Page 120 of Shrine of Fire

She moved at that, a small frown forming between her brows.

“Did you think you had to grieve alone?” I gestured around us. “Is this Hella Mora’s idea of honest grief?”

“Let me show you how we grieve in Fairuin.” I closed my eyes and pictured the tavern hall. Bright fires lit the room and delicious food covered the banquet hall tables. Women and men danced a jig near the fire.

I opened my eyes, and we were at the Great Hall. My knees ached from kneeling on the ship, but the world around us at least looked like my home.

Men stood up, raising their goblets and making toasts.

“We celebrate the life of those we’ve lost. Honor their connection to us.” I gestured at Kili, as he stood up to make another toast. “Kili and I lost one of our best friends, killed in a stupid hunting accident. We honored his memory by feasting for days, telling stories of hunts and pranks we pulled as boys.”

Nova looked around us, some color returning to her face. “What good is it for me to love and lose, and then risk loving again, if you’re going to die and leave me alone?”

I cupped her face in my hands. “We are not going to die and leave you, Nova.”

It was the wrong thing to say.

Nova jerked away. “You can’t promise that.”

“I am a shaman,” I said, even though my fingers tingled with cold. I couldn’t have been in the spirit world for very long, but it was getting harder and harder to talk.

I reached through the packbonds weakly, finding Hashir and Stefan and Nova. “I will keep us safe from any spirit that would do us harm. Aki and Hashir have the mortal realm in check, and Stefan has the kingdoms of Andaria at his feet. Kalahar can come along too.”

She shook her head, trying to turn away from me.

“Nova, love of mine.” I squeezed her hands in mine, trying to give her some warmth. “Someday we will all die. We will pass from the mortal realms into the Land of the Dead. And when that day comes, we will be reunited with your lost pack.”

Nova’s shoulders shook, and her fingers went colder than ice.

Damn spirit. I yanked harder on the strings holding Nova down, letting the image of the tavern room fade. The strings wouldn’t budge this time, and I gentled my approach. Like weaving. If you had to force the wool through the hook your tension was wrong.

I took a deep, deep breath, and sighed.

New strength poured into me. Aki. It was a hot woolen blanket after a snowy day, a shock of cold water after a long fever. Immutable strength pressed into me, and all of a sudden, I was able to easily flick away the strings holding Nova down.

“Until that day comes, we will love and live and enjoy the time we have in this realm. We miss the ones we’ve lost because we can’t be with them now. But they are still here, watching over us.”

I gestured to Nova’s spectral pack. She glanced up at them, hesitantly.

Instead of gaunt ghosts, they were men smiling at Nova.

Nova broke into a sob and threw her arms around me. I pulled her back into the mortal realm, tumbling us both backward and letting us fall all the way back into our bodies.

Iwoke up cold, but in the mortal realm. The warm press of my pack around took away some of the edge, but I couldn’t stop shaking.

Stefan and Hashir sat on either side of me, with Kalahar, Cuan, and Aki forming a circle at our feet.

Kalahar and Cuan both wore identical expressions of weariness.

I frowned. “Cuan, were you…”

“In the spirit world?” Cuan grinned. “Yes, my love. For you, I would go to the ends of the earth.”

“Show off,” muttered Stefan.

I touched Stefan’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. How are you?”

---