Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Okay.” I stood up. “I can grab the things I need from the kitchen after dinner. We will do it then. Okay?” Everyone nodded. “There is a reason I brought you here, other than the fact that we can speak freely.”
Alannah looked around. “What is it?”
“I need your blood.” I grimaced. I looked around and saw that once again my mom was ahead of me.
In the bathroom on the counter, there were five plastic cups, a small knife, and one bandage.
I nodded over to the bathroom and waited for everyone to walk in.
I sat down on the toilet and gestured to the tiny cups.
“It’s not a lot. But where I am going to take you, you need to be added to a spell so that you can’t be traced. ”
They just looked at each other before they nodded. Everyone grabbed their cup except Abby, she walked over to me. “Could you help me?” She swallowed loudly. “I’m not supposed to get hurt cause it will make my sickness worse.” She was scared, but I pulled her close.
“Can I tell you a secret?” She nodded. “When I was your age, I got hurt. Real bad. And I was terrified of being hurt again.”
“How did you get past it?” She shook as she raised her arm towards me.
“By doing exactly what you are doing now. Being brave.” I smiled, but her eyes were focused on her wrist in my hand. “Hey, look up here. Look at my eyes and tell me a story.”
“Huh?” She looked up and I smiled.
“Look at my face and tell me a story. Your favourite story.” I grabbed her cup, and positioned it under her hand. Her gaze jumped to me but I tsked her. “Nope. Up here.” Her eyes snapped to mine. “Good. Now…your story.”
She closed her eyes for a minute, and then she looked back at me. “There once was a little girl who lived in the forest.” She continued the story for a minute before she stopped. “Aren’t you going to cut me?”
I just tapped her nose. “Pay attention to your story. Does closing your eyes help?” She thought about it for a minute and then nodded. “Okay, then close your eyes and focus on your story. Really picture it.”
She started again, eyes closed and her breathing finally evened out.
I waited for a few minutes, and I realized everyone had stopped to listen.
I gestured to them to keep going and then I shifted my claw.
Abby had gotten to a part of her story where the little girl ventured out of the forest, and I could tell she had finally relaxed enough that cutting into her wouldn’t do more damage than I intended, and I acted.
I quickly slid my nail against her, opening a shallow cut.
Her blood came quick, quicker than it should have, but she was right before.
The spell that was making her sick was chasing after death.
Her quick inhale was her only reaction. She kept telling her story even if her voice quivered a bit.
Once I was sure I had enough blood, I pushed my magic into her, but it was my turn to gasp.
My magic flowed through her body and I could feel all the damage the hex had done to her body.
It had damaged muscle, weakened her organs, but it was her wolf that broke me even more.
Her tiny pup inside of her was skin and bones.
I pushed Nix into her with my magic, and she walked over to the pup. Abby, the sweet girl, knew something was happening, and was suddenly beside me in her mind. “How are you here?” She looked up at me.
“Magic, sweetheart.” I walked over with her to her forest, where her tiny pup was hiding just inside of the trees.
“Where are we going?” She trailed behind me.
“To your safe place for your wolf.” I held my hand out to her. She finally caught up and slipped her hand in mine. I could still feel my magic doing its best to heal her, even though it wasn’t much. But this, this was too important to ignore.
We walked over to find Nix cuddled around a dull, red-furred wolf.
The sickness had leached the vibrancy long ago.
She was shivering in the cold, fighting to survive.
Nix had barely laid down fully before the tiny wolf pup howled softly and tucked herself closer to her warmth.
She looked up at me with horror-filled eyes. “She is close to death.”
“How long do we have? To save the pup?” I knelt, pulling Abby with me. I turned to her. “This is your wolf, sweetheart. Comfort her.” Abby hesitated, looking at Nix. “Don’t worry. She is my wolf.” Abby got close then, laying down next to her wolf and cuddled her against Nix’s side.
“Not long.” Nix signed, and she nestled the pup. “Maybe a day.” Abby started to cry when she heard.
“She won’t survive without her wolf, Nix.”
Nix looked up at me with pain written on her face. “I know.”
