Page 88 of Counting Quarters

Chapter Thirty Seven

Blaire

Ifinallyturnedmy attention back to Rayner long enough to discover that the restraints I created for him were squeezing so tightly, he had passed out. Or died. I hoped it wasn't the latter because I had plans to make his death long and brutal.

“BLAIRE,” Grammy shouted across the clearing.

I steeled myself, glancing one last time at the empty spot that Kyle’s spirit had just stood, then walked over to where Grammy waited with Mom and Storie, kneeling beside Kyle’s lifeless body. I assumed the Quarters were still fighting Movement Members in town.

How could we bring him back without their gifts?

“Come here.” Mom pulled me into her arms and tucked my head under her chin. She held me as my body wracked against hers in quiet, powerful sobs.

Grammy stood up from her spot beside Kyle and grabbed my hand, tugging me out of Mom's grip. I looked down at him and nearly broke apart again. From this close, he appeared ruined beyond repair.

Grammy and Storie had gathered flowers from somewhere and placed them on his chest. She squeezed my hand and held out her other one for Storie to take. Mom completed the circle surrounding my Counter's body, and Grammy began chanting words in the same foreign language she’d used on spells throughout my entire life.

Mom joined in after the first verse of the spell, and Storie closed her eyes. I could feel the Quarters’ power radiating off of her, as if she were using herself as a conduit to feed the spell with their gifts.

I hadn't stopped crying. My eyes burned and struggled to focus as I scoured the clearing for Kyle's translucent form. He was nowhere to be found, though. His sister and mother's bodies laid awkwardly beside the spring, and I couldn't tell if they were alive or dead.

Had Rayner wiped out the entire Abbot clan in the short period of time it took me to get to them?

Grammy tugged my hand, pulling my attention back to the spell. I reluctantly obliged, focusing on calling his spirit back toward his body. The effects of the ritual began taking hold of me, siphoning my gifts into the limp body that was before us. My grip on Rayner's restraints weakened as my energy was pulled away from him, and I allowed it, figuring he would remain unconscious long enough for us to complete the ritual.

It was as if my soul stepped outside of my body and into his. The forest surrounding us blurred into a mess of green and brown as a wind picked up and whipped around. I felt like we were standing in the middle of a tornado and the only thing that remained in focus was the face of the man I loved. Yet, I was somehow also looking at myself from his body. Grammy released my hand and urged me to step toward him—to heal him with my touch. So, I did.

I crouched at his side and tested the bond by gently placing my hand against the bruised purple skin on his arm. It instantly turned the same pale shade of white as the rest of his body, completely healed. I moved onto the next wound I saw, slowly making my way toward his torso, where I knew most of the fatal damage had been done.

Grammy, Mom, and Storie held the spell as I worked to heal him completely, erasing any sign of Rayner’s wrath. Once I was able to hold my hands above him without sensing any injuries, I dropped my hands onto his chest and looked to Grammy for guidance on what to do next.

She held my gaze while the wind surrounding us picked up speed. Storie's eyes widened in fear as her hair whirled across her face and whatever power she was channeling had strengthened. Grammy and Mom shouted the spell over the roaring tornado spinning around us. As the pressure kicked up, Storie's chest was pushed upward, as if a string was being pulled from the sky to lift her. Violet eyes rolled into the back of her head, and I began to panic.

Grammy glanced at her and spoke even louder—an angry chant. I opened my mouth to beg her to stop, but nothing came out. Storie's feet began lifting off the ground until only the tips of her shoes were making contact with the earth. She hung in the air by the invisible string, nearly unconscious.

I tried again to make them stop. I wanted Kyle back, but I couldn't risk losing all of them in the process.

Maybe it was too late.

But just as I went to bring my hands up to grab onto Storie and pull her back down, Kyle's lungs filled with air beneath them.

His chest rose with the force of it, and then fell completely. I looked to Grammy once more, and she smiled triumphantly around the words of the spell, continuing her chanting until his chest rose and fell again with steady breaths.

We did it.

He was alive.

I leaned over him and grabbed his face in my hands, watching in complete disbelief as his eyes fluttered open, revealing those uniquely silver irises. My mouth was instantly on his.

I kissed him as the wind slowed around us and the trees came back into focus. As Storie's body returned to the ground and she fell onto her knees with a thud. As Grammy and Mom hugged each other in victory.

And I only pulled away when I heard the Quarters’ voices getting closer. Remy knelt down beside Storie, holding her in his arms as he revived her depleted energy.

“Where's Rayner?” Rhyse asked.

My eyes found the spot I had him pinned to minutes before. Withered vines lay in a heap on the grass, the only evidence he left behind.

And we all stared in shock as we realized what a grave mistake we had made by leaving him unguarded.

He was gone.