CHAPTER 43
Tyghan!”
Bristol’s arms thrashed through the air. She gulped in ragged breaths, the air burning in her lungs, her eyes stinging, everything too bright. Someone was trying to push her arms down, pushing on her shoulders. “Tyghan—”
“He’s coming, dear. We called for him.”
“Shhh. It’s all right. You are all right.”
Camille came into view. “You’re waking up. That’s all. Coming out of it is always a bit startling,” Izzy said.
Bristol looked at her hands. A sharp blue nail bed on her index finger was still there. Despair engulfed her. “It didn’t work. I still have the tick.”
“No, no,” Izzy said, “the tick is gone. That small sign is all that’s left. We call it a vestige. It will fade too, just like the others.”
“Vestige of what?”
Camille stroked her hand. “You’re a shape-shifter, darling, that’s all. A vestige is a reminder of that. Like Julia’s vertical cat pupils.”
“A shape-shifter?”
“Yes, you have two forms to your nature.”
“And the scales?”
“Gone. The tick made the magic inside you unstable. You were navigating a shaky line between your human state and your other one. But now your magic is restored, and that shaky line is gone, along with the tick. Isn’t that great news? The greedy fool gave you up at the very last second.”
But Bristol was still caught up on the words vestige and shape-shifter. They were thick on her tongue. “What is my other state?”
The Sisters exchanged a glance and deferred to Jasmine.
She stepped closer, resting her hand on Bristol’s arm.
“We don’t know, and you don’t have to know either.
You never have to change. In fact, we don’t recommend it.
It takes great effort, and when some fae try to change at this point in life, they can get stuck in their other form.
Some can never change back. They can forget their old lives. ”
“It has happened,” Adela said.
Bristol eyed Adela. There was something in her tone. Something grim that—
“But there is no need to ever change,” Camille joined in, her plump cheeks flushed.
“With the tick gone, your powers as a bloodmarked are fully restored. You have everything you need, just as you are! We only tell you in case you ever feel any inclination, an intense burning here”—she drew a line down Bristol’s sternum—“that you ignore it. That’s all you have to do. ”
Bristol nodded hesitantly, still trying to absorb their words.
She didn’t want to change. Not ever. She wanted to go home to her sisters looking as she always had, with no scales, no claws, and whatever else might have appeared, like fins, maybe even something that condemned her to live in the ocean.
She only wanted to be who she always was.
One fingernail? Even if it didn’t fade, it was nothing.
She could deal with it. She sat up and eased her legs over the side of the treatment table.
“May I have a mirror?” she asked. She had to be sure.
She had to see with her own eyes that the tick was really gone.
Adela brought two mirrors, one for behind and one for Bristol to hold, and Camille opened her gown so she could view her whole back.
Bristol swallowed, taking a moment to soak it in.
Her back was smooth. The scales were gone.
But more importantly, the ugly beast beneath her skin that had fed on her magic ever since she was a baby was gone too.
She bent over, clutching her stomach, and sobbed.
Tyghan heard the cries as he approached the treatment room, and clammy sweat sprang to his face. He threw the door open, slamming it against the wall, and saw Bristol doubled over, crying. Gods, she was alive but—
“What’s wrong?” he yelled to Jasmine as he ran to Bristol and searched for injuries.
“It’s gone,” Bristol told him, relieved sobs still pouring out of her. “It’s finally gone.”
Tyghan looked to Jasmine for confirmation.
She nodded.
“Side effects?” he asked. There was a moment’s hesitation.
“None,” Jasmine answered. “Her powers are fully restored. She should be able to close portals with ease now. And open them. As to whether her power equals her mother’s, that remains to be discovered. Keep her quiet for the rest of the day. Food and sleep, that’s all she needs.”
Tyghan drew in a full breath. Power and no side effects.
It couldn’t have gone better. He understood Bristol’s relieved sobs.
At the same time, he noted the extreme fatigue in Jasmine’s face and the droop of her shoulders.
Her lips were ghostly white. Whatever she had done to remove the tick, it had taken something out of her.
He thanked the Sisters, but held Jasmine’s gaze a little longer.
There had been friction between them over these past months, suspicion and accusations, but growing up, he had always been welcomed within these walls.
Endless times, Jasmine had hugged both him and Kierus in one fierce grip and warned them there would be consequences if there was any more breakage.
But there never were consequences. Instead, following their childish mayhem, there was usually a treat in the kitchen for them.
Only after Kierus stabbed Tyghan and fled did their relationship become strained.
Tyghan never stopped to think that Jasmine had probably been as devastated by the turn of events as he was, her loyalties tested. Caught between her heart and her duty.
“Be on your way now,” Adela said briskly as she guided Tyghan and Bristol toward the door. “As you can see, the Lumessa needs to rest.”
When they were gone and the door was closed, Jasmine said, “Arrange for transport to Mount Nola first thing in the morning.”
But as Jasmine turned away, she collapsed to the floor, a shadow beneath her skin creeping up her neck.
The Sisters ran to her aid, Adela tucking a pillow beneath Jasmine’s head. “Now,” Izzy cried. “We have to take her to Mount Nola tonight.”
But Camille knew Jasmine would never make the trip to Mount Nola. She likely wouldn’t even make it to a new moon. Jasmine knew that when she laid her bare chest across the tick to save Bristol. Only the more powerful blood of a Lumessa was enough to persuade the tick to let go.
They lay in the dark, Tyghan tracing circles on Bristol’s arm, both of them feeling everything anew, every breath, every swipe of their legs across the sheets, every whispering word, like they had both received a second chance at life, a life together.
She remembers me.
I remember him.
Both of their thoughts swirled around what they had not lost. Each other.
His hand skimmed her shoulder, smooth, the scales gone. She told him about the shape-shifter buried deep inside her, the one she never had to be. Would never be. It would take great effort to change, and at this point the Sisters recommended she never try.
What kind of shape-shifter?
The Sisters didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. She would always be just Bristol.
“Don’t tell anyone,” she whispered. “No one needs to know. The tick is gone. I am fully bloodmarked now. That is all that matters.”
But the Sisters did know, Tyghan thought. He saw it in their eyes. They had lied. But maybe that didn’t matter either. He had what mattered in his arms.