Page 51 of A Touch Charmed

“You’re doing good, baby. Stay with me.” Wes’s voice was calm and soothing, but he must’ve been a wreck on the inside.

I crouched over her and Finn pushed every ounce of his energy into me as I placed my hands over her back. Warm and clear light glowed from my palms and wrapped around Audrey’s midsection. Her breath came out in short gasps as panic and pain sent her spiraling.

My own back began to tear open. The pain was beyond anything I could’ve imagined. It felt as though my bones had been ripped right out of my body. I bit my cheek and the metallic tang of blood filled my mouth before healing again. One tear closed and another opened. I screamed as Audrey’s wounds continued to chew through me.

Just when I thought I’d reached the end, when I didn’t think I could survive one more second, sweet relief flooded my system. My magic began to knit our skin back together.

As soon as I’d fully healed her, I let go, drawing in ragged breaths. My blood-covered hands pulsed with clear light. Finn held me tight against his chest. The moisture on my back let me know I’d lost a fair amount of blood, too, but Finn had held me together.

Audrey pushed up on her hands, coming back to herself now that the pain had receded. Before she could move any further, Wes had her in his arms. He held her like she held his life in her hands. Tears poured down his cheeks.

“I’m here.” She rubbed her hand over his chest, calming him with that simple act. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m okay.”

How could the curse think we’d ever want to give up that kind of love? There was no way. Wes and Audrey would rather die than live without each other. And as Finn rested his chin on top of my head, I was certain I couldn’t repeat the last seven years without him either.

Love was always worth fighting for.

“You did that.” Finn kissed the top of my head. “I told you we’d be lost without you.”

“We did that. Remember, I don’t work without you.”

He pulled me to my feet. My legs were still a bit shaky. That was, by far, the worst injury I’d healed so far. Much worse than what the poison did to me. But I’d survived it. Because my ability to heal had no limits.

Wes spun me around and crushed me against his chest. “I owe you my life. I swear to God, anything you ever need from me, consider it done.”

I pulled back and gave him a bemused smile. While Wes and I had been friendly in high school because of Finn, he’d been pretty cold toward me the few times I’d seen him since I’d been back. Probably because he thought I’d broken Finn’s heart. Which I understood. If I had friends like that, I would’ve moved the earth to protect them.

But now, I felt like Wes welcomed me. Not just as Finn’s girlfriend, but as me. An individual who had a place on this island too.

“You would’ve done the same if you had my power,” I said.

“Thank you.” Audrey held my face in her hands. “Your gift is going to save us.”

“I’ve been saying that.” Finn slung his arm over my shoulder, pulling me closer. “She has no idea how amazing she is.”

Warmth flowed through me. Not magic, but close enough to it. My whole life I’d been looking to build something of my own, something the man I thought was my father couldn’t control or maneuver. I wanted friends and a family and a life that were mine, with people who valued me for me, not who I was in relation to someone else.

I finally felt like I’d found that.

Wes pulled out his phone and thumbed through his contacts. A golden green light glowed from his hand. He hadn’t let Audrey go once. “I’m getting Donovan up. The curse won’t be back tonight, but that’s not the end of this. We need more magic.”

Finn rubbed my shoulder. “We should probably get you home so you can shower and change.” He grimaced as his hand brushed my back. “That was a bad one.”

Wes put his phone on his shoulder while it rang. “We’re going to our house. You can shower and change there. We’ve got extra clothes.”

Finn looked at me and shrugged. “Might be better if we stay close to town tonight. I don’t think the curse will be back, but I didn’t think it could rain acid either.”

I turned my eyes skyward. “It’s getting stronger.”

While the curse had taken a hard swing at us tonight, it had also made a lot of mistakes. It had allowed the forked-tongue man to reveal things it didn’t want me to know. More pieces of the legend began to fall away, exposing the truth underneath.

Ophiuchus had something to do with this. Somehow. He wouldn’t have been mentioned otherwise. But he hadn’t cast the curse. Of that I was certain.

The key to freeing ourselves had been buried for over three hundred years, and tonight, we’d just been handed one more shovel. It almost made the fight we’d gone through worth it.

Almost.

Chapter 15

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