But I did need to.
I had to be firing on all cylinders really fucking quickly.
Hence me being in this pool with Ruxnoth’s living warmth spell infusing me, despite the long-term damage it was doing to me.
There were only three exceptions to the food thing—oatmeal, Zayn’s homemade blackcurrant truffles, and the Frosted Moon Petal Cake fromVantiqe.
But I hadn’t mentioned those here.
They were special. Sacred to me because of what they represented.
I didn’t want this nightmare down here touching that.
A heavy sigh escaped me and I picked up an epic adventure book, starting to read, as I leaned back against the side of the sunken pool with the midnight-blue spiral of magic rising from the heated liquid.
The water was imbued with what Ruxnoth was callingcurative immersion.It was a version of that shit he’d used on me that made me feel alive, that ‘warmed’ my death-cold state.
I put the book down.
What I really wanted to do was to draw on memories of my loves. To sink into them, bask in some of our best and most fulfilling moments together.
But it was too risky to invoke that more than just briefly. It could make my compartmentalization impossible. And with Dad being gone and—there it was already,connecting too easily back to that. All that love and—I choked, a sharp zinging sensation tearing through me.
It had me lurching and needing to slap my hands to the edge of the sunken pool to steady myself.
What the—
What was happening?
The zinging escalated, then evolved to what felt like magical sparks erupting within me.
But not everywhere.
Somewhere very specific.
My necromantic core.
The sensation intensified, making what was happening so clear in a very jarring way.
The bloodline link and necromantic resonance was reconnecting with mine.
It was being restored.
That could only mean one thing.
I jolted, slapping my hand to my chest, as it flared briefly and I felthim.
“Dad,” I breathed.
It slipped away all too soon, all of it.
But it didn’t matter.
He… he was… he was alive.
My dad was actually alive.
I couldn’t… how the… how?
