He meant the Glob, the thing that absorbed magic and stored it. I had no idea where the energies went when the Glob absorbed them. Which was kinda scary. As scary as where the death-magic energies went when Molly used her power. Maybe they went to the same place. I grunted, a sound that might have meant anything.
We entered the main cave, the roof in a dome above us, stalagmites and stalactites rising and falling, the few columns where they met holding up the roof. A fire burned in the fire pit, smoke rising, smelling of hickory and cedar. The fire was warm, which was a surprise. There was a pitcher made of fired clay and a wood ladle. A war drum, like the one from the sweathouse. A basket of dried and fresh herbs rested near the drum. A large, elliptical stone, flat on top, with a long stone channel down the middle, rested beside it, a rounded stone in the groove. It was ahand mill used to grind grain or macerate nuts. To the other side was a much smaller mortar and pestle for grinding herbs. Wood and kindling were stacked in the shadows.
A pile of deer hides were folded nearby. Packs were lined against the walls. Cured-hide water bags hung near the far wall, some wet and dripping. I turned to the fire and saw Beast, lying on her belly, resting, head up, ears pricked, looking into the dark. She wasn’t dead, at least not in my vision.
“I’m not sure why I’m here,” I said. “I’m even less sure why you’re here. And even more so, I’m not sure whose side you’re on.”
Hayyel laughed, that joyous sound that quavered along my nerves the way vampire laughter did. Odd thought that, a comparison for a later time. “You thought I was a watcher?” he asked.
“I thought you were one of the fallen.”
That sobered him fast. “Few of us have autonomy. Guardians are among the few.”
“You’re saying you’re my guardian angel?”
At my disbelieving tone, he gave me that amused expression again. “No. I am guardian to many, including Angelina Everhart Trueblood, but in this place, I am Beast’s guardian.”
I opened my mouth and shut it. Started to speak again and didn’t. I sat and added wood to the fire. Warmth from the flames heated my body. I put my crown on the rock to my left and Hayyel sat to my right. I picked a sprig of rosemary from the herbs and dropped it on the burning wood. The strong scent of the burning herb rose on the air. “Okay. You’re Beast’s guardian angel. And Angie Baby’s. And you fight demons. And save werewolves. And help with vision quests, assuming that’s what this is. You’re a busy angel. I’m dying. I figure you’re here to take my soul to be judged, right?” He didn’t reply and my eyes narrowed as I watched the flames climb along the dry wood and char the rosemary to ash. Tone sour, I said, “But you’ve got something you want me to do first.”
Hayyel chuckled. “I have nothing planned for you,Dalonige’ i Digadoli. This choice is yours, to live or to die, as it has always been. To serve as queen or to slip intothe next world.” He stretched out his arms, wrapped his fingers around one knee, pulling that leg up. He rocked back against the support, shoulders straining the fabric of his tunic, wings gone again. “I am merely here as an interested observer as you choose your next pathway.”
“I let go and got sucked into the water. I either went to another world in the rift or I’m drowning. Oh. And I have Dudley cancer. And the shadow’s talons in my body. And I’ve bled to death. Kinda out of my control.”
“Or you bubbled time and are ready to be healed.”
“That’s what got me in trouble and gave me Dudley in the first place.”
Hayyel shrugged. “Live or die.” He smiled. “However. You already braided the powers and magics together. It seems a shame to waste them. And you do have the scale...”
I sat up straight and reached into the belt wrapped around my waist. In its folds I found the Glob, the Anzu feather, and the arcenciel scale. Once upon a time I had used it as a mirror and untangled some of the mess that was my DNA. “Humph. How about that?”
I looked at my middle, seeing the tangled, twisted, shredded, knotted, doubled, broken DNA. And all that magic from too many species, too many sources. “It would take forever to get that all fixed.”
“Magic broke you. Perhaps magic can fix you.”
“Or... giving up magic.” I lifted the Glob in my other hand and held the two magical items close together. In my mind, I found the coil of braided magics in my belly and wrapped them all about the Glob and the scale. It was a messy tangle, much like a present wrapped by a kid. I addedle breloqueand the medicine bags containing the DNA from my five-year-old self into the mix. “If I’m going to do this, I can’t do it alone. I need power other than timewalking. I need the power of the beloved woman, the warrior who makes peace. I need—”
Heat shot through me as if Dudley had caught fire. A blistering pain, as if a red-hot branding iron had been dipped into my middle and boiled my juices. It stole my breath, stopped my heart. I tumbled back, off the warm rock to the cold stone floor, and landed hard. Smackingmy head. Stars swam in my vision and through me, joining with the star magics in my middle. Whirling and spinning. The Glob sucked up the magic, ripping the spinning energy out of me. It drew in all the magics, all the broken bits of power and shredded DNA. Taking with it the pain. Stealing the tumor, sweeping Dudley into the maelstrom. A tornado of power and intent and purpose.
I took a deep, pain-free breath and sighed it out. The scale and the tail of my braided magics floated inside me. Together they began to unravel the mess that was my DNA. The extra strands disappeared. The shredded strands mended before my eyes. The scale spun and danced along with my own skinwalker magic, and the tail of the braided energies joined in.
Time passed. I had a feeling it was a lot of time. Days. Maybe weeks. I slept. I dreamed. I felt the passage of the moon and the tides and the movement of winds.
I came to slowly, first my hearing, then my sense of smell. I could tell by the ambient sounds and the wet-cave and old-fire scents that I was still in my soul home. I opened my eyes, focusing on the dome of the cave-roof overhead. Tilting my head, I looked down my body, inside myself, studying the energies in my middle.
Dudley was gone. The scarlet mote, the dark taint of blood-witch magics, the black mote left in me by Bethany when she tried to kill me, were all gone. As if they had never been.
I was healed. I sat up slowly, the muscles of my abdomen pulling hard, to find Hayyel sitting on the rock beside me. The fire was out. The cavern of my soul home was cool and dark. Beast sat across from me, her eyes glowing gold. Alive. Thank God, alive.
“Go home,Dalonige’ i Digadoli,” Hayyel said. “It is not your time. You have much work to do.”
Instantly I was sucked into a frigid stream of water and pulled along through the current.
***
I followed the current, warm against my skin, swimming leisurely up through the heated water. I broke the surface, cooler air on my skin. I thought,Beast?
I am here. We are Beast.
