“There’s no change, Ana.”
The voice makes me start, and I turn to see Tira behind me. Behindheris a crowd of people—so many they can’t all fit in the chamber, leaving Stratton hovering in the doorway and Hyllus looming behind him. They’re all looking at me expectantly.
“What is it?” I say, hope twisting in me like a knife.
“We might’ve come up with a plan to save Leon,” Mal says. “And?—”
“Might,” Phaia interrupts. “If you don’t destroy them both while you’re at it.”
“Let the man speak,” Damia bites back.
“Yes,” I say. “Let him speak.”
“It’s very experimental,” Mal continues, glancing at Phaia, as if to saySee? I’m giving her all the facts.
“It’s also very dangerous,” Alastor cuts in.
“But it’s probably the only way for Leon to live,” Lafia says. She sounds so sure, a gravity to her words that makes it hard to remember she’s still just a teenager who was brainwashed by the Temple not so long ago. She’s endured more hardship in her short lifetime than most, and from what I can see, it’s made her practical. I trust her judgment.
“I’ll do it,” I say, squaring my shoulders.
“How about you wait a moment and get the full explanation before you sign your life away?” Alastor says darkly.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll do whatever it takes to bring him back. I don’t care?—”
“You’d have to give up a piece of your soul,” Mal blurts out.
It pulls me up short.
“What?” I ask. “How?” A few days ago, I didn’t even know you could remove a soul at all, let alone a piece of one.
“It would only work because of this binding magic on you both. The sawlamoor?” Mal says, glancing at Damia for confirmation of the name. She gives a curt nod. “One of the points of connection is between your souls; it’s why you feel so bad now, with Leon’s soul adrift.”
“Bad” is maybe the understatement of the century.
“But his soul didn’tgoanywhere,” Lafia jumps in. “It’s still here. It just got pulled out of his body and can’t find its way back. If you sent a piece of your soul out after it, it could act like a tether, a line from him to the bond, helping him find his way back.”
“Like a mooring line,” I say.
A fierce energy blossoms in my chest.I can bring you back, I call into the gaping absence where Leon should be.I’ll bring you home.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t listen to another word of this.” Healer Yanda pushes her way through the fae and humans, her hands thrown up in disgust. “People aren’tmeantto break up their souls like this. It’s justwrong. Why don’t you tell her the consequences, hmm? Funny how you don’t seem eager to mention those.”
“Morgana,” Alastor says, and it makes me stand straighter. He rarely calls me by my full name. “If you do this, your lifeline will probably be tied to Leon’s. Even if this saves him for now, the day will come when he dies. On that day, the piece of your soul attached to him will die too, killing you.”
“On the other hand, we predict you’ll also live as long as him,” Lafia says. “You’ll age slowly, like the fae.”
Alastor throws her a frustrated look. “It’s not all sunshine and rainbows living for centuries, you know?—”
“I don’t care about any of that,” I say, ignoring their bickering. “Whether it’s next week or three hundred years from now, I don’t want to live in a world without Leon anyway.”
I don’t tell them I had been contemplating making sure Ididn’t,at leastuntil I realized I wouldn’t be able to join Leon in theafterlife. I need them to think I’m calm and rational so they’ll tell me how to do this thing.
Yanda shakes her head, huffing in disapproval.
“I can’t be present for this,” she says. “It’s against the healer’s oath. I’d say you shouldn’t be performing such an atrocity on ground sacred to Viscalis, but the sanctuary is technically the fae’s to do with as they wish.”
“Yes it is,” Damia says severely.
