Page 65 of Bombshell

“What if we gave you a new name?”

There was no guarantee that it would work and it was never something I’d been able to do before… but contracting a familiar was something that every witchshouldbe able to do.

I just didn’t know if I could handle it. It required me to be able to overpower the Source’s magic. But if I timed it right, the magic of the mate bond being forgedmightbe enough to do it.

“You’re asking me to become a mere familiar?” the Source asked, sounding almost offended by the offer.

I nodded. “It’s either that or stay here forever. At least as my familiar you can leave this cave and go into the real world. Your choice, but Dallan is coming in one way or another.”

Even as I spoke the fake-cave fell away and we were back in the white vastness where cracks were starting to form, showing bits and pieces of a pair of determined gold eyes.

The Source still looked unsure.

I sighed. “What would your druid want for you? To stay here forever and rot?”

Her lips pulled down into a deep frown. “No, he wouldn’t want that.”

I held my hand out to her. “Then come with me.”

Cool fingers slid into mine and I whispered the words of the familiar spell.

Nothing happened.

The Source rolled her eyes like I was the biggest idiot in the world. “You should know better than anyone that you are not of the magic to be able to mutter verbal spells, Euphemia Finch. You have tofeelthe magic. You have to want to tether me to you as a familiar and you have to give me a new name. So stop sticking to the ways of witches and do it the way that you were made for.”

The Source said it like it was a command and I felt my spine snap straight as I used my other hand to clasp hers tightly.

Contracting a familiar was not unlike a mating bond, and even as I felt the threads of Dallan’s magic in my soul, my own threads were reaching out for the Source.

This felt different than when I put my hand around the brooch and became the Source’s guardian. This time it felt like it was the Source that was being picked apart and remade. It was like I was tethering her to me and not the other way around.

But she still needed a name. A new one.

“I claim you as my familiar,” the words felt ancient and they sizzled with magic. “From now on, you will abandon your old name and be remade anew—the name I bestow upon you is…”

I hadn’t gotten that far ahead in my thinking and I floundered for a moment realizing that I had no clue what to call her. “... Sourcie.”

The Source’s—now Sourcie’s—pale brows lifted. “Seriously, there’s a million names in existence that you could have picked and you went withSourcie?”

I opened my mouth to apologize but I never got the chance because our surroundings completely shattered and we were sucked out of Sourcie’s realm and back into reality.

The sound of rushing water and cracking rocks filled my ears as I saw a flash of Dallan’s gold eyes before everything went black.

The next time I awoke my mouth was full of sand.

“Ugh,” I groaned, rolling over to spit the tiny grains out. “What happened?”

“Cave came crashing down. Flooded with water,” came Dallan’s gruff voice.

I opened my eyes and found him leaning over me, looking just as crusted with sand as I felt.

“Did everyone make it out?” I asked, groaning with soreness as he pulled me up into his lap and hugged me tightly to him like he was afraid I would disappear if he let me go.

“Yes, unfortunately. Arsenio had his little wizard teleport him and Odette out and the asshole left us to fend for ourselves.”

I glanced around, realizing we were sitting on the beach. A few yards away, on his side, lay Alexander. His eyes were closed and there was a nasty gash on his forehead. “How did we get out? Did he teleport us out?”

Dallan shook his head with a snort. “No, Lass, he got hit with a stray rock pretty quickly. Iswam us out.”

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