I tried to make out Kalama’s response, but she spun and put her back to me, and my attention all went to the queen. Queen Banpiroa stood next to her daughter, no longer wearing a muumuu and no longer looking like she needed a nap. She looked feral and beyond terrifying. Strange tattoos crawled along the side of her face like souls begging to be freed. Inching forward to better hear, I watched in horror as the queen nodded to her daughter, and Kalama picked one of the nearby blood mages and threw her over the cliff. I froze, and my jaw gaped as two more went over the side.
“We’ll have an answer in a few minutes,” Kalama laughed. “If they can respond to my voice, we’ll know they survived, and we’ll make the jump.”
“Sometimes, the best way to discover if something is viable is to give it a try,” Reece said, stepping out from between the trees by Kalama. His gaze then snapped to me. “Wouldn’t you agree, Spirit Walker?”
Crap. He held one of those spirit crystals again, so he could see my translucent form.
I started to rise, and at the same time, he threw something with the force of a bullet. His weapon glinted in the moonlight; I had no time to dive out of the way. Searing pain sliced my abdomen as his blade struck me in the belly, lodging in the middle of my spectral body as if it were flesh. Agony tore through me as I tumbled backward and landed on the ground. I waited for the pain to be absorbed by one of my shields, but the pain never receded. It was constant, sharp agony. I felt like I was going to die.
Wait. How could I be feeling this in spirit form?
Glancing down at the weapon, I saw it was celestite, same as had grazed my spirit-arm and injured me before. Grabbing for it, I discovered my spirit couldn’t hold it, but somehow, it was stuck in me. The urge to bring my body here slammed into me, but to do so would surely mean my death, wouldn’t it? Was my body somewhere, bleeding out? I couldn’t focus enough to snap my attention back to my physical self. Everything hurt … and my brain was muddled.
The blood mages hovered around me, and Kalama tsked, clicking her tongue to the roof of her mouth.
“Mother! Dinner has arrived,” she trilled in a singsong voice.
No!
I frantically tried to remove the crystal blade, to no avail.
Before Kalama’d even finished her statement, the queen was here.
Her ghostly white hair writhed in the wind, and her eyes, flooded black, were pools reflecting her soul’s darkness. She wore all-black battle armor fit for a queen. As she circled my struggling soul, her lips curled in a vicious smile. Blood dripped from her fangs, and when she spoke, her teeth were tinged red.
“Give me the shards,” she hissed.
Shards? Like there was more than one of these soul-killer stones? My fear jumped to panic.
‘Rage?’ I called, but my voice bounced around the nothingness, and I realized he couldn’t hear me in this form.
“There’s only one left, My Queen,” Kalama said. “But her soul is bound here until we let her go.”
“Which will never happen,” Cara snickered.
Think, Nai.
‘Zia!’ I called for one of my ancestors. Spirit could still talk to spirit, right? I had to hope the celestite dagger didn’t cancel out all my powers.
Zia appeared beside me, but her expression of surprise turned to horror as she absorbed my predicament.
‘You need your body to pull that stone out,’ she said, shaking her head.
‘Is that the only way to get it out?’ I asked.Please say no.
She just looked aghast—which was the worst kind of answer.
What could I do?
And then Reyna’s words came back to me.Don’t hesitate…
But if I brought my body here and merged it with my spirit, Reyna would be the one to absorb this agony when it traveled through my shields. She might even die because of it. My awareness somehow found my body and bounced between my body and my soul, and I forced my body to look at Reyna. I had no idea how, but she turned to me—as if I’d called her name. I was clutching my stomach, agony on my face, and then she shifted into her wolf form and howled. Honor howled, and then Kaja too. She’d already shifted into her wolf, and now the three of them darted into the battle. Instinctively, I knew they were coming for my spirit.
If they arrived, they’dallbe killed by the blood mages!
This was not how my plan was supposed to go!
I needed to put my body and soul together to get this dagger out, or … but I couldn’t even consider that.
