“Never had anyone react to my healing like that,” he said softly, not quite meeting my eyes.
I tried to laugh, but it came out broken. “I’ve never reacted to healing magic either…not like that. Are you sure your special healing power isn’textraspecial?”
“I’m positive,” he assured, scratching the back of his neck. His ears had turned red. “But I am glad you’re okay. You didn’t take longer than a minute to heal. That’s impressive on its own, even for a basilisk.”
“Thank you,” I murmured. “I feel great now.”
“Good.”
“We have to do something!” Aura’s voice cracked through the chaos, firm despite the tremble in it. She raised a hand, fingers glowing with imp magic, her eyes locked on the mad warlock. “We can’t keep going like this!”
Her magic zig-zagged before it struck above him in a chaotic zap.
The warlock stumbled back as a branch fell off the tree above us and hit him in the head. He roared as if he were a wounded animal.
Slater took advantage of the distraction and lunged. His chaos magic crackled through the air like a thunderstorm. From him, Snakey launched forward with a shrieking hiss, the air warping around the still-enormous spectral serpent.
“Bind him!”Slater snarled.
Snakey coiled with impossible speed, his obsidian-scaled body slamming into the warlock and wrapping tight around his torso and arms.
The warlock screamed as the manifestation squeezed tightly, pinning him in place with violent shudders of magical energy.
“Mirabelle!” the warlock bellowed. The name tore out of him like she alone had the key to break through his madness and anger. “Mirabelle,I’m here! I’m right here! Please, don’t—” His power flared again, a desperate flare of grief-ridden magic.
“Don’t hurt him!” Eleanor cried out, stepping forward despite the magical explosions. Her hands were raised in a pleading gesture. “He’s not in control. He’s clearlybroken!”
“He’s already tried killing us!” Dimitri shouted, stepping between Eleanor and the warlock. “We can’t let him loose again.”
“Snakey, tighter!” Slater barked.
The chaos serpent hissed gleefully and grew. He was now six-times his usual size, now towering, wrapping again and again around the warlock’s thrashing body, squeezing until bones creaked and sparks sputtered from the warlock’s fingertips.
“Snakey? You named himSnakey?”Zuko chuckled, pushing his hair back from his eyes.
“He said he named him when he was four,” I explained.
“Ah.” He frowned. “You two had a lot of bonding time, didn’t you?”
“Jealous?” Slater smirked.
“Focus,” Dimitri snapped at them, but I was already focused.
The warlock’s head lolled, jerking from side to side. He was muttering again, his words barely coherent. His lips didn’t stop trembling. “She was here…she was here, I felt her. I tasted her name on the wind. Mirabelle…please don’t go. Please don’t leave me again…”
Each word he spoke shattered a little more of the man’s mind. His eyes flickered with fading gold as he bucked helplessly against Snakey’s hold.
He didn’t see reality. He was somewhere else entirely, probably deep inside a memory. Not just any memory but a grief-loop. Only the loss of a fated mate could do this to someone. He was in a shattered place where his mate still whispered to him, even though she was probably long gone.
“I can try to heal his mind, but…” Koa knelt beside the snake-bound warlock, his expression carved in heartbreak.
“Try,” Eleanor encouraged him, her brown eyes filled with hope.
Gently, Koa reached out. The soft whoosh of his healing magic igniting whispered into the clearing. Pale blue flames curled from his fingers, tracing delicate tendrils across the warlock’s temples and into his skull.
For a moment, the flames danced. It was beautiful, almost hopeful. The warlockdefinitelydid not have the same reaction I had to Koa’s healing.
The flames slowed.
