My gaze slid to Aunt Liz, who was rocking a sheath dress. Okay, so elementals could be counted on to be a little stuffy too. In juxtaposition, Dayna shook her hands in front of her, making her many bangles clink together in her usual eclectic style.
Each of these people had taken and stored a memory from my subconscious so that the burden of my pain wouldn’t cripple them.
Hudson sighed and rolled his shoulders before initiating the clasping of hands to solidify the circle.
“When we start, we can’t break the circle, and nothing should cross it until Cora has all her memories back,” Liz said.
“Why?” Dave wondered.
Aunt Liz shook her head. “You don’t want to know.”
“Wrong.” Of course, he wanted to know.
Liz sighed. “It would have unpredictable consequences depending on who—or how—it was broken.”
“So long as we don’t swap bodies again.”
Aunt Liz tilted her head as she contemplated it. “Nope, not an issue.” She cleared her throat and began chanting the words of a spell. Magic licked the air, and tendrils of power kissed my flesh. Dave growled low, and Hudson’s lip curled. Rebecca rolled her eyes. The spell tightened, and pressure gripped my soul and captured my breath.
“You have to let it in, Cora,” Dayna reminded me.
I squeezed my eyes closed and fought against the protection I’d honed over many, many years.Let them in.
“Cora,” Hudson choked. Thuds echoed around me.
My eyes flew open, finding them all on their knees, their knuckles white as they held on tight.
“Trust me,” he pleaded. “You have to trust me.”
I concentrated on his honeyed gaze, on the eyes of the man I would be spending the rest of my mortal life with, and hopefully an eternity in our afterlife. I opened my heart to these people, who had taken my suffering and made it their own until I was strong enough to withstand it.
Tears formed as devastation smacked against my mind. Mine or theirs? Did it matter? I just had to let it in.
Flashes of my grandmother, no longer the bystander and orchestrator of my torture, now a hands-on woman on a mission. My heart broke into a thousand pieces. This was so much worse. Her hands causing the pain, the same ones that held my blood. It was the ultimate betrayal. Her gaze shadowed with sticky power not her own as she smiled down at my prone form being brought to the brink of death again and again but never allowing me to fall into the promise of peace.
The White Furry Menace shot through the circle, meowed at Hudson, and dropped a mouse at his feet.
Aunt Liz’s eyes went wide. Shit, shit, shit. Did the cat count?
“I am not cut out to be a rat,” Rebecca muttered.
A rat? Nope, no way, no...
My memories scattered, tore away from my mind, leaving me bereft. Like a bad horror movie that ran out of budget, everything went black.
I was tired and a little itchy. Why was I itchy?
I blinked my eyes open and focused on the ceiling above me. The unfamiliar ceiling. I frowned and rolled onto my side, finding a bunch of sleeping people on the floor beside me. What on earth? Was this some kind of spiritual retreat thing? The ones where everyone professed to having an epiphany when really all they got was a good nap?
I wasn’t averse to an afternoon siesta, but I think I’d prefer it on a bed.
The huge guy with big muscles groaned and rolled to his side so he was facing me. His lips tilted in a smirk as his gaze slid down my body. “Hey.”
Hey?I glanced down, relieved to find myself dressed. Good news—not an orgy.
“Who are you?” I whispered. Something occurred to me, and my throat bobbed. “Who am I?”
Maybe it was a retreat where they drugged the smoke they pumped into the air, and everything would come back to us as soon as our lungs cleared. I inhaled a deep breath to help it along. The sooner, the better.
