Page 46 of Truly Madly Magically

“We started a database,” Evie says from the foot of the bed, then looks startled when we all look at her. But she’s a North, so she sits straighter. “Of everyone who’s been affected, no matter how. From worst-case scenarios to the best-case outcome, that being you. It doesn’t seem to hit one nuclear family more than once.”

“They’re weakening the link,” Elizabeth says then, looking across Zander to Zachariah. “They’ve changed things that should never be changed.”

“It’s like the crows.”

Elizabeth’s face gets a pinched sort of look. “Don’t start with the crows, Zachariah.”

I close my eyes against a new wave of exhaustion, so big and dark it’s almost like pain. I can’t take ghost fights right now. I can’t take databases and theories. I suddenly feel that I can’t take any of it, and I want to cry, but there are too many damn people—living and dead—in here.

And I don’t let myself cry in front of anyone.

“Are you sure it’s gone?” Zander asks, still sounding stricken. “Because I already know where this is going if it’s not. That can’t happen.”

“This isn’t like Zelda,” Jacob says at once, and he holds Zander’s gaze so intently it’s like a physical touch. “Ellowyn doesn’t have the symptoms. She fights it off when it tries to take root in her, and it can’t get any purchase. We’re certain.”

Zander nods, jerkily, then looks at me with other ghosts I know in his thundercloud gaze. I feel another wave like pain go through me, though this time it’s something far more complicated than exhaustion.

“The problem is the Joywood clearly aren’t giving up,” Maureen says gently, looking down into her tea mug. “They’re escalating.”

“If they keep escalating, it could kill me,” I point out, though, probably, no one needs me to make this announcement. “Especially if they discover why I’m the only one who’s immune to this thing.”

“Yes,” Jacob agrees, turning that intensity on me again.

No equivocations. Great.

“But,” he says after a long while, “we know how to fight it off. We can use that for a protection spell. Not just for you. With the right ritual, your blood could help everyone who’s been affected, even against dark magic.”

I want to make another crack about being special, but this doesn’t feel like the moment for that. Also, my throat feels too tight again.

“Would that be safe?” Zander demands. Once again in near-perfect unison with my mother. They look at each other, each wearing their version of a vaguely puzzled frown, but then focus on Jacob.

“There are risks, of course,” Jacob says in his calm way, but none of us mistake the steel beneath it. “We’d do everything we could to mitigate them.”

“But no fucking guarantee?” Zander demands.

“If you’re going to swear, young man,” Maureen retorts coolly, like we’re all still eleven years old, “you’ll have to leave until you can get control of yourself.”

“She’s not fu—She’s not doing it. She’s not risking that. What the hell is wrong with you?” Zander looks like he’s about to get to his feet, clearly back in his anger in a big way, but Elizabeth puts a hand on his shoulder, and he stays put.

Furious, but he stays in that chair.

Jacob eyes him for a moment, then turns to me. “We’ll go over the pros and cons and weigh them all, but not tonight. I’m going to go down and fill everyone in. Mom’s going to show you some baby projections you’ll want to see, and then you need to rest.” When I start to scowl at him, he keeps going. “You’re better now, and you’ll keep feeling better, but your body, your magic—and that baby—need rest, Ellowyn.”

He starts to get up, but I impulsively grab his hand. Healers don’t expect thank-yous, and I’ve never been very vocally grateful about anything, but this isn’t only about me.

I know I have to say something.

“You keep saving me.”

He shakes his head. “I’m just helping the healing process along. It’s you doing the saving.”

I smile. “I said you keep saving me, so you must be.” He frowns a little at that. I guess I’m not the only one not sure what to do with praise, so that makes it easier to give. “Thank you, Jacob.”

He gently pulls his hand out of my grasp, gives a faint nod, then turns and marches from the room as if pursued. I let myself smile a little wider as his sister follows him out.

Maureen is still sitting next to me, but she’s looking at the other people in the room. Well, the living ones.

“Tanith, Zander, you can both stay.” She fixes an eye on Zander. “If you’re calm.”

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