair creeping into the shadows of her expression. But I was set.

I laid my hand on Sam’s shoulder, its weight the end of the discussion. “If this ghost turns out to truly be my sister, then we must go. You and Regina will need to organize the pack to defend Magic Side. Regina and I had started drafting emergency plans for defense and for evacuation. She’ll know where to begin.”

Sam’s protest died on her lips as she looked between us.

Savannah brushed her red hair out of her face. “You can do this, Sam. The Order and my family are working on barricades against the Dark God’s magic. Coordinate with Casey. You’ve kicked his ass, and he’ll respect that. Plus, he thinks you’re hot, so he’s way more likely to cooperate.”

I texted Regina a heads-up as Savannah unslung her pack and handed it to Sam. “The moonstone is in here. You used it once before. If anything happens to us, it should be in Magic Side, where someone can use it.”

“You can’t be serious about this,” Sam said, her voice overwhelmed and unbelieving.

I slipped my phone into my pocket and addressed our loremaster. “Put your head together with the other loremasters. There must be some clue in the histories, no matter how small. Something we can use. I started, but maybe you’ll have better luck.”

She grasped my arm. “We’ll comb through the legends, but if you’re going to risk entering the Deadlands, you need to understand that there are rules. You cannot drink or partake of the food there. Do not sleep, and do not stay more than a day. If you do, you’ll begin to forget the land of the living and seek only to join the dead.”

I studied the lines of worry that creased her face. “No food, no water, no sleep. One day. We can do that.”

She shook her head absently as she let me go. “Time is not the same there. And in the legends, those who enter are always seduced to stay. Everything in the Deadlands is a trap designed to keep you there. No matter how well-meaning your sister is, all ghosts call to the living to join them forever.”

I glanced at Sam, who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “Stop that. We’re coming back, and we’ll be stronger than ever. Be ready.”

She nodded, and the four of us headed toward the old portal in the woods.

A moment later, we stepped one by one out of the ether. The Garden of the Wolves was just as we’d left it, with wildflowers blooming all along the paths.

Savannah looked around. “I don’t see her.”

“I know where she’ll be,” I said as I inclined my head toward the top of the mausoleum. “With our ancestors.”

Sam gave Savy an awkward hug goodbye, but Savannah shook her head. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back soon. And I’ll have my wolf. Just don’t let my cousin burn down half of Magic Side trying to protect it.”

I squeezed Sam’s shoulder. She was one of the best. A loyal ally, a friend. Family. “You’ve got this. Now go whip everybody into shape.”

“Gods, please come back,” she pleaded.

“We will.” Then Savannah and I turned and headed along the winding paths until we reached the old, weathered mausoleum.

“Any sign of Stephanie?” I whispered.

Savannah shook her head, and we circled the building. When we came around the front, we stopped short. My chest tightened, and my mouth went dry.

Stephanie stood beside the door, framed by the pillars and the deeply carved letters on the lintel above: Laurent.

I could see her. Actually see her.

She hadn’t aged a day, though she was translucent, and her face had a distant look that it hadn’t worn in life. Every muscle in my body urged me to run her, but instead, I placed my hand out protectively in front of Savannah. “Who are you, spirit?”

A sad smile touched Stephanie’s face, an expression I’d learned to resent as pity when I was younger, though it made my heart ache now. “You haven’t changed at all, Jaxson. Stronger. Tougher. But still the same man.”

I hardened my heart. “You need to prove who you are. What’s the first thing I stole?”

“That I know of? A six-pack of Miller. You made me cover for you. We drank it together and threw the bottles into the lake because we were young and stupid.” She brushed her ethereal hair guiltily away from her face. “I told Father, you know.”

Shock overruled my suspicion. “What?”

I remembered every detail of that first heist—the jitters of deciding to do it, the thrill of escape, the glory of those cold beers, purchased with audacity alone. But I didn’t recall getting ratted out.

“He caught me tipsy later,” Stephanie admitted. “I gave you up. He was so pissed—at me—for snitching. He said that it was more important that you trust me than him.”

“I had no idea.”

She cocked her head in a condescending big sister way. “He didn’t punish you because he didn’t want to reveal that I told. He said we’d have to carry each other through life. But I think now that I look back on it, I just let you carry me. You still are.”

She stepped close, as if she wanted to touch me, but stopped herself. “You need to stop carrying everything, Jaxson. The past, the future, the shadow of my death.”

“I’ll put it down when the pack is safe. When the Dark Wolf God is defeated and Savy is safe. What must we do to heal her wolf?”

My sister gave me an expression that I couldn’t read. “You follow me.”

She brushed her hand over the door of the mausoleum, and there was an audible click. Then the door slowly opened to reveal dark gray nothingness—the entrance to the Deadlands.