Sinthy stared at the bag of bones. I watched her pull her lower lip into her mouth and chew on it. She was clearly worried about something. Finally, she turned her head toward Nico. “I know I said you should stay seated, but I think I need you over here with Maddy, Nico. Get behind her on your knees and place your hands on her shoulders.” She hesitated for a moment. “Hold on to her.”
Hold on to me? Was I going to fly across the room or something? I didn’t verbalize the question. Instead, I smiled at Nico as he came over and knelt behind me. The warm feeling of his hands on my shoulders was comforting and helped ground me. I looked into Gabriella’s vacant eyes and whispered. “It’s all going to be okay.” I wasn’t sure if she could understand, but I hoped she did.
Sinthy hung the bag of bones on her wrist by the drawstring and took a deep breath. “All right. Let’s do this.”
She opened her arms wide like she was going to hug someone, then paused for an instant before bringing her hands together in a loud clap. I thought the world had ended. The sound of her hands coming together was so much louder than it had any right to be. It rattled the windows in their frames and shook the very house itself. Sebastian, Felipe, and Tiago clamped their hands on their ears and jerked in surprise. The sound echoed around the room like rolling thunder. Fear shot through me. What was this girl capable of? Thank God I trusted her. Otherwise, I’d be terrified of her.
As the sound of her clap reverberated around the room, Sinthy took the bag and opened it, dumping the contents into Gabriella’s hands. I held my mother’s hands together, and the bones felt heavy. I blinked in surprise as the tiny white, gray, and yellow bones poured out. It was like Sinthy had dumped cinder blocks into her hands. The bones shouldn’t have felt that heavy. I looked down and saw they were each very faintly streaked with my blood. My biceps strained from holding Gabriella’s hands up. Sinthy needed to hurry.
The witch put both her hands over the bones and muttered another incantation. Then she dug a small glass orb out of her robes and slammed it to the ground. A sharp, acrid stench filled my nose, making my eyes water. Then Sinthy slammed her palms together again.
This clap was louder than the previous one. I could feel the pulse of sound waves coursing through my chest, and my hair vibrated beside my face. A surprising sensation came from my hands, and I looked down to see the bones trembling in Gabriella’s hands. Suddenly, they were no longer heavy but light. Weightless. They shimmered and sparked as they bounced together. I could feel the ripples of magical power pulsing out of them. It terrified me.
Wind billowed through the room—not a breeze but a full-force gale, much like a storm on the ocean. All the windows and doors were closed. It was coming from the stones. On the couch, the three men looked like children who’d suddenly stumbled upon some existential horror they couldn’t explain. Felipe, hands still on his ears, screamed, “What the fuck is happening?”
“No matter what,” Sinthy shouted over the wind, “do not let go. Never let go. Same for you, Nico. Hold her, don’t let her release Gabriella’s hands.”
We both nodded. My hair whipped around my face, making it hard to see Sinthy, but I kept doing my best to concentrate on holding my mother’s hands. Sinthy stood behind Gabriella, her hands an inch above the other woman’s head, and began to chant. The words were incomprehensible, but I could sense the power in them. Each word, every syllable, seemed to slam into me. The wind rose to a fever pitch. Pillows on the couch started to lift away and spin around the room, as did dozens of stray pieces of paper and magnets from the fridge.
Gabriella began, almost imperceptibly, to shake. The bones jostled in her hands. Soon, she was convulsing in the chair. It was all I could do to hold her hands together to keep the bones in place. Nico pushed against my shoulders, trying to keep me close to her, even as the wind tried to force us apart. “Don’t let go!” Sinthy screamed. “It’s about to get weird.”
I gaped at her. “It’s not fucking weird yet?” I shouted, but my words vanished in the wind.
Sinthy lifted her hands higher above Gabriella’s head and slowly turned her palms toward the ceiling. Then, faster than I could see, she clutched her fingers together, forming two fists. As soon as her fingers came together, a powerful cold wave slapped me. In less than an instant, everything vanished. Instead of the house and my friends, I was seeing memories. Not mine. These were Gabriella’s memories. They flashed acrossmy mind like three-dimensional movies. Gabriella and I were combined into one being. I lived the memories like I was inside her mind when they first happened.
A young boy, maybe thirteen, handsome and confident. David Samuels, my father. He grinned at Gabriella. This was the first moment my mother ever saw him.
The same boy, a year older, leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. The first of many kisses.
A massive slavering beast, standing on two legs, thickly muscled arms hanging low, fingers tipped with razor-sharp claws. Edemas’s wolf. The werewolf that shared David’s body. She’d never seen it before. Fear pulsed through her like water through a raging river. But the fear was tempered by love. He was a terrifying sight to behold, but she knew in her heart that he would never hurt her.
David, a year before he died. Sitting, holding his head in his hands, tears dripping to the floor. “I just want to be normal. I don’t want him living inside me anymore,” David said, looking up at Gabriella. “I’m afraid of what he makes me do when he takes over.”
Gabriella standing in front of a mirror, rubbing her belly. The excitement and anxiety were minor emotions compared to the love she already had for the baby growing inside her.
Screams. So many screams. A man had her with his arms around her chest, dragging her away. Kenneth’s voice yelling at Gabriella to run. David screamed for her to go. To go with his brother and allow him to buy her time.
Heart-rending sadness as she held a baby. A baby I knew was me. Tears fell from her eyes, landing on the baby’s cheek. The child flinched at the sensation but reached out a hand to grab her finger. Gabriella, sobbing uncontrollably, lifted the baby and handed her to Kenneth, who disappeared out the door. A sadness unlike anything I’d ever felt in my life fell uponher, and she wished she could die. Dying would be easier than giving away the thing she loved more than anything else.
The thrill of excitement and happiness when a small girl came toddling into her exam room. Gabriella’s heart was full for the first time in a long time as the tiny girl reached out a hand to her.
Dozens more memories fluttered by. It was overwhelming. All that emotion. The pain, the happiness of a full life. The moments that made a person who they were. I was able to see all of it. Relive all of it. I was not ready for it. Not in the least.
Then there were the dark memories from the last month. Viola’s face: beautiful, cold, and harsh. Gabriella’s fear of what the woman would do to me and her determination to protect me at all costs. At the cost of her life if needed.
Finally, after what seemed like years, I blinked and stood in a room that was solid white. The living room had vanished. Nico and Sinthy were nowhere in sight. All I could see was a figure wandering through the white nothingness some distance away. Even in the distance, I could tell it was Gabriella.
I put a hand to my mouth to call out to her. “Gab… Mom? Mom, over here.”
She turned and saw me. Slowly, she took a few hesitant steps in my direction. “I know you,” she said, calling back to me.
My heart broke a little. She’d been pulled deep and almost forgotten everything. “Yes. It’s me. It’s Maddy.”
She froze and put a hand to her mouth in shock. “Maddy? My baby girl? Is it really you?”
Before I could answer, a thick growl erupted from my right. I spun and saw Gabriella’s wolf trotting up to her. The two figures stood side by side, looking at each other. The wolf looked agitated and afraid, its tail tucked between its legs. I’d never seen an animal look so frightened.
I held my hands up. “It’s all right. You’re safe. Come to me.” I motioned for them both to come closer.
