Page 87 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

My demon.

“That’s the woman I saw at the gate,” Huxley blurted.

She’d been trying to escape that day, and she’d managed to do so again. This time, she’d made it.

Thank the Mother I’d found her.

I clutched her face in my hands, and her eyes flew open. My demon sucked in a ragged breath as though I’d restarted her heart, and as her gaze found mine, something in both of us stilled like an impossible lull in a furious windstorm.

We were the same.

She smiled, and I smiled back.

A bright light erupted in my quarters. Panic found me again as the feel of my demon’s hand faded in my hold. “She’s disappearing!”

Light ate at her until all that remained of her body was a glowing orb hovering in front of my face. My voice—along with my uncertainty—cut off as the glowing orb shot directly into my chest.

As she returned home.

Glass shards sliced at my insides.

Darkness hooked its way into me, warring with the light that made up the other half of who I was.

We’d been born together. She’d woken in me at sixteen only to be dragged to the demon realm soon after. My demon was reclaiming her space within me. I knew this. I understood it had to happen—that we had to become one again. That she’d only had a body while separated from me in another realm and now had to take her place in mine.

I understood all that as black spots appeared in my vision.

I understood all that as I knew no more.

22

“You’re awake,” Sven said.

I was. “How did you know?”

“You stopped emitting black smoke and your black demon scales are gone.”

That’d do it. “How long was I out?” I couldn’t remember a thing after the glowing orb shot into my chest.

“Three days.”

That was a long time. And I’d left things in a dire position. “How did the coven hold up?”

“We told the advisors that you fought off a demon attack single-handedly. They passed that to the coven, who were understandably appreciative. Enough to keep a handle on things while you recovered. How do you feel?”

I took stock.

I was different. Warmer, for one. My blood was hot in my veins. For a while now, my demon had been identifiable as a smokey, red block in my divination affinity. She wasn’t there any longer. She was everywhere. We really were one.

New strength rippled in my body. My senses were different. I couldn’t pick up any alteration to my magic—or the presence of new magic in me, other than my blood, which felt like a protection or guard, like it would hurt anyone who spilled or touched it. “I feel great.”

“Cool. I feel like ass because I’ve sat here for three hours listening to you snore.”

“Where’s Wild?”

“Playing the part. We had to capitalize on the coven’s change of mood while you were out. He apologized to Frond and has joined the centering circles three times daily.”

I looked at Sven then. “He apologized to Frond?” Even I didn’t feel capable of that.

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