I cringe, forcing myself to nod. When they return with him, Mar’s grandmother waves us forward.
“Come.”
We follow her through a doorway hung with beaded curtains. Wooden shelves line the walls, housing colorful vials, grimoires, spices.
“Lay him here,” she commands as we duck beneath the bundles of dried flowers hanging from the ceiling.
Kai helps Dover lower Zadyn onto the wooden table. The witch moves closer, undoing the rope around his waist and pulling back the cloth draped over him.
I clutch my mouth at the sight.
He’s already starting to decay, his body a bluish-white color, the dried blood around his chest nearly black. Horrible flashbacks play in my head. The sound of my blade cutting through flesh and bone to strike him in his most vulnerable place. The sensation of my hands doused in his hot blood. The vacant look on his face as he left me behind with a mountain of remorse.
As if noticing my horror, Mar’s hand slips through mine. I turn to her.
“Marideth, I’m so sorry. Your magic?—”
“I was working with borrowed time anyway.”
I clutch her hand tighter. “I promise you, I will figure out a way to restore it.”
I’m not sure if she believes me, but she nods, a somber expression on her face. We watch as the elder gathers a bowl of blue liquid and smears a series of runes over Zadyn’s unmoving chest.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“It’s a spell to preserve the body while we work.”
“Work?”
She lifts her argent eyes to mine. “If you go diving into the After without any training, you’ll never come back. Just know before we embark on this journey that there is always a cost to these bargains. The price is to be paid with another life.”
“I’ll have to kill someone?”
“No. The Fates will decide who to take in his stead. It will be out of your hands. Are you still willing to proceed?”
I nod without hesitation. “Yes.”
I don’t care if that makes me a bad person. I don’t even care that I’ll be taking someone else’s life, taking someone from their family or friends. I just want him back.
I never claimed to be a good person. And right now, I’m beyond desperate.
She proceeds with her ritual, plucking a sprig of dried lavender from overhead, crushing it between her palms, and sprinkling it over the runes.
“You can trust her,” Mar says quietly. “She’s the Matron of our entire clan. If anyone can help, it’s her.”
The Matron’s eyes drift closed as she mutters something I can’t make out. She beckons me with a bony finger.
“Come forward, Blackblood.” Mar releases me so I can stand across from her on Zadyn’s other side.
“I require a drop.” Her hand unfurls toward me, a small knife glinting in the other. Without hesitation, I lay my hand in hers. More whispered words follow as she slits my palm and flips it over to squeeze a few drops onto Zadyn’s chest.
“We will see if there is anything left to work with.”
“What does that mean?”
“If your blood disappears into the runes, it means your connection is not fully severed. A modicum of life remains, though the body is expired. If the blood remains pooled and does not dissolve…I fear he is too deep into the After, and there is nothing to be done.”
My breathing quickens at the notion.
