My stomach sank. I hadn’t thought of that. Elementai couldn’t survive without our Familiars, as our souls were tied to theirs. “Hell… we’re going to die, too, aren’t we?” I asked.
“We can’t,” Ava insisted. “There’s a prophecy. We have to survive to fulfill it.”
“Prophecies can be changed,” I said in a rush, my heart pounding. “If Oberi dies, we die, right? How much time do we have?”
“It’s usually fast, within minutes,” Ava replied in a panic. “Days, at most... but maybe it’ll be different with us, because we share a soul, too.”
We wouldn’t survive it. I already knew that. Our souls had become untethered the moment Oberi died.
We didn’t have time to contemplate this. We could follow Oberi to the Ancestral Land within moments. There wasn’t even time to grieve.
I took Ava’s hand in mine. “Listen to me. There’s an afterlife, right? So we just have to find each other there. I’ll walk through hell and back to find you. I’ll—”
How sweet.Oberi’s thoughts cut through my mind. He stirred in my arms. Something twinged in my chest, rushing in to fill the emptiness that had been there moments before.
“Oberi!” Ava squealed.
Energy surged through our bond, and I didn’t think I’d ever felt soalive. Air returned to my lungs, and I felt the solid ground beneath me. For a moment, Oberi’s connection to us had been severed, but now it was back, stronger than ever.
I’d lost myself along with him in those few devastating moments, but when he returned, it was like I’d returnedwithhim. It felt like rediscovering my identity and purpose all over again. The knowledge that I was Charlie Wahkin, heir to the Elven throne, husband to Ava-Marie, and demigod, flooded through me like my identity and soul were the one thing keeping me tethered to reality so I didn’t lose my mind.
I gaped as Oberi pulled away from me. I heard him shake out his fur.
Welp, I’m never doing that again, he said, like this whole thing had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
“Oberi, what the hell?!” I demanded.
“What just happened?” Ava added.
I ate a mushroom, he stated flatly.
“Weknowthat,” I growled.
Oberi sniffed the air, as if looking for something else to eat. It was pissing me off how nonchalant he was being. He’d justdied, and he didn’t give a flying fuck!
It was quite the trip. He gave a bark, like it was some hilarious joke.
“How the hell did you come back?” I asked.
Ava spoke at the same time. “Did you go to the other side? What did you see there?”
Oberi continued sniffing.Oh, gods, these mushrooms still smell amazing!
Ava and I lunged for him at the same time. We grabbed him by the scruff and dragged him away from the mushroom patch. We weren’t riskingthatagain.
“Oberi!” Ava cried. “Get away from those mushrooms. Are you trying to kill yourself for the second time today?”
“You’re going to tell us exactly what’s going on,” I ordered.
I don’t really know, he admitted nonchalantly.
“Bullshit!” Ava said. “Don’t give us that look.”
“What look?” I asked her.
“He’s flattening his ears to his head and looking at me with big eyes.” She sighed. “It’s not going to work, Oberi. You know more than you’re telling us. That wasn’t just atrip. Youdied. We felt it. But you came back. Tell us the truth.”
Oberi let out a low whine.I don’t haveallthe answers. I didn’t see anything on the other side. I don’t think I was gone long enough. But I got this… feeling.
