Page 73 of Avelina

“Uh, yeah, isn’t that what everyone believes?” Ward asked.

“I have no idea. I’ve always been agnostic, maybe even atheist. I still am, actually. I’m just not an aspiritualist. Is that a word?” I was too excited to analyze the semantics of my idea.

“That’s why Spirit can hear people’s thoughts—because she is seeing their soul.” I ignored Ward’s sudden shock at the revelation that Spirit could read his mind. “Conjuration lets me manipulate a soul. Doesn’t that mean I can manipulate a person’s experience? I could literally undo trauma! I mean, I’m not saying I could unmake the timeline, but maybe I could alter how someone experiences that timeline. Ward, I think I can combine Conjuration with Connection and Protection to not only heal your spirit but to send a reservoir into your soul that will let you heal yourself!”

I spoke rapidly. Rambling, actually. “Best of all, if I could give you greater Protection and we managed to teleport to Earth, we could teleport back to Monash over an Earth bridge, which will ascend your Protection and raise any traces you may have of Transformation back up to the level of a greater reservoir. Then you could travel back to Earth over a Monash bridge and ascend your Transformation. You’d be even more powerful than you were before, Ward. Of course, that will only work if I’m right about the soul being the housing for fragment reservoirs. And if the ascensions don’t kill you.”

I laughed nervously. It wasn’t exactly a foolproof plan. I wasn’t sure if I was even coherent at this point. I stopped to look around again as if this time, I would find Ward.

“I’m not sure I want it back,” he said. “It was a curse.”

“Ward, Seleca abused you,” I said in the softest voice I could manage. “She fucking abused you from the time you were a child. She is an evil, murderous disease upon this world, and we must be the cure. I need you to show yourself to me, Ward. I can’t do this without your help. Please.”

It’s amazing how far the word please will take you sometimes. I heard a scuffling noise behind me and turned to find not Ward but Rogue. He sat still as a statue, gazing up at me the way he used to, his beautiful amber eyes attentive and aware, as always. He was a huge, copper-colored hound with the same handprint-shaped white patch on his face. That patch had a slightly different meaning now, but it was a part of him, and I loved it.

Lina, you’re not going to be able to just put your hands on me and fix me. It’s not that simple. Even if you heal my spirit, the memories won’t go away. I am who I am. Ward sent his thoughts to me, but they were also accompanied by a profound emptiness I knew I wouldn’t be able to fill no matter how hard I tried. He would have to do that himself. All I could do was convince him that he wouldn’t have to be alone while doing it. I knelt in front of him, which made his dog form slightly taller than me, and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“I don’t want to fix you,” I said. “I love who you are, my friend. I always have.” I paused for a second. I wanted to get this right. “I just know that when I was alone, I felt hopeless. I felt like I could disappear into the woods and no one would even notice. And sometimes you were the only reason I walked back out again.”

Rogue laid his cute canine face on one of my shoulders and a paw on the other, the way he always used to do. I felt a strong surge of love for him, and I sent that feeling into him through our Connection link. He sent it right back to me. For a moment, everything seemed like it would be okay.

“Ready?” I asked.

He made a low doggy groan, and I chuckled. “I’ll take that as an ‘I guess,’” I said.

I slipped my hand under his paw, touching the pad of his foot, then closed my eyes to concentrate. This would be my first time trying to combine three fragments at once, and it would be tricky because I had to focus on each fragment to manipulate it. I thought it might be best to add one at a time. I was already deeply connected to Ward, so I decided to send Conjuration next.

“I have no idea how this is going to feel,” I said. “Brace yourself.”

I called to my Conjuration fragment as I had learned I needed to do, and it came to me. I combined it with my Connection fragment into a blended link, and the two energies twisted around each other like colored dyes in water. The stream slid into my friend. When the Conjuration fragment went into him, he shivered violently as if hypothermic. I hung on to him, and the shivering lessened but didn’t cease.

I could feel myself getting tired already. I didn’t know how long I could keep it up, so I quickly added Protection into the stream. I still had my eyes closed, but I felt Rogue relax and then slump down out of my arms. I hung on to his paw and could feel it transforming into a hand. It was an odd, lumpy process, and a little disturbing, but I hung on. It was working! Conjuration and Protection combined to heal his spirit, and Connection delivered them.

I’m a genius, I thought, feeling extremely pleased with myself. By that time, I really should have known better than to allow myself a moment of smug satisfaction. It’s always at those moments that everything goes to hell.

I opened my eyes to find myself back in Aaron’s bedroom. Ward still lay on the bed but had slumped onto his stomach, his face smooshed into the pillow. I had fallen on top of him, my left hand still curled over his left hand. God, what would have happened if I had let go? I sat up to hear him moan a little.

“Goddess, that feels good,” he mumbled. He lifted his hips a little and reached under himself with his other hand, needing to make a quick adjustment to his anatomy. He pulled his hand back out, thank goodness.

“No comments,” he said. “Still not having sex with you.”

I snorted in a very unladylike fashion. “Still not offering,” I said.

“Well, that’s good to hear at least,” Aaron said.

Chapter Twenty-one

Linorra slammed the door closed behind Syndeth, panting. He’d barely fit through the door, as large as it was. If it had been any smaller, her friend would have been meat for dwarfs.

“That was too close,” Linorra said. “I don’t understand why Viktor would send us there, do you? The dwarfs didn’t even have the magic sword. It’s very odd.”

“It’s not odd to me,” Syndeth said. “If that man is truly your future husband, I suspect you’ll have a lot more of these bothersome adventures.”

“Aaron, you’re back,” I said lamely.

“What is he doing in our bed, Lee?” Aaron asked. He was fuming but kept it under control, though I could feel the heat coming off him from across the room. Then, I heard a high-pitched popping noise and we all jumped in surprise. Aaron held the bracelet up to look at it, and one of the little stones fell to the floor, split in half.

Okay, maybe not.

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