Page 79 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 2

I refused to let Morgana take Gabriel from me. He had to live, there was simply no other option. But magical connection or no, there was only so much I could do. I let my energy flow to him, hoping with a fierce desperation that it would be enough to guide him back, but I knew he would have to fight his way free himself.

I could see Gabriel’s eyes clear when he managed it. He stared down at Morgana in revulsion and dread, eyes wide, before he came to his senses and moved away from her as quickly as if touching her burned him.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He looked pale and shaken, but there were no physical injuries. But then, there wouldn’t have been, would there? Not if she had done something to his mind.

“I am now,” he said, voice unsteady. “You saved me, Evangeline. Your light. I knew what to move away from, but you gave me something to move toward.” He looked a little dazed, and I wasn’t completely following what he meant, but I was so glad to hear his voice again that I beamed at him.

But I couldn’t lose focus. There was a grunt at our feet, and then a high, pained whine. Something was very wrong with Morgana. She was snarling blindly up at nothing, fighting against the air, and it seemed like she didn’t even realize that Gabriel and I were standing above her.

“What’s happening to her?” I whispered.

“My father’s getting his revenge,” Gabriel said grimly. “And as her defenses are getting weaker…”

Morgana’s shape spasmed, growing and shrinking faster than my eyes could follow. For a flash, she had a large, scaly tail, then antlers, then too many arms. The buzz of the magic in the air became stronger and stronger, more cacophonous. What had been one signature when we got here was now dozens, maybe hundreds, all piled up on top of each other.

“They’re fighting back,” I realized. “Everyone she’s stolen from… they’re all fighting back.”

Morgana’s pale face twitched and snarled as she stared sightlessly around her, white eyes rolling in their sockets. She looked furious, but also like a cornered animal. She was outnumbered in her own body.

I hadn’t put much thought into how defeating her might feel. It had seemed so far-off, so optimistic to think about. I probably wouldn’t have expected it to feel like this.

One of the first paranormal private investigator jobs I had taken on my own had involved hunting down a rogue werewolf who’d started making trouble for a couple of local farmers. I’d done all my research, prepared as best I could, and grabbed more silver and wolfsbane than I could carry. When I’d followed the tracks from the latest in a line of destroyed chicken coops, I hadn’t found a werewolf. I’d found a rabid coyote.

It had been far gone by then, weak and twitching, with thick, white froth bubbling out of its mouth. We’d gotten coyotes in the suburbs where I’d grown up sometimes—pale, leggy shapes of the wilderness sneaking into our sleepy neighborhoods. The animal in front of me had been panicked and thin. It wouldn’t have lasted long, even without me being hired for the job. Putting it down had been a mercy. I’d had to remind myself of that for a long time afterward.

Now, Morgana lay spasming on the floor in a frenzy of fur and teeth and feathers, so much smaller than she used to be. The huge cavern dwarfed her. It felt… I struggled to find the word, but then it dawned on me. It felt cruel to make her stay like this. I took a deep breath.

“Give me the wand,” I said.

Wordlessly, Gabriel drew it from its protective bag and handed it to me. It was so light I barely noticed it—lighter than the wood should have been. It wanted me to use it, I could tell, and on any other day that might’ve scared me. I adjusted my grip and raised the wand.

“Wait,” Gabriel said, putting a hand on my forearm. “Let me help.” He stepped closer and slid his hand down to mine, our fingers tangling together around the handle. No, not the handle, I decided. Handles were for tools. This was a weapon, and we were holding it by the hilt.

“Together,” I said. I didn’t have to face this alone.

“Together,” he agreed.

Morgana had spent her whole existence taking from people, and now they were taking from her. For such a long time, I’d been so afraid to take, I refused to accept what people offered me. Thankfully, Gabriel was stubborn. With his chest to my back, his spirit linked to mine, and our hands fitting together, we raised the wand.

With our combined strength, it barely took anything to activate it. The wand was hungry and eager, and as soon as it was pointed at Morgana, it began to siphon her power. She moaned and screamed with too many voices, twisting on the floor as the wand fed.

I’d thought the wand would try to eat my magic, too, but it didn’t feel like that. I felt woozy at first, then achingly hungry. It wasn’t drawing from me like I’d thought Morgana might. It wasn’t even drawing from me the way Gabriel had. It was doing it the way a ravenous, bestial vampire would, trying to gorge itself on my vitality, not my magic. The wand was draining me. Clearly, it didn’t care about keeping me alive.

But Gabriel was there with me, holding me tightly. “Nobody can convert magic into life force more efficiently than a vampire,” he said. “It’s all right. Let the wand keep pulling from you. I’ll keep taking what you give me. I’ll keep changing it and giving it back. I’ve got you, Evangeline.”

Gritting my teeth, I kept going, tightening my grip around the wand and Gabriel’s fingers. The wand fed on us faster than Gabriel refueled me, but not by much. It would be a close race to the finish.

Morgana’s spasms became more erratic, but she changed more slowly now. It was somehow worse to look at. Where the transformations used to be instant, now they happened like a time-lapse video of a plant growing. The human body, even one shaped by magic, wasn’t meant to grow bones over the course of seconds. Her back arched up off the obsidian floor as she warped and twisted.

The wand was getting heavy in my grip. I was panting now, my arm trembling.

“We’re close,” I gritted out, and I felt Gabriel press even closer against my back.

“I can feel it,” he said. “Let me take the weight. Focus on the magic, and I’ll do the rest.” He wrapped his free arm around my waist, encouraging me to lean back against him, and his fingers flexed around the hilt.

I nodded, and he took up more of the wand’s weight. It was a relief to let my arm slacken, and I knew if it weren’t for Gabriel I wouldn’t have kept my grip on the weapon.

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