“It’s okay Nala.” Her words were soft. “We did our best.”
My heart broke as I watched Abby comfort her wolf. “Nala?” I leaned over the three so I could see her face.
Abby nodded. “I don’t know how, but as soon as I touched her, I knew her name.” She rubbed her face against the patchy, dull fur. “She is sick, like me, isn’t she?”
I just nodded. “Yeah baby girl, she is.” She snuggled in closer.
“Why is she so small?” She cracked open an eye and hugged her wolf pup closer. “Shouldn’t she be bigger? I should have met her soon, right?”
I looked at Nix and remembered that I started talking to her when I was about five or six.
She had always been there, strong, steady, and my best friend.
My heart ached for the pair in front of us.
“Yeah, she should be bigger, but so should you. The sickness ate away at your strength, at your power, and it stunted you.”
She looked at me with sad eyes. “It’s okay, you know.”
“What is?”
“That I have to die.” She closed her eyes as her puppy whined and rolled over into her arms. The tiny wolf cracked an eye and used a bit of its strength to slowly lick Abby’s face.
Even in her weakened form, Nala was doing her best to be there for her human.
Abby’s lip quivered as she kissed her wolf’s nose.
“I’ve spent the last year getting used to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to grow up.
That I would leave my mom and dad.” She turned to face me fully.
“On the days where I couldn’t leave my bed, I wrote letters to them.
They weren’t much. Mostly pictures at first, but when I learned more words, I started to write down how much I loved them. ”
“Abby…” I reached out and stroked her hair. My magic zipped through her and she felt stronger. Like the magic I sent through her to heal did more good than I thought possible.
Nix looked at me as she felt it, too. “Pick up the pup, Amy.” I looked at the wolf pup, and she cracked her eye again.
She couldn’t speak, but the pain there, the fear, the loneliness spoke volumes. “Come here Nala.” I picked her up and instantly my magic flowed through me and into the wolf in my arms. “Oh, Goddess.” This small thing was skin and bones. But instantly I knew exactly what happened.
“What’s wrong?” Abby pulled herself up, leaning against Nix for support.
“What do you know of the relationship between a wolf and their human?” Nix wrapped around her, and settled again, watching me cuddle Nala.
“You wolf is your best friend, someone that shares your body and your soul.” Abby turned to her. “That’s what they tell you in school.”
Nix nodded. “They are right, but it goes much deeper. We become your closest ally, your first confidant, and…your first line of defence.”
Abby’s face scrunched up. “What does that mean?”
“It means…” I cut in. “That your wolf woke up to you being already under attack. And to keep you alive, without a second thought, Nala stepped in to save you.”
Abby snapped her head to look at the wolf in my arms. She pushed herself up and shuffled over to me. “But she didn’t know me yet. We had never even talked before.” Her lips trembled. “She’s dying because of me?”
I pushed more power into the pup, guiding it to the organs first. There was no reason to worry about her fur when her lungs were failing. “Not because of you. For you.”
Abby slapped her hands over her eyes and started crying. “Why would she do that for me?”
Nix huddled closer. “When we first wake up, we sit in the silence of your minds and watch through your eyes. We see what kind of person you are, and that influences how we develop. If you are kind, giving, and sweet, your wolf will become the same.” Nix licked a tear from her face.
“But it is much simpler than that. She was born to be your first protector. She woke up and her first thought was you. She felt you were dying. She felt your pain. And she took it into herself to give you more time.”
She dropped her hands and looked at me. “More time for what?” She sobbed as she reached out and stroked Nala’s fur. “I won’t live without her.”
“There is a small chance you could live without your wolf, but…” I stroked the fur on Nala’s muzzle. “She probably didn’t know that. She probably took some of it from you so that you had enough time to say goodbye.”
Abby shook her head. “I was always going to die.”
I nodded. “Yeah, but I think your wolf gave you enough time to get used to it and to write your letters. To tell your mom and dad how much you love them. And to hopefully get a chance.”
“A chance at what?” She stood on shaky legs. “A chance to see my wolf die?”
“No baby. A chance to find a cure. A chance to meet me.”
