Page 40 of Avelina

“I brought you back because I love you,” I whispered. Through Connection, I could feel his heart breaking at the thought that I still loved him. He didn’t think he deserved it. I leaned over him and placed my cheek on his shoulder. “I don’t know what’s going on, Ward. I need you to explain it to me. I need you. Please don’t leave me.”

I was laying it on a little thick, but he needed it. He heard me, but he didn’t have the will to respond. I sent all our years of affection and love through our Connection link. I thought about that birthday memory again, and the time I taught him what a bathroom was, which made so much more sense now. I thought about our walks through the woods, all our naps, and all the times he lay there listening to me complain about this thing or that thing, all the while unable to share his own story, his own pain and trauma.

I loved him so much it hurt. His use of Transformation to alter his body did not change that. It was little more than a minor detail to me. I sent that to him as strongly as I could, then closed my eyes and waited.

A minute passed, then two, then something touched my hair. I opened my eyes and saw him looking at me, his hand raised to my head. He brushed a strand of hair across my forehead and held it, rolling it between his fingers. I held my breath and kept as still as possible, looking back at him. His eyes were bloodshot, but they were that same intense amber I knew and loved. This was still my friend.

“I’ll take that shirt,” he said, his voice cracking.

I sat up and nodded. “Okay,” I said, smiling. “Good.”

Before I could get up to fetch it for him, he said, “She lied, you know.”

I stopped. “About what?”

“She knows I would never hurt you. She tried to make me do it. She uses Projection to make people do what she wants.” He shivered. “She made me do a lot of things, but she couldn’t make me do that.”

“Ward, why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve helped you.”

“I know,” he said, “but I couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

He clenched his jaw and squeezed his eyes shut, swallowing hard. “She did things to me.” He breathed in and out, struggling to get the words out. “She tortured me until I mastered Transformation.” He touched the burned side of his face. “She chose that dog form. She said it made sense for someone like me. Then, when she saw that I had fully transformed into Rogue, she absorbed my reservoir, and I couldn’t change back.” Silent tears spilled down his cheeks from his closed eyes. “She said she wouldn’t let me transform back until she got what she wanted from you.”

“What does she want?” I asked.

He opened his eyes and sat up, wiping the tears away with the back of his hand. Aaron walked toward us with the packs.

“You died in your accident,” Ward said.

“Yes,” I confirmed. “But only for a few seconds.”

“Well, you came back with a new reservoir, one that you can only get by dying and coming back. Even then, it rarely works. You have to have a combination of rare reservoirs, a combination that you have. That’s why they sent me to you.”

Goose bumps prickled up my arms. “I can hear ghosts now.” My thoughts drifted to Spirit, but the guilt hit me again and I pushed her out of my mind.

“You can do more than that,” he said, nodding. “You can summon them, make them do things, spy on people. And, if conditions are right—”

“I can bring them back from the dead,” I finished.

“Yes, like you just did to me. It’s an exceedingly rare reservoir. Unheard of, really. And it’s something that Eve desperately wants.”

“Why?” I asked.

Aaron swore. “She wants to bring back Anick,” he said.

Ward bowed his head. “Yes. She couldn’t have healed me the way you did today, so she’s more limited, but there are ways around that. She could do it. She could bring him back.”

“Lina, we have to go,” Aaron said. “We’re wasting time here. The fog is rolling back in.”

I looked up at him, nodding. “Yes, you’re right. Ward, we have to get to Jorin’s farm. We believe he may know something that could help us.”

Actually, we didn’t know whether he could help us or not, but Violet’s book indicated that we should start our search there. I hoped we weren’t misinterpreting the text. I dug in my pack, pulling out the shirt I’d borrowed, but Aaron stopped me.

“Not that one,” he said. I looked up at him, confused. He shrugged, then dug out a tunic for Ward and handed it to him. Ward slipped the tunic over his head and stood. He was a foot taller than Aaron.

Holy crap, I thought as I looked way up at Ward’s face. Aaron was right. He isn’t big at all. Not compared to Ward, anyway. This is the land of giants.

---