Page 24 of Make Me
She’d tell me what I’ve already been saying to Talon. That I need to trust Natalia and to stop procrastinating. I need to do this for myself, for the wolf I regrettably buried, and for the future I deserve.
“Okay.” My voice is low but steady.
She gestures to the table with a tilt of her head. “Then lie down.”
With a slight tremor in my steps, I move and climb up, the wood cold beneath me. I smooth my skirt and press my back flat, staring up at the stars.
“You chose a good night,” Natalia murmurs as she rearranges the items she’s brought with her. “The full moon is good for rebirth. Plus, whatever magic that fae friend of yours stirred up earlier? It’s still lingering.”
I keep quiet and focus on the night sky until she places a potion bottle in my hand. “Drink.”
I lean up on one elbow and pull the cork then immediately regret my decision. The scent is sharp andacidic, like crushed iron mixed with citrus and ash. Just breathing it in burns my throat.
Gods, this is going to suck.
I down it in one gulp, the liquid clawing at my throat like it’s trying to escape. I gag but manage to keep it down.
My head spins as everything inside me slows. Yet, I feeleverything.
Anguish, death, life, grief, joy, desire, and everything in between. It all pulses through me like a live wire.
“You’re going to be fine,” Natalia says distantly, her voice echoing like it’s moving away from me. “Eventually. Just don’t fight this or the next part will only bring you more suffering. While fun, let’s not waste time, yeah?”
I want to question her, but without warning, she raises the dagger and plunges it into my chest.
Pain—hot and bright and staggering—rips through me like a tidal wave. My mouth opens on a gasp, but no noise escapes. At least not at first.
Then the screeching begins.
Sounds that I didn’t know lived inside me. Raw and primal, terrifying even to my own ears.
My body tries to arch, to writhe, to run, but I can’t move. Whatever potion she gave me has pinned me to this moment, and I have no choice but to endure it.
“By all means,” Natalia says dryly, “keep screaming like that. I’d so appreciate it. It really helps me focus.”
The dagger twists deeper, and a searing white light explodes behind my eyes. My shouts are cut short as the agony grows to unbearable heights and then…
Nothing.
No sound. No pain. No heartbeat.
Just coldness.
It feels like my last breath drifts from my lips, and I’m somehow able to watch it swirl above me, but the further away it gets, the more drawn I am to it, as though the sky itself is pulling me free.
Except this pull doesn’t stop until I’m floating.
For a moment, I don’t even realize what’s happened. Then, I’m hovering just above the bench, looking down at my own body—the ruined corset, the blood blooming like a crimson flower over my sternum, the slack stillness of my limbs.
Holy shit. I’m dead.
Not metaphorically. Not magically.
Just plain dead.
Yet, this doesn’t feel like an ending. There’s no fear, only peace, filling me as I watch Natalia work over me, muttering words I don’t understand and sprinkling ingredients into the wound she’s caused.
The world shifts around me, and from the shadows beyond the trees, a new shape emerges. A form woven from twilight and stardust, gliding on silent paws through the veil of spirit and memory.
