“It did, in a sense. My soul left my body, but it didn’t go into the afterlife. As punishment, it went to the Realm of Nightmares. That’s where I met you for the first time. We’re always saving each other, aren’t we?”
Claudia’s vision is fading. “What?”
“You don’t recognize me?” Odette leans in close enough that her sharp canines nearly pierce Claudia’s eye. She picks up Bishop and hisses.
“You’re the snake.”
She nods, moving closer to cradle Claudia’s heavy head in her lap. Bishop curls around Odette’s wrist. She wears him likea bracelet the way Claudia always does. Claudia is powerless to move. She’s like a rag doll in Odette’s arms.
Twisting her fingers in Claudia’s hair, Odette says, “That’s how I chose to appear to you. I teethed through your consciousness and tried to find some sort of beast that wouldn’t scare you. I saw you had a pet snake, and I’d hoped I wouldn’t be too frightening, but you keptfuckingrunning. All I wanted was to tell you the whole truth. I was going to try something else, but you woke me up before I could see you again.”
“I did? When?”
“That night you spilled celestial blood over my grave. You brought my soul back to my body and my body back to life.”
“But you were buried. How did you get out?”
Odette raises her hands. Her nails are shaved down to the quick. Bone shows through the skin. “I clawed.”
“Did you go to Lamour?”
Odette plays with a frayed curl at the end of Claudia’s hair. “I tried only once. He thought he was seeing a ghost. As I watched him from afar, I wondered if he was the one who trapped Sidarphion in the first place. I never thought it could be Triche.”
“Why didn’t you come see me?”
“Because I didn’t know if you would be on my side. I started slipping you more pages of my diary to watch how you responded, and then I gave you the whole thing. Though, I still didn’t know if you were going to pick Sidarphion over me.”
“I would never.” A wave of cold death washes over her. Claudia trembles under the weight of it. “He killed us both.”
“I’m going to fix it, but I can’t do it here. Triche could come back at any moment. We need to get out of here, away from Cygnus.”
“Where can we go?”
Standing Claudia up and bearing all her weight, Odette says, “Where do you think?”
Claudia can no longer keep her eyes open. She’s reliant onall other senses to tell her where they are, where they’re going. The air around her grows warmer, then colder, then warms again. She takes a deep breath, inhaling petrichor and the scent of wet, crushed leaves. They’re outside. They’re in the woods. They’re back in the same place where Claudia first arrived.
Forcing her eyes to open for one quick blink, she sees that the sun is rising over the hill, bringing the beginning of morning. The sky is a dark, powdery blue, glittering with the most stubborn stars.
Her heavy eyes close again. She hears a match strike, smells something burning.
Then, Odette carries her through a Doorway, and immediately, she feels safe. She feels like she’s home.
She opens her eyes once more with the last of her strength.
In a grand, light blue sitting room, there are Alistair, Angel, Marcherie, and Cassius. They blur together as Claudia strains to keep her eyes open.
“What the fuck?” Alistair exclaims.
“Odette?” Marcherie cries at the same time Cassius yells, “Claudia!”
Odette expels a sharp, quick breath. “I can explain everything, but I have to save her first.”
Claudia’s vision finally goes completely black. She falls out of Odette’s grasp. The last thing she feels before slipping out of consciousness is the familiar, strong hold of the man she loves.
When Claudia regains consciousness, she’s lying face down on a blue damask chaise. She’s wearing a satin robe. Her back stings; her chest stings more. Over her heart, Odette has carved Phoenix, Ara, Cygnus.
To heal the soul.
