Page 93 of Shadow's End

“Merging takes a toll on your body, and you can’t afford?—”

“Stepping into the wellspring will take an even greater toll, but maybe if I’m sharing body space with you—the spring’s guardian—those effects will be lessened.”

Katie looked at Gabe for several seconds, and I had a feeling they were conversing. Finally, she nodded. “We can but try.”

I stripped off my backpack, tugged off my boots and socks, and, after placing them beside the pack, held out a hand. “Let’s do it.”

She placed her fingers in mine a heartbeat before her energy swept into my body and two became one. The surrounding lightbecame bright and fierce, the wellspring a kaleidoscope of not just color but sound, and Gabe flesh and blood rather than merely corporeal.

This was the world as Katie saw it—beautiful, colorful, fantastical.

We took in a deep breath, then walked toward the shimmering wall of raw power. It burned across our skin, sharp and yet comforting, a force that both welcomed and warned. There were no voices singing within this powerful river, but the danger it represented to life and limb nevertheless echoed through the raw energy of its song. This was the same sort of force Mom had confronted when she’d been unknowingly pregnant with me. This was the force that had fused to my DNA and forever changed my life, even if I wasn’t aware of that fact until years later.

And here I was stepping into this one, in much the same manner as Mom had so long ago, binding my daughter to not one wellspring but two.

I hoped to God she understood why.

We are sealing all our fates, not just hers.Katie’s voice echoed through me, as gentle as a summer breeze.We do this, and the three of us will be forever linked, for as long as you live on this earth. And even after you have passed, I will be here, not just for her, but for all her children and grandchildren.

You can’t be sure of that, Katie.

I can.

The Fenna?

No, I can hear it in the spring’s song. This will be our spring, not theirs.

I drew in a deeper breath.Then let’s do this.

We moved forward, into that stream of energy. It flowed around us, through us, a song as bright as the day and as deep as the earth itself. It streamed through blood and bone, throughmuscle and nerves, electrifying and empowering, taking the connection that was already there and forging it into something far stronger, far deeper. Something that could not be broken by man, woman, or magic. It filled us with its music and energy, and it made our entire body vibrate to its sound.

This spring, unlike the older one, rejoiced rather than rejected, and there was a part of us that wanted to dance forever within its song. But enough awareness remained to sense the danger in that desire and force us out of the spring.

Two became one.

That one staggered forward several steps, then fell. I landed on my hands and knees, my breath ragged gasps that tore at burning lungs. Everything hurt—even my goddamn hair seemed to be on fire. I closed my eyes against the pain in my brain and concentrated on breathing slow and deep, trying to calm the racing of my heart and the painful ache in my chest.

It seemed to take forever.

But as the pain subsided, awareness increased. The earth was warm under my fingers, and her gentle music swam around me, a soft vibration that was both oddly comforting and one I suspected was now forever inescapable. It was a force that was mine to call, in a way the power of the older spring never would or could be.

Why, I had no idea, and I wasn’t quite ready yet to ask that question, if only because I suspected the answer had more to do with the Fenna’s wants and needs than my own.

Movement brushed past me, and I opened my eyes. It was Katie, moving with speed into the trees that surrounded the clearing and briefly disappearing before quickly returning, her expression a mix of wonder and joy. I tried to speak, but the words got stuck in my raw-feeling throat. I crawled over to the backpack, pulled out Belle’s second potion, then sat back on my haunches and drank it. Apparently, my body was so desperatefor sustenance that I didn’t even notice the taste. But, as Belle had promised, I did feel better once I’d finished it. Those herbs, whatever the hell she’d added, were indeed magic.

I tucked the empty bottle away and noticed sunset was beginning to paint the sky with flags of pink and yellow. Once again, time had slipped past way too fast in this place, and the urge to get up and race back to Muckleford rose. But Belle was right—Marie had no reason to expect a trap, and they were more than capable of handling one lone vamp, however capable at witchcraft he might be.

I still couldn’t help mentally crossing all things that neither of us were wrong, that this time, for the first time in a long time, things went as expected rather than ass up.

I turned and spotted Katie and Gabe standing next to the wellspring, their hands clasped, and her expression filled with wonder.

“I’m free,” she was whispering. “Truly free.”

I frowned. “What do you mean, “free”? You’ve always been free.”

Her gaze came to mine, her blue eyes shining. “Not in the sense that I could wander where I wanted at will. My spirit has always been restricted to this clearing; the only means I had of stepping into the greater reservation area was via the wild magic. It was my eyes and ears. But the barrier that bound me here has now gone.”

“Because you’ve now got a deeper connection to the wellspring?” I hesitated then added, with just the slightest bit of trepidation, “Or because stepping into it with me destroyed your connection?”

---