Page 46 of A Bloodline Redeemed

Either way, we had to act.We had to do something!I…

I surged forward, pushing Dyre’s consciousness aside.Enough!Enough thinking, enough stalling and lamenting whilemywitch lies fading before us.

“I will find her in the darkness,” I said to the angel revenant.Dyre didn’t fight me as I shoved his consciousness aside.Good.I wasn’t going to waste time quibbling and arguing with him anyway.This time, he had no choice in the matter.“You will hold onto what is left of my host while I am gone,” I commanded Elijah.“Do not let him fade as well.”

Elijah blinked at me, his bright blue eyes wide.Then his gaze narrowed, and his chiseled lips compressed to a thin line.“You can’t,” he said firmly.“Sunshine, are you planning toleaveDyre’s body?You can’t do that.He’ll die!”

I scoffed.“Do you not listen?Are those fleshy ears on your head merely for decoration, revenant?You are an angel, and we are your master.Use your powers to ensure Dyre is still here when I return.It is not a question.It is a command.”

Impatient with repeating myself, I paused to send a final parting thought of comfort to Dyre.Then I wrenched myself free from my flesh prison for the first time in hundreds of years.

Ah, but the feeling of freedom was exquisite.To be myself again, formless, shapeless, able to travel through all spaces and realities to quench my thirst for souls to devour.I could be free now.Truly free.Free from all the idiotic rules that came with inhabiting a fleshy mortal body.Free from the harsh, overwhelmingcolorandsensationof the living world mortals inhabited.

And yet… even as the breeze called to me, caressing my formless being in a way no mortal could ever understand… I was pulled to her.Bonded to her still.My witch.

I could revel in the lure of freedom later.At this moment, there was nothing for me, no other option but to dive into the pale, lifeless body before me, a dark hound following the faint, glowing trail of Oleander’s lifespark.

Chapter 26

Elijah

“No!”Ilurchedforward,as if I had any chance of grabbing hold of the formless, plane-defying darkness that was the wraith.But I aborted my impulse to reach for him as Dyre’s body went limp, his tall, lean frame toppling over into my arms.For one brief, terrifying moment, I thought he had died.I pulled him across my lap, cradling his thin form to me.tears prickling my eyes.

The shield Dyre had been holding around us burst, flashing out of existence as his magical signature disappeared.Aahil and Niamh scrambled to fill the void, quickly erecting another shield.It wasn’t as strong as Dyre’s had been.But it would have to do.

I glanced down at the necromancer in my arms.Dyre always made comments about being a half-starved shell of a man, but he never came across that way to me.The fierce personality and abundant magic within him always made him seem larger than life.Unreachable.Powerful.Unstoppable.Now, he felt as fragile as a bird I my arms.I let out a breath of relief when I felt his chest rise and fall against me.He breathed, if only shallowly, in slow, miniscule fits and starts.I held him even tighter, wrapping my arms and my magic around him as if I could hold him here, anchor him to life the way he had done for me these past months.

I couldn’t reach Andy.But I could reach Dyre.There was no curse blocking the way.I felt his tiny scrap of soul energy with my magical senses, like a flickering flame held in the palm of my hands, in danger of being extinguished by the slightest breeze.The realization of how narrowly he clung to life, of how it was only Sunshine holding him here all this time, made my own breath stutter and my heart clench in fear.

He might never believe it, but I loved him.For who he was, not for the newly established creator bond between us.Even if our fates weren’t so tightly entwined, I still wouldn’t be able to stand the thought of this strong, brave, precious soul disappearing forever.

And nearby, Oleander lay still as death as well, all color washed from her.Even less of her soul still intact thank Dyre’s.

I closed my eyes, forcing myself to focus on Dyre, rather than splitting my attention between him and Andy.Sunshine was with Andy.And he had asked me to protect his most important person while he was gone.Andy was beyond my reach under the awful darkness of the curse.There was nothing I could do for her now.Nothing except keep the man she loved alive while his resident wraith tried to body hop to undo the black magic that was killing her.

“Stay with me,” I whispered to Dyre, ignoring the tears that blurred my vision.Gods above.If I lost him—if I couldn’t hold onto that last lingering remnant of soul that Sunshine had guarded so fiercely for centuries—Dyre really would die.And not only would Andy and all the others grieve him… I would die along with him.For good this time.

Curling forward over his prone form, I flared out my wings, shielding Dyre and Andy from harm as best I could while my magic flowed over and into Dyre’s body.“Stay,” I whispered, over and over.“Stay with me.Please.”

My magic was interwoven with threads of his power—blood magic and ancient darkness.He was a part of me.But I was also a part of him.In my mind’s eye, I followed the threads of gold and black that tied us together.My magic flowed easily between us, amplified and anchored within the man I held.

He was right when he said I was more powerful than I wanted to admit.The choirs had been grooming me when I was alive, hoping to bring my strong magic into their inner circle.But now, I was far stronger than I ever was before.Stronger than I had been when I was alive.Somewhere along the way my time as a ghost, and being reincarnated by Dyre and Andy’s strong magic, had changed me.I could feel a deep well of light, there for the taking.

I called to the warm, golden power of the heavens, the magic of whatever lay beyond this life, drew it into me and made it my own.It came in a bright, aching rush.And I funneled it all into keeping Dyre’s soul here with me, attached to his body, where it belonged.

I pressed my lips to his icy forehead and said a prayer.The first prayer I had uttered since I learned that the dogma my people spread was a lie.The first earnest plea for divine intervention I had ever uttered with this particular set of lips.

“Most High, creator and bringer of light and life, I beseech you,” I murmured as I rocked Dyre’s thin body in my arms, every bit of magic I possessed pouring through us both, casting a glow over the area around us.“Shelter this man’s soul.Return his essence of strength and goodness to this mortal body.Let me be his shield, the light in the darkness, and the beacon that lights his way home.”

I shuddered as the magic swelled inside my chest, a burning torch of holy light.Of righteousness.The power of creation and life.I called on Dyre’s soul, commanding it to inhabit his body, to refuse to fade or succumb to darkness…

Chapter 27

Andy

Physicalpainwasadistant memory.I couldn’t feel my body.Soon, couldn’t even remember that I’d everhada body.

But a new kind of pain took its place as I slowly “woke” from nothing into the dark emptiness that was something… just shy of nothing.

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