Page 138 of The Seven Miracles of Beatrix Holland
“How do I keep them from taking my power?”
“They can’t take it. Taurus is gone.”
“Dead?”
“More than dead. Totally gone.”
“Really? You’re not just telling me that?”
“I’m not going to waste the time we have right now lying to you. I promise.”
“How much time do we have?”
“That depends on what you do next.”
“Like, walk to the light, that kind of shit?” If Beatrice had known where her hands were, she would have slapped them over her mouth for swearing in this… whatever this place was, but she didn’t, so she let it go.
“Do you see a light?”
“I don’t think so.”
But she was wrong—there was a sudden flash of light and a wallop of pain that filled the body she was used to being in. “Come on, Beatrice!” shouted a hoarse voice she couldn’t quite place.
Someone screamed—was it her?—and then she was back in the quieter place again.
Deliberately, she took a beat to breathe.
Except… she wasn’t exactly breathing. But she wasn’tnotbreathing.
Cordelia was still with her here; she could feel it. “What was that? What just happened?”
Her sister’s voice was tighter than it had been, but her words seemed unhurried. “It… it seems like you might be hanging out in an in-between place.”
“What does thatmean?”
“I think it means you have a choice.”
Stay here.
Go back.
“But I used the last miracle to save Minna. That was the seventh.”
Someone gave a kind laugh, but it didn’t come from Cordelia.
It was Naya’s laugh. Beatrice would know it anywhere, and this time it was unclouded by Taurus’s energy. It was that happy chortle Naya made when Beatrice wasthisclose to figuring something out for herself. The first time she balanced on her bike long enough to turn the pedals. When she’d swum a whole lap without the water wings. When she’d paid off the last scrap of her student debt.
But Naya didn’t say anything. She was just here. Close by.
Loving her.
This might be a nice place to stay. If Naya was here, that was a plus-ten in the pro column, for sure.
What, then, did Naya think she was about to figure out?
Then it came to her. Using the sigil to save Minna hadn’t been a miracle. It hadn’t been an unearned gift. “That was magic?”
“Oh, sister,” said Cordelia, with even more joy in her voice than Naya’s laugh had held. “Exactly. That was just magic, not a miracle. You fought Taurus. You used the sigil in the trade to save Minna, but you defeated Taurus. You destroyed his soul completely, cutting off his connection with the other Velamens. You negated the need for the trade to be complete.” There was a slight pause. “You negated the need for the trade to be final.”
