Page 27 of Witch's Rebirth
We called her name. We felt for her aura with ours. We marched through the woods all night, looking at every askew pine needle that could tell us something.
"How could she just vanish?" I asked Ash. "When it hit me, it felt like a machine gun ripped me open but I didn't disappear. If this really happened, she had to have left... something."
"I don't know, man." Even now he was trying to be the calm, in-control leader. But I saw how his hands shook when he rubbed his beard. Like all of us, he was barely holding it together.
None of us wanted to admit it, but I knew I wasn't the only one. My aura felt like an empty, desolate hallway. Through the connection we had, I could always feel Deja's presence. Sometimes I picked up on her mood and emotions. But now all of that was gone.
"It doesn't make any sense," I muttered. "I can still see her in the future. With us, with our kids."
"We're in shock," Ash pointed out flatly. "It hasn't sunk in yet. We're in denial."
I spun on him angrily. "Don't you dare give up on her yet. She isLilith.There's no way she can be just taken down like that."
Eventually we made our way to the meadow where Seth had been planted. Where everything seemed to be going fine in one moment and went terribly wrong in the next.
"What happened?" he asked, not looking at either of us.
"There's no sign of Deja," Ash said stiffly. "The shifters can't even pick up a scent."
"I felt her pain," Seth said hauntingly. "I wasn't even in her shadows but I felt her fear. I felt her soul begin to rip from her body."
"Fuck." Ash turned away and scrubbed a hand over his face, unable to contain his emotion any longer.
"She can't really be... can she?" Seth looked up at me, his eyes pleading with me, begging me not to be serious. But if Deja was really gone for good, not even I could make a joke out of that.
"We don't know yet, man." I swallowed but my throat still tightened into a dry knot. "We're trying to figure it out."
"It feels so wrong." Seth shook his head. "I could feel her nearby and then she was just... gone."
"Bro, here's the thing." I reached out and squeezed his shoulder. He looked up but his eyes weren't seeing me. "If you could feel her like that, you meant something to her on the same level as us. She let you in."
"Stop." Seth gave me a murderous look. "Don't talk about her in past tense."
"None of us can feel her anymore!" Ash cried from behind me. "What do you think that means?"
"It doesn't mean she's dead. She could be on another plane," Seth protested. "She could have gotten whisked to Hell or-"
"It doesn't work like that," Ash snarled. He ran his hands up through his hair and tugged. In all the years I'd known him, I never saw him so distraught. As Deja's first and the one who loved her the longest, his panic and grief had to be on another level.
"Let's check in with the shifters," I suggested. "See if they picked up anything."
Ash nodded and began walking off. I hesitated for a moment before grabbing Seth's shirt and dragging him up to his feet.
"Come on," I growled. "She considers you one of hers now, so fucking act like it. You're one of us."
He followed me dutifully, though his thousand-yard stare remained.
We spent the next few hours rendezvousing with Astrid's shifter team, spreading out to search and then meeting again empty-handed. As the hours passed and night slowly gave way to daylight, the hopelessness began to sink in.
When the sun rose I shifted into raven form and soared high above the trees. My vision wasn't nearly as good as birds of prey but damn it, I felt useless on the ground. I had to look for myself. Maybe, just maybe I'd see something that everyone else missed.
I flew around in circles until my wings fatigued. I looked until I heard Sal's weary voice in my head.
Raum, the shifters have been up all night and need to rest, he said.And we should get Ash back to the house, he's all messed up.
Okay, I answered and flew to our rendezvous point.
Everyone stood around in a circle looking grim. Astrid's mates were doing their best to hold and comfort her, though anyone could see how hard they were having it too. I shifted back to human and barely anyone looked up. They knew I didn't have anything. All except Nona.
