Page 19 of Wicked Ties
“I lost my spirit and well . . .” I glanced at Maze and shuffled from one foot to the other. “We were hoping you could heal it.”
“Magical medicine.” His voiced dripped with annoyance as he rolled his eyes.
“You’re a healer, aren’t you?” Maze snarled and crossed his arms over his chest while plumes of green smoke puffed from his hands. “Heal.”
Apollo sat there for a long moment staring at me and then back to him. “And if I don’t?”
“I’d be happy to show you.” Maze’s eyes turned that milky white, and heavy magic hung in the air.
“Calm down, Romeo.” Apollo rose to his feet. “I have no intention of flattening my hospital in a fight with you.”
“Good, then you know I would.”
“Can you help me or not?” I didn’t have a hope in the world. Was it even possible to get your spirit back once it was gone? Or would I be trapped like this forever?
“Only one way to find out.” He pointed to an empty counter on the other side of the room. “Hop up.”
Nervous butterflies danced in my stomach as I walked across the room and hopped up on the counter. My legs dangled there, and I folded my hands on my lap. I felt stiff, like there was a rod going down my back and holding my shoulders perfectly straight. Strands of my hair fell around the sides of my face.
Apollo walked to my side with Maze hot on his heels. When he got to me, he motioned for me to lie back. “Please.”
I turned and lay down, staring up at the ceiling. I rested my hands on my stomach, waiting for him to do or say something. Apollo clapped his hands together and began to rub them back and forth. Orange light began to spin and twist around his fingers. It glittered like the sun on drops of dew in the early morning. The air in the room began to warm, and the smell of sunshine on flowers filled the air.
“This is only going to burn a little.”
“BURN!” Maze and I yelled at the same time.
It was too late. Apollo placed his hands on my rib cage, and heat bloomed over my whole body. Like scalding pins and needles that crawled under my skin and stung me from the inside out. Beams of light exploded outward from my skin and filled the room like light through a kaleidoscope. The harsh overhead lights flickered and went out. Pain like I hadn’t felt in forever flooded my body. I ground my teeth together and sucked in panting breaths to take it. If this was going to heal my spirit, I would take it.
The pinpricks of light coming from me began to move and travel, all gathering together to make one large beam coming from my midsection. The heat gathered there, growing more intense by the moment. Pictures began to form within that beam of light. Me before I turned demon, dancing with Astrid in my old room, with pizza and cookies littering the place. Clothes everywhere. I was smiling, happy. The day I met Maze for the first time. The way I smirked at him . . . teasing. I was all play, fun, and fire.
Would I ever be that again? I didn’t think so. The hole was too deep. The nothingness too dark. The certainty that this was all there was and all there every would be settled into me like the burning pain of Apollo’s power. I didn’t know if I would ever be what I was before. How did one get back something that was lost or taken from them? Would it be possible to be the person I was before?
The answer was a resounding and harsh . . . NO.
“There.” Apollo pointed toward the beam of light and the picture that lingered within. I was covered in mud and lying on the ground, looking like I had just nearly gotten beat to death. I shook my head. I didn’t remember that. Didn’t remember being hurt or in pain. But I lay there bloody and broken. It was dark and cold. The ground beneath me was hard and covered in dark red.
“What the fuck?” Maze’s eyes darted to mine. “What happened?”
I shook my head. “I don’t remember.”
“Near death, I’d say.” Apollo was so nonchalant, like he was looking at an X-ray, not my nearly dead body. “But you didn’t die.”
“No shit.” Anger dripped from Maze’s words. “Show me what happened to her. They will pay.”
It sent chills down my spine and over my body. I had no doubt that whatever happened to me and whoever did it would pay dearly if he had his say.
Apollo leaned back and gazed at him. “I can only show you what the light shows me.”
Within the picture, my body began to glow ghostly white like it had in the underworld when Thanatos removed my soul. Except it was one fluid piece. There were no lines or missing puzzle pieces. I was full and together. I sat up slightly, letting my elbows rest behind me as I focused on the picture. “Maze, do you see?”
“I see.” He knew exactly what I was talking about.
“No missing pieces.”
A delicate hand with long fingers and curling black talons entered the picture. There was no face or anything to give us more of an identification. But those talons dug into my soul and tore a piece from it. Then my soul splintered and fractured into pieces, leaving me like I was now—an unfinished puzzle. The hand held that piece of my soul, my spirit, for long moments, and then it was gone, and the light of my broken soul dimmed, falling back inside me, broken. Like I was today.
The picture went dim and Apollo’s burning magic left my body, leaving me cold and confused. I didn’t remember any of this: not being injured, not fighting for my life, and not losing my spirit, the piece of my soul that was stolen from me. I’d lost something important to me and I didn’t know if I’d ever get it back. This emptiness would persist forever unless I could be me again.
