Page 36 of Faerie Fate
Coral snickered. “I’ve always assumed you were a Type A, Mel, but hearing about it and seeing it in action are two different things.”
Mike tugged me to his side, Noren providing much-needed support for my failing body. “Time to say goodbye, Tavi.”
I barely knew where I was. Barely had the mental wherewithal to form the words let alone understand the moment the way the tiny voice in my head urged me to. This might be the last time I saw my friends. Or if we were somehow miraculously successful, this was only a temporary goodbye.
Julie hugged me, followed by a bone-crushing embrace from Melia. My cousin and I locked eyes but we weren’t the touchy-feely type. I understood, though. As did she. Coral didn’t like to get emotional, and right now I couldn’t ask for more.
“Good luck,” Melia added. Her eyes watery. “Come back to us whole, okay?”
“I’ll try,” I managed to get out.
Mike tucked me underneath his arm and held out his opposite hand for Bronwen. Noren wound his massive body between us, around us, linking us all together.
As Mike’s magic bloomed, I really fucking hoped this wasn’t the last time I’d ever see my friends again.
Chapter Ten
Imight puke. Or die. Whichever one came first and neither were really great options.
My body didn’t give a crap, though. I focused on breathing, in and out, my own meditation as Mike’s magic pulsed.
The green corona was a writhing, living presence around us, linking us together, forcing us out of our current position in the universe and shooting us backwards like a dark star. I squinted, my eyes closed, Noren’s muffled bark of displeasure unsurprising.
I sucked air in through my overheated nostrils, and when the universe stopped spinning, I exhaled sharply. For a beat, none of us moved. We froze together like pieces of ice in a raging river and waited for the last pinpricks of magic to fade.
The dizziness was gone. So was the nausea, the swirling sensation in my skull. All of it.
No more pain. No more Kendrick.
My eyes popped open with a laugh even as Bronwen fell to her knees, heaving. She pushed her hair behind her ears.
“You do this for fun?” she groaned out to Mike before she ejected the contents of her stomach.
Even Mike looked a little green around the edges but damn, I feltgreat. I turned away to give Bronwen privacy while she threw up.
“Are we here?” I dropped Mike’s hand and rubbed my own together. “We made it?”
We certainly weren’t in the basement of the Elite Academy. For sure. We stood instead on the crest of a hill with trees blocking the distance. The dirt road beneath our feet was hard-packed and well-trod with thin grooves from wheel marks in parallel lines.
A field to our left boasted rows of raised dirt with the first green flecks of buds breaking out from the soil. Trees lined the opposite side, and a smattering of wooden buildings marked the outskirts of the fields like caretaker cottages on an old estate.
The air was sweeter. Less polluted by people and magic. The clear sky overhead was the most unnatural shade of blue I’d ever seen, and devastatingly beautiful.
Mike ran a hand down my hair and I jumped at the contact. “Tavi? Are you okay?”
Okay? No.“I’m actually fantastic,” I said with a laugh. “Better than I’ve been in a long time.”
I filled my lungs to their bottom with that sweet air and held it inside of me. My heart no longer clanged out an abnormal rhythm, struggling to beat as my body degenerated. This was freedom.
Noren sensed it and gave a small, sharp bark of exuberance. Overcome, my eyes stinging, I dropped down and grabbed him in a hug, forcing the direwolf to suffer through my affection.
“Oh, Noren,” I breathed. “All the symptoms of the zombie curse are gone.”
Every last one of them. I’d almost forgotten what it felt like to live outside the force of my symptoms. I’d been given a second chance.
“Nothing?” Mike questioned. “That’s crazy.”
“It’s not crazy.” Bronwen sat back on her haunches, digging the heels of her hands into her teary eyes. “It makes sense when you think about it.”
