Page 49 of A Bloodline Redeemed

Ah.Sunny was inside her.That was what Elijah had meant.The wraith was trying to… well, I had no idea what he was trying to do, honestly.Wake her up?Break the dark magic?

“There’s nothing I can do,” I repeated, before Aahil decided to actually set me on fire.“Luck magic isn’t something you control.It’s not something Ido.It’s something Iam.I can’t aim it like a weapon and pull the trigger.”

His grip on the back of my neck tightened and he made a strange, eerie whining sound that cut right through my heart.“Do something,” he whispered.“Why can’t anyone fuckingdosomething?”

Elijah was humming with golden magic, his bright aura visible to the naked eye and his wing branches fully extended.Blackness snaked through his light, the slow, coiling darkness like ink on water, a reminder that he was more than just an angelic presence.He seemed to be concentrating on something.But his glowing blue eyes flicked upward to focus on Aahil momentarily.“Wearedoing something,” he said calmly, in that layered, echoing voice.“I am keeping Dyre alive so Sunshine can bring Andy back.”Then his focus slid away, turned inward.

Apparently, it took some serious concentration to hold onto someone’s soul.

Great cats, I was surrounded by the most fascinating, terrifying people I had ever met.

And that didn’t even count the cult leader, who was still hovering around somewhere, being completely ignored by the rest of us.That must really chap her ass.I huffed an unhinged laugh and Aahil shook me again.

“Alright, alright,” I muttered.This brat.Someday, if we all made it through this alive, I was going to have to put him in his place.Pretty privilege would only get him so far.If he set my hair on fire, I was going to beat his pert little ass until it was black and blue…

“Fuck, I muttered, running a hand through my hair.I was losing my mind.And I was also going to pass out soon.Black spots were floating at the edges of my vision.Time magic was a bitch.Especially when I pushed it past all reason or logic in my desperation to save someone I loved.

Great.Now I was crying.But I had rapidly grown to care for Oleander Lovell—to love her, I was afraid.Her, and all of the weirdos currently standing around her lifeless body, willing Sunshine to save her.I felt like Ibelongedwith them.Truly belonged.At all times, not just once in a while when they could tolerate me.And now, I was in danger of losing the home I had never realized I needed.

I wobbled, almost falling over.Then I gave up and let myself fall, curling up next to Andy.I lost my human form as primal instinct took over, letting me shut down and heal.Curling up around my witch, I purred, hoping my presence would soothe her.It would be incrediblyunluckyif I were to lose her.

A too-warm presence knelt at my back, and hot, graceful fingers stroked through my fur.

It would be unlucky iftheylost her.

And the ultimate bad luck would befall me if she was lost… I would lose them as well.All of them.Because Andy was what held us all together.

And on that thought, the overexertion and magic drain won, and I finally passed out.

Chapter 29

Dyre

Warmth.

I expected death to be cold, but there was nothing but warmth and… love.

For a moment, I swore I saw eternity.And it wasn’t the terrifying hell I had imagined for myself since being born into my twisted family and turned into a necromancer.No.Eternity felt like a golden glow.Like a pair of strong arms around me, solid and eternal as stone.It felt like the warmth of a crackling fire in the fireplace, a warm, calming drink at my side, the low thrill of a forest hunt, sweet dreams that kept all the nightmares away, the warm rumble of a contented cat curled up in my lap… it felt likehome.Not the home of my childhood, which was cold and painful, full of struggle and fear.This felt like the home I had found, the one I had created.

But something was missing.

I missed the soaring, limitless darkness of the night sky, a darkness so black that night itself wondered at the beauty and color of the stars, and so fiercely loyal I knew I would never be afraid again.And I missed…growing things and honey-gold energy, fierce stubbornness layered over softness that would enfold me and shelter me from the world… and which I would happily die to protect….

The darkness returned first, cool but welcome, a presence that I simply didn’t feel whole without.

You are still alive,the darkness said, and I felt both its surprise and its relief.

We communicated silently in the warm stretch of eternity where I languidly floated, disembodied, but safe.Always safe, with the golden glow that held me like a lover, gently, and cherished, and safe.

Am I?I asked the darkness as it reached questioning tendrils toward whatever I was here.

I wasn’t afraid of the tendrils of darkness.They were beautiful like the hush of night.Like my love of the night sky.Was I really alive?I had been certain I was dead, that this place was heaven… or wherever souls went when they were finally free from the struggle that was life.

More alive than you have been in two hundred years,the darkness informed me.You are… changed.

I thought about that—if one could think when one didn’t seem to have a body or a brain to process thought.Ifeelchanged.

The angel has somehow restored your soul,the deep, multilayered darkness whispered.You no longer have need of me to keep the small remnant of your life spark anchored in your mortal body.

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