Page 110 of Truly Madly Magically

Everything is burned, fading, barely bleeding. All of this hurts. “I swear to Hecate, if I lose you, I will find a way to kill you all over again,” I promise him, my mouth against his shoulder.

He hears me. I feel him move a little and a small sound escaping his mouth.

I want to believe it’s a laugh.

The other things it could be, like a death rattle, are unacceptable.

Without warning, we’re suddenly crashing into a high tree branch. I grunt, then try to brace us for more impact—

Instead we’re jerked sideways.

Leave the tree landings to me. Ruth. An echoing eagle’s screech from Storm.

Then, finally, I hear the chanting of our coven as they slowly lower us to the ground. My soul body and physical body merge as I land as if the earth is a cushion, thanks to everyone who loves us. It takes me a deep, half-panicked beat to realize that we’re back at the cemetery.

Whole. Breathing.

But barely.

There’s an immediate commotion as we land. People surround us, pulling Zander and me apart and blocking us from each other. That’s okay, because I feel Healer hands on me and I assume they’re taking care of Zander too.

My eyes fall shut, and I can’t seem to open them. Even though all I see is Zander, fighting his way through that fire despite the cost to him, his skin, his poor hand—

Still, I’m whole again. I’m me. And there were other things that happened tonight, or should have.

“Did it work?” I ask Jacob, but when I open my eyes, he’s not there. It’s Maureen sitting next to me, working on the burns I didn’t let myself feel while they were happening, as long as they didn’t get the baby.

I don’t need her to tell me the baby’s fine. I know she is.

Maureen smiles at me, and I see my mother beside her. “We got exactly what we needed to make the cure and protection. Rest now.”

There’s something in her eyes though, and the fact that it’s her and my mother next to me and not Jacob. Not my coven.

Not Zander.

“Ellowyn,” my mother says, but I ignore her, twisting around and looking for him. I see Jacob hip to hip with his sister, kneeling over a form on the ground, broken—

No.

I stumble over on a half crawl. Over my mother’s objections.

“I’m okay,” Zander rasps when I get to him. His eyes are closed, but he must feel me, or he heard my gasp, felt my horror. I don’t know.

What he’s not is okay. Not even a little.

Still, he spoke. Even though he’s burned all over. So much worse than what I saw on his hand, or the small pink marks that show where the fire licked at me.

It’s only then that I see the flickering form of Zachariah next to him. The ghost doesn’t look burned, but something isn’t right. He’s him and not him. Almost as if the light is going out of him.

I get it then. “You saved us.”

I didn’t think ghosts could get hurt—they’re already dead and all—but his energy is fading. Even though Zander is in a bad way, it’s clear Zachariah used just about everything he had to keep it from being a whole lot worse.

Elizabeth emerges from me then, still buzzing the way she did while she was protecting me and my baby. Her light is dimmer too, but not like Zachariah. Not still like him and almost gone.

She makes a pained sound and falls to her knees next to him. She doesn’t say anything at first, just stares at him. “If he disappears here...” she whispers, then coughs, like she inhaled smoke even though she doesn’t breathe. Not really.

That’s magic for you. An asshole to the grave and beyond.

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