Deadlocked

“She’s after you,” I yel ed in warning, and just as the words left my mouth Jannalynn leaped, spun, and came down on Alcide, who leaped aside at the last fraction of a second.

She got Sam.

He crumpled to the ground as his blood spurted. Jannalynn paused in shock at having cut her lover, and in that moment Mustapha grabbed her by the hair, threw her to the sand, and beheaded her. I’d seen beheadings before, but they’re pretty spectacularly horrible. I didn’t even remember Jannalynn’s until much later, because I was launching myself across the intervening space to crouch by Sam, who was bleeding out into the grass by the patio. I heard someone screaming and knew it was me. Alcide crouched down by me and reached out to touch Sam, but I shoved him away.

Sam’s eyes were wide and desperate. He knew the severity of his wound.

I started to cal for Eric, so he could give Sam his blood, but as I put my hand to Sam’s neck, Sam’s pulse stopped. His eyes closed.

And everything else in the world did, too.

In my universe, everything fel silent. I didn’t hear the chaos around me. I didn’t hear a voice cal ing my name. I shoved Alcide away for a second time. My course was perfectly clear. I reached in my right pocket, pul ed out the cluviel dor, and put it on Sam’s chest. The creamy green glowed.

The band of gold radiated light.

Amelia had always told me that wil and intent are everything in magic, and I had plenty of both.

“Sam. Live.” I hardly recognized my own voice. I didn’t have spel s, but I had the wil . I had to believe that. I pressed the cluviel dor to Sam’s heart, and I put my left hand over the terrible wound in his neck. “Live,” I said again, hearing only my own voice and the silence in Sam’s body.

And the cluviel dor opened at its gold seam, revealing a hol ow interior, and the concentrated magic inside it flew out and poured into Sam. It was clear and shining and otherworldly. It flowed through my fingers and into Sam’s neck, and it vanished into the terrible wound. It fil ed Sam’s body, which began to glow. The cluviel dor, now empty of magic, slipped from my right hand, which rested stil on Sam’s chest. I felt movement with my left hand, so I pul ed it away from the gash and watched.

It was like watching a film run in reverse. The severed vessels and tendons inside Sam’s neck began to knit. I held my breath, afraid even to blink or move. After a long moment, or several long moments, I could feel Sam