He left the room, and I was alone again. It strengthened me that Cassiel hadn’t said his goodbyes. He truly believed in me and knew I could save Charlie. His presence had been comforting, and it’d cleared my mind enough so I could think.
Cassiel was right. I could do this. I just needed to pull myself together, so my Familiar and I could figure out a solution. Oberi wavered, close to falling off the bed.
“Oberi, stop,” I said weakly. “If you keep trying to resist the poison, it’ll kill you, too. Then I’ll lose both of you.”
I will not die permanently. I will simply become deceased, then regenerate a few minutes later,Oberi insisted, though she sounded exhausted.
“It still weakens you every time you die and come back. You need to save what’s left of your strength. I may need your help yet.”
Oberi pulled back her magic, and I felt the poison surge forward. It was advancing quicker than ever because Oberi wasn’t holding it back, but I don’t think it mattered. Charlie had already suffered too much damage to his organs, anyway. Even if I got the poison out of his blood, he’d still be in danger, because his entire system needed to be healed now for him to recover.
My fear turned to rage as I thought that none of this would’ve happened in the first place if Danielle hadn’t gotten involved. I should’ve killed her before I left the Institute, but I’d waited too long to make her meet her end. If Charlie died, I’d find a way to portal to hell, locate Danielle, and kill her all over again. And I wouldn’t stop. Somehow, I’d find a way to resurrect her again and again, and slaughter her in increasingly gruesome ways to make her pay, until her soul ceased to exist due to the suffering.
She’d still be getting off easy. Nothing could be as painful as me losing my husband. She had no idea the damage she’d just caused. An eternity of torture wouldn’t be enough to satisfy my longing for revenge if she took him from me.
No.I wasn’t allowing that to happen. Charlie belonged to me, and nobody, not Danielle, the Warden, or the gods themselves would steal his life. Whatever fate had planned,Iwas the one who got to decide if he lived or died.
And he would live, if I commanded it. He wouldn’t leave me here.
“You don’t get to die unless I tell you that you can,” I whispered to him. “So hold on, and keep fighting this. I’m going to figure this out.”
Charlie let out a wheezing breath, like he’d heard me. I steeled my nerves. Right now, Charlie wasn’t my husband, or the love of my life. He was my patient, and my patient was going to expire unless I put my mind to work and outwitted the Warden yet again.
And speaking of the Warden…
The Beast appeared in a corner of the room, skulking around the area and seeming arrogant as all hell. My lip lifted into a snarl when I saw him, but I wasn’t the only one who saw him this time. Oberi was a part of me, and although my bipolar didn’t affect her, she could recognize what I saw. She didn’t react, but allowed me to process as I needed to.
The Beast’s face curled into a sick smile. “Looks like I’ve finally found something that works. After Cellblock 9, I didn’t know what it was going to take. The four of you are particularly difficult to exterminate, but I’ve gained the upper hand.”
“Fuck you. I’m smarter than you, you smug bastard. I’m better than you, I’m stronger than you, and you’ve never beaten me yet,” I sneered. “You’re not going to win this time, either.”
The Beast raised an eyebrow. “That may be true, but you have more to lose than ever before. I suggest you get moving. There isn’t much time left.”
The Beast gave a cruel laugh as he disappeared once again, and Oberi tilted her head.I didn’t know you were having visions of the Warden.
“My psychosis finds weird ways to fuck with me, Oberi. It doesn’t help us now.”
She let the matter drop, and I went back to figuring out what to do. Since I’d tried everything but praying, it might as well be a last resort.
Goddesses,I pleaded, reaching out to Idril and Carolyn.I am your Holy Mother, an Elvish mystic of your temple. Help me save your son, and rescue the prince from certain death.
I didn’t get any sort of response, energetic or otherwise, because I don’t think they heard me. I wasn’t sure they could help even if they tried.
Coyote Spirit and Whale Spirit were most likely too far off, in the middle of fighting a battle with the dark gods. I didn’t think they’d show up, either. Coyote had a hard time crossing the boundary from the spiritual realm to Earth the last time we’d spoken, and at the time, his power had been limited in helping me more than giving advice.
Even so, I tried anyway. I prayed to them, and prayed and prayed, and got no answer.
After moments of sitting in silence, I dug in my pocket. I withdrew my mother’s compass, which I carried with me always. It was one of the very few things I still had from the Institute.
I lifted the compass to my mouth, to whisper into it. “Lindsey and Miranda, are you there? I know you can’t cross the divide, but I need assistance. My husband’s been poisoned, and we aren’t sure how to heal him. Nothing’s working. Send us your aid, if you’re able to do what you can from the Ancestral Lands.”
I clutched the compass in my hands, and watched as the arrow wildly spun out of control, pointing me toward nothing. I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for— an audible response, a message, something. But what happened next was certainly something I did not expect.
Two spirits began to rise from the compass. They appeared at first to be a glittering mist, rising from the compass’ face and hovering around the room. Then, they began to materialize.
The shape of a dire wolf, nearly the size of a wolven, took form in the room. It had massive muscular shoulders and a proud stance. Riding on the wolf’s back was a tiny, furry creature that looked to be a cross between a sugar glider and a bush baby. The creature had big ears, two curled horns on top of its head,and big blue eyes— a kurble. As their spirits became solid, the wolf’s coat became black, and the kurble’s pure white.
The kurble chittered. He let out a trill as he waved his bushy tail.
