I moved up next to her and looked into Gabriella’s eyes. Maddy was right. Nothing was there. She’d reacted for a second when I mentioned Maddy’s name back in the lab. I’d hoped actually seeing her daughter would bring her around. I turned to Sinthy. “Do I need to call Doc? Or is there something you can do for her?”
The young woman frowned and kneeled beside us. She gently nudged Maddy over. “Let me see what I can find. They used some shitty spell on that door. Maybe their wannabe spellcaster did something to her. If so, it should be easily fixable.”
Sinthy took a deep breath and placed her fingers on the side of Gabriella’s head, right at her temples. I pulled Maddy away and stood with Tiago and Luis, watching the witch at work. Sinthy closed her eyes and lowered her head. A few moments later, the familiar crackling sensations filled my head. I still wasn’t sure if the sound was actually real or only in my head. It increased as Sinthy breathed out hard. It was like she was straining against something or searching for something. I wished I could tell what was happening.
Then Sinthy gasped and yanked her fingers away from Gabriella’s head. The young woman collapsed onto her butt, putting a hand to her mouth. The look of terror and confusion in her eyes made my blood run cold. Something was wrong. “What’s the matter?” I asked.
Sinthy shook her head, still gazing at Gabriella in wonder. “I didn’t think it was possible,” she murmured to herself.
“What?” Maddy asked, falling to her knees again beside Sinthy. “You didn’t thinkwhatwas possible?”
Sinthy slowly got to her feet and took a step away from Gabriella before looking at Maddy. “Her wolf is lost.”
“What do you mean lost?” Luis asked. “Like it’s asleep? Or suppressed like Maddy’s was?”
Sinthy turned to him and shook her head once. “No. I mean it is lost. Gone. Not inside her at all.”
The world seemed to stand still. The look of surprise and terror on Tiago and Luis’s faces matched the fear I felt. It was like an ice cube had been slowly dragged up my spine. That shouldn’t be possible. The wolf was part of you as much as your heart or brain was part of you. There shouldn’t be any way that a wolf could disappear like that.
“What does that mean?” Maddy asked. “Will she be okay?”
Sinthy shook her head again. “I can’t feel the wolf anywhere. It’s like it’s gone. Completely. For now, this means your mother is a human. I’ll have to think about it. Maybe there’s something I can do, but…” She trailed off and gave a confused shake of her head.
A glance toward Gabriella showed the same vacant stare. Was this what happened if your animal was ripped from your soul? Your body kept going, but your mind was too broken to continue. I shivered again. An existential fear unlike any I’d ever encountered before fell on me, draping me in terror and shock. This was almost worse than death.
100
MADDY
The stunned silence in the room was deafening. Her wolf was gone? How could that even happen? I stared at Gabriella and saw the emptiness in her eyes. I couldn’t even begin to fathom what she must have been going through. I’d only found my own wolf a few weeks ago, and already I couldn’t imagine life without her. It would be like a piece of myself had been sliced off my body. To have been a shifter her whole life like she had—it had to feel like a lobotomy. That was exactly what she looked like she’d gone through. Like her mind had been broken by the loss.
I clutched at Nico’s shirt. “Have you ever heard of this before?” I looked at Tiago. “Any of you? Is this something that happens?”
Nico couldn’t take his eyes off my mother, the look of horror and confusion like a veil on his face. He simply shook his head. Tiago ran a hand through his thick black hair and gaped at me. “I’ve never heard of this. I can check with the other elders, but I feel like something this important would be something every shifter would have heard about. This is… God… this is even worse than being forced to shift. This is the loss of everythingwe are.” He hung his head and turned away, heading toward the door. “I’m going to check in back home and try to talk to my own father. He’s the oldest member of our pack, nearly ninety at this point. If anyone knows anything, I trust it to be him. I’ll be back.”
Tiago left, but none of us really acknowledged him as he went out the door. We were still too shell-shocked. Even Sinthy had the look of someone who’d just watched a car crash—horrified, surprised, and confused. She was probably wondering what it would be like to suddenly no longer be a witch. How much that would warp her mind. She understood exactly what this meant to us.
I took my mother’s hand in mine. The skin was cool and smooth, but she didn’t grasp my hand. Instead, her fingers were limp and loose. It was like holding the hand of someone who was asleep even though her eyes were open and blinking. I turned to the group again. “Do we think it was the poison? Is this part of what it does? Maybe the people who are forced to shift eventually turn back, but they lose their animal—could that be what this is?”
Luis shook his head. “We watched tons of videos. Your mom is the only one who ever converted back. The rest stayed as their animal. She’s the only one who was able to return to her human form. This isn’t what the poison was intended to do. Even Viola looked pissed and confused. No, this is an anomaly.”
“Right,” Nico added. “This is something totally out of the blue. But I think the royals want to figure it out. That’s why they were observing her as closely as they were after she converted back.”
I lowered my head, suddenly feeling more exhausted than I ever had in my life. “We need to get her somewhere so she can rest.”
Nico gestured toward the hallway that led to the back of the house. “There’s the bonus room. I’ve got a futon in there. She can sleep there.”
“Okay. Great.” I stood and helped Gabriella up.
She was almost comatose, but there was still something functioning in her mind. I didn’t have to drag her up and drape her across my shoulders like a dead body. When I tugged at her hand, she automatically moved to stand up. Her eyes, unfocused as they were, tilted toward the hallway Nico had mentioned. It gave me some hope that she was still in there somewhere. Maybe we could figure out a way to get her back. Hopefully, her wolf too, but even if she was only human, that was better than this. She could learn to live a human life, but only if she was able to come around and break out of this fugue.
Before we could get to the hallway, Mom and Dad came down the stairs, probably to check on the commotion and noise. They froze when they saw me leading Gabriella by the hand. I looked up at them and saw the recognition in both their eyes. It had been years since they’d seen this woman, but they recognized my old pediatrician. The woman who’d pretended to be a simple doctor but had, in reality, been my birth mother. Dad only looked surprised, but Mom’s face was red, and I could see the stirrings of anger right beneath the surface.
“Now isn’t the time, guys,” I said, guiding Gabriella along.
“Why is she here? I mean… how did she even get here?” Dad asked, taking another step down the stairs.
I sighed. I’d never been more mentally tired in my life. “Nico.” I glanced toward Mom and Dad. “I can’t. I really can’t. Please?”
