Page 96 of Soul of Shadow
“No!” Charlie screamed, running across the cave and falling to her knees beside the vätte. “No, no, no.” She touched his chest gently, but he flinched in pain. Did she take the tooth out? Leave it in? Goddammit, how could she have forgotten to give him a feather, too? He was so small, so innocent. She never thought… she never…
A sob racked her chest.
She had to take the tooth out. Wasn’t that what they said to do in doctor movies? Or was it the opposite? She didn’t know. She couldn’t think. All she could do was remove the thing that was causing him so much pain.
She wrapped her hand around the tooth and yanked it free.
Right away, she knew she had made the wrong decision. The vätte choked, blood burbling out from beneath his beard. His tiny body twitched in agony.
“No,” Charlie sobbed, scooping him up into her hands. He shook and shuddered on her palms. “Please. You can’t die. I need you here. I need…”
As the vätte’s twitching began to cease, to slow down, Charlie felt herself starting to shut down, too. This was it. This was how she said goodbye to her friend. This was how…
It came to her like a long-forgotten song. Like a set of lyrics she never realized she knew, blossoming to life in her mind and playing on repeat. Later, she would tell herself that she didn’t make it up. That it had always been there, hiding within her, from the moment he first clapped at the idea of watchingThe Witcher, waiting for its moment to emerge.
“Henry,” she whispered. “Henry, I’m here. I’m right here.”
His name. The name she had always intended to give him, even if she didn’t know it, not until it was already out of her mouth, floating in the air between them, solidifying their bond.
“Henry.”
Henry let out a gasp, his body shuddering. His little head crooked up from her palm, beard fluttering as he drew in several unsteady breaths. Gingerly, Charlie shifted his body so that he balanced on one of her hands. With the other, she brushed aside his beard, checking his injury.
His gray tunic—the same one he always wore that never seemed to dirty or take on a bad smell—had a hole at its center, but his skin… his pearl-white, delicate little skin…
It was whole.
Charlie choked out a sob of relief. Her shoulders sagged forward, head slumping down, hair falling in a protective nest around Henry. He was alive.
He wasalive.
“It was the name,” came an awed whisper from across the chamber. Charlie’s head snapped up to find Elias staring at her and Henry, green eyes enormous. “The protective bond between you two—it healed him.”
Charlie sniffled, looking down at Henry. With a little squeak, he sat up, inspecting his chest curiously. Once he determinedthat there was nothing wrong there, he looked up at Charlie. Though she still couldn’t see his eyes—his red hat was pulled down over them as always, exposing only his button nose—she saw gratitude written on his face.
She picked up the tooth from the ground, turning it over in her hand. She had what the ash wife needed, at least. She tucked it into one of the pockets of her dress.
As she did, she noticed the glow around her body beginning to fade.
The feather. Its power was waning, which meant she needed to get them out of that chamber as quickly as possible.
“That’s a shame,” said Elias, who seemed to have recovered from his shock. “No matter. I have one last trick up my sleeve.”
Charlie looked up to find Elias raising his hand yet again, pointing it toward Lou for the second time. At first, Charlie thought he was going to try to have Lou shoot her again, or maybe Mason or Abigail. But like a machine swiveling its lever, Lou slowly turned the gun around to point at her own head.
“No!” Charlie and Mason yelled in tandem.
The feathers. Why hadn’t she made sure Lou was protected by one of the feathers?
With a sharp smile, Elias removed the dödssten from his stomach and threw it onto the platform, where it rolled until it fell into the groove at its center. Charlie had no time to worry about what that meant; she and Mason leapt to their feet and sprinted across the cave, hoping to knock the gun from Lou’s hand. But before they could reach her, before the chamber echoed with another gunshot—
Everything turned sideways.
This was no low rumble. No shake of the Fenrir’s body hittingthe floor or the doors sliding open. Something rattled the entire space, as if the cave were a mere toy box picked up by a child and shaken violently about. Everyone grunted as their bodies were thrown to the side. They sprawled on the stone floor. And Lou’s arm had flown out to the side, sending the bullet up into the wall instead. Her head hit the stone floor hard, knocking her out entirely.
Charlie witnessed everything, even as her own body fell to the ground. Even as she struggled to maintain her bearings, to tell which way was up. All she could do was keep her eyes locked on her best friend. To make sure she didn’t die.
She was so focused on Lou’s limp body on the stone floor that she didn’t realize there was someone else in the room with them until she heard his voice.
