Page 187 of Fires of the Forsaken
The woman’s face was blank. Not a hint of remorse. Or any emotion. “If it were up to me, you would have stayed where you were. You were much less dangerous there.”
“Dangerous?”I started, and then yelled, “Oh, you pizza-deprivingbitch!”when she grasped my shoulder with one hand and lifted me to my feet. My ears made a heavywhomp-whomp-whompnoise.
“Understand this,” the woman held me steady when I swayed, “my brethren did not want me to intervene. I am here against their orders.”
My eyes watered. I couldn’t keep them open anymore. “Did you kidnap me against their orders too? Or e-e-erase my memories?” I pitched forward when my knees gave out.
The woman thrust her staff under my chest, propping me back on my feet. “It seems I’m the only one of my brethren who learned from past mistakes,” she continued, ignoring my comments. “I cannot take you away from here this time. But I can give you a warning.”
“A warn—”
She didn’t give me a chance to finish. “You may have destroyed Seruf’s Essence, but you also absorbed a piece of it.”
“H-How?”
“Souls and Essences, are…well, to put it crudely, they’re rather like gum.”
“Gum? Like…bubble gum?” I snorted.
She sighed. “Yes.When you trod on gum, you take a piece of it with you. The same thing happens when you touch a soul: it leaves a residue, one that will damageyoursoul. If you use this power too often, youwillchange. That is my warning.”
As I attempted to work out what the heck that meant, she grasped my shoulders again, spinning me around. “Because I am alone,” she continued, “I cannot hold Ramiel indefinitely. But I will give you time to escape.”
A horse snorted in my ear.
I cracked an eye open as Abby Normal nuzzled my arm. “You’re nuts,” I told the woman. “I can’t ride…you don’t knowanythingabout this horse.”
“No,youknow nothing about her,” the woman said.
Before I had time to squeak out a protest, I was flung across Abby Normal’s scaly back. I grunted, whimpered, and grasped onto fistfuls of her wiry mane as she shifted.
“The humans—those still alive—have fled into the forest and are en route to Sanadrin,” the woman said. “The Púca will take you to them.”
“Wait!” I cried when Abby Normal moved forward. She stopped, pawing uncertainly.
“Did I not just say I can’t hold—” the woman started.
“Cheriour,” I rasped.
“My brother is close to death.”
“If Quinn’s still alive, he can fix him.”
“It would be better if you let him go,” the woman insisted. Her voice wasn’t exactly gentle, but it had softened. A smidge.
“Not happening,” I said.
“When he dies—”
“He’ll rise. And he won’t be the same. I got that whole spiel already,” I snapped. “ButI don’t care. He’s fought so hard—hewantsto live. And…I need him.” A salty tear trickled into my mouth. “You’ve taken everything from me.Everything.Don’t take him too. Please.”
She said nothing. Every time I opened my eyes, my vision swam, and the dim light from the dying fire seemed as bright as a thousand-watt bulb. “Really,” I huffed when she stayed silent for a few seconds too long. “You’rereallygonna ignore me. You bi—oof.”
Cheriour’s body flopped over my lap. He was out cold. And it was awkward to have him in this position, dangling horizontally across Abby Normal’s back, his torso pressed against the tops of my thighs.
I grasped his shoulders, feeling the unsteady rise and fall of his chest, while my hands trembled.
“Now go,” the woman said.
