Page 43 of Witch Unbound
“Cora. Oh, fuck, Cora.”
The connections to my mates vibrated and buzzed inside me, and a soothing chill seeped into my blood.
I felt them around me, cocooning me with their presence, and our weakened connection flared, bright and vibrant, as they channeled pulses of power into me. Miasma.
Healing.
Soothing.
My wounds ached and itched.
“She’s healing!”
The connection dimmed and weakened again. I sagged in Tor’s arms, head falling back, vision coming back online to find him looking down at me with watery eyes and a downturned mouth. His nostrils flared and a raw sob broke from his throat.
Was he crying? Did my big bad Tor cry?
“Fuck.” His voice was hoarse and thick with emotion. “Only for you, Cora. Only for you.”
I wanted to reach up and touch his face, to tell him it was all going to be all right, but my body had other ideas, tugging me down into a dreamless, healing sleep.
Chapter Eleven
The hum of gentle voices tugged me out of sleep. I was home, tucked up on the sofa in the lounge under my favorite throw.
“She’s awake.” Bramble rushed toward me and then slowed to carefully park her butt by my hip. “Hey, how you feeling?”
“Like I was chased by a twenty-foot carnivorous worm and then hit by a ten-ton spider.” I sat up, wincing at the soreness in my limbs.
The guys gathered closer, Tor taking his habitual spot on the coffee table, Leif crouching on the floor beside me, and Rune hovering behind Bramble.
They looked relieved, concerned, pale with red-rimmed eyes. They’d been crying. I’d done that to them by almost dying. Again. I’d put them through hell.
“I’m sorry.” My eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry for putting you through that.”
“Fuck that,” Leif said. “All we care about is that you’re alive.”
“That you’re safe,” Rune added.
“The rest doesn’t matter,” Tor finished.
It mattered. It mattered a lot, but it was a testament to how much they loved me that they were able to absolve me so easily.
I wiped my eyes with my sleeve. “Jasper didn’t make it back, did he?”
Bramble shook her head. “No, babe, he didn’t.” She frowned. “Wait, did you see him there?”
I nodded. “I did. I couldn’t get to him, though, and then…Well, you saw the state of me.” I looked up at my guys, knowing that my next words were going to cause a ruckus, but I had to say them even if only to get shot down. “I have to go back.”
I expected explosions, curses, resistance, but none of the guys reacted. Instead, they looked at me with compassion, as if they felt sorry for me. Why were they looking at me like that?
“Cora…” Bramble took my hand. “There is nogoing back.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“While you were in the abyss, Ida explained to us how much energy the spell to open a doorway to that place takes. It’s not something she can do regularly. She said it’ll take her a month or maybe more to recover from it.”
Panic tightened my chest. “A month? You mean I can’t go back for another month?”
