Page 72 of Deadly Maiden

“I won’t.” She flashes a smile. “Too risky. But I wish I knew if that would work. So.” She exhales and presses her palms together before her nose, fingers tapping on each other. “How to begin.”

Me, I’m at sea. I wish I was in the sky. If I could shift, we wouldn’t need this.

Wrong.It’s not that simple.

She places the fresh gheist ampoule beside the pendants. “I have to try feeding this into one of these?”

The question is obvious. What if this destroys the crystal?

“Use mine. I’m less recognizable than you. If I buy some dark spectacles, it will hide my eyes. Use mine.”

“I guess…” Her mouth firms. “Here goes.”

She stares at the ampoule and the crystal, focus moving from one to the other. I lean back on my hands while I wait.

After a while, I sit forward. “It’s not working? You can’t just pour it over them?”

“No. No, I don’t think that will work. It has to be changed from gheist into etharum. I have another idea, and you won’t like it. But it makes sense. Donotpanic.” She lifts the ampoule, brings it to her eye then lowers it to mouth level. “I’m going to breathe it in and expel it as etharum.”

“What?” That came out squeaky. “No! Don’t?—”

Except she has. She’s put it to her mouth and inhaled. Wyntre shudders. The ampoule has emptied.

While I watch, unsure, her eyes change color to show a hint of blue in the center of the pupil, then a blue-white opalescence swirls into being. Her skin pales, and she sinks lower on her knees. Wyntre stares past me as if I am not here.

“You fool.” I’m choking, my throat clawed by fear. Calling her that seems a betrayal. My hand is trembling as I reach for her. “What have you done?”

I want to scream that question to the heavens.

The sun has barely traveled across the sky, but it feels like forever for Wyntre lies across my lap with her breath barely moving her chest. Nothing else of her moves. She feels cold, and her gaze is fixed on something far away, beyond where I can reach.

Tears wet my eyes, but I wipe them away and cradle her.

She still clutches the ampoule in her hand. I have not dared to take it from her.

She must return. She must.

Has it been ten, fifteen minutes?

Abruptly, her breathing ceases.

No. No this cannot be her death.

“No!” I bow over her, stroking her forehead and begging her to remain, as if I can change things and stop this from happening.

Then she inhales in one huge, sucking breath. She jerks upright and spits or breathes into the ampoule. A green substance fills it to the top. She steadies herself with a hand on the bedroll. A wide smile splits her face then she shakes her head.

“Wooo. Done. Boom!” She wriggles off me and holds the ampoule high. “Etharum! Gods, that tasted strange. Did it take long? This is excellent, no? Now we have only to visit graveyards and grab a ghost or two, then recharge.”

She stands up, wobbles, and I hastily join her.

I am aghast, in shock. Is this even she? Or has the ghost somehow taken my soulmate?

“What?” She cocks her head.

“Is this really you?”

“Ohhh. Now I understand. I am fine. Let me see, you need proof? My parents’ last name? Gothschild. Where we met? In our house, you bad-boy enforcer. The color of that spot on your cock? Red?”

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