I had finally pushed enough power into the pup for it to lift her head. “Hello there sweetheart.” I brought her up to snuggle and then put her on her feet. “Nix.” I nodded, and she was already inching closer.
She put her snout right against the pup and we waited.
She was feeling her strength, trying to gauge how much time I bought them.
She pushed closer, and the pup shuffled over and curled up on her front paws.
She rolled over, showing her belly, and Nix nuzzled in, breathing in her scent.
“A week.” Her words were soft. “We bought them a week.”
I looked down at the two girls. “Can we do this every week?” I sat back on my heels. “Will this keep working?”
Nix huffed out a breath as she settled with the pup. “I don’t know, but it means we will have to keep track until we can remove the hex.”
Abby wiped her face. “We won’t die?”
I pulled her into my arms and stood. “Not today.” I walked away, but stopped. “Are you staying here?”
She placed her head down on to Nala. “For a bit, I want to calm her down. She has been alone for too long, and she is touch starved.”
I looked back at her. “She was supposed to be out already?” My question was soft, and Nix just nodded.
“She has been awake longer than we think.” Nix closed her eyes. “I’ll try to find out more and I’ll tell you when I come back. Megan should be okay alone for a bit.” I just nodded and carried Abby back out of the trees.
“Who’s Megan?” Her question was soft, but I could hear the tears still in her voice.
“Someone who is very excited to meet you.” I smiled and then stepped out. One second I was in a dark forest and the next I was back in my bathroom holding on to Abby’s arm. Her color was better, and she wasn’t shaking.
“Was that real?” Her voice was surprisingly loud.
“What do you think?” I winked at her and looked back down at her wrist, fully healed.
“What are you talking about, baby?” Rick knelt down and I pulled back, putting the cup of Abby’s blood on to the counter.
Abby looked at me, and I could see the question. I tilted my head and smirked. “Your decision.”
She turned to her dad and took a deep breath. “I’m going to tell you something and I need you to not get upset.”
Rick looked over her shoulder at Shelly, who instantly looked worried. She came over and knelt next to them. “Whatever you have to say, we will figure it out.”
Abby nodded. “When Amy cut me, I met my wolf.” She looked down. “She was going to die tomorrow, and I was going to go with her.”
Rick and Shelly grabbed each other’s hands. “What?” Rick looked lost. “But…” He trailed off, praying she wasn’t finished.
Abby looked at me. “I don’t know how to explain.”
I looked at her for a minute. “Did you want me to explain instead?” She nodded, relief on her face. “Okay.” I looked at the trio. “When I cut her wrist, my magic, and my wolf pulled me into her safe place. The place where, when fully grown, her wolf would have lived.”
“Would have?” Rick whispered.
“Oh, Goddess.” Shelly pulled Abby to her.
I held up my hand. “When we got there, Abby followed me. She walked with me to the dark forest in her soul and together, we found her wolf pup. And I mean pup.” I held out a hand and cupped her face. “The hex has stunted her growth. Not just her human side, but her wolf as well.”
“Her wolf hasn’t awoken yet. I would have felt it.” Rick looked a little lost.
“Normally I would have agreed with you, but I’ve seen her, met her, held her.” I shook my head. “She was at death’s door. If I would have waited even twenty-four more hours for the spell to bring you here…” I trailed off, but Abby rubbed her face against my hand.
“I would have been dead.”
Rick and Shelly stood. But it was Shelly who looked at me, accusation in her eyes. “You said she was strong enough to last the month.” She looked down at her daughter. “You said she would have survived.”
I nodded. “I would have been wrong.” My words were soft. “I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know what?” She nearly screamed.
Nix slipped back into my mind and she looked broken. Nix? What’s wrong?
It’s been years. Her words were soft before she charged a tree and attacked it.
Shattered the big oak into splinters. She whirled on me.
Years Amy. That pup was awoken too early, and she was left to suffer in pain and silence because she was too weak to reach out, but strong enough to save her human.
My brain clicked back on as Shelly hit my face. Everyone froze. My voice dropped to a whisper. “That her wolf woke up years too early to save her life from a hex that should have never been placed on her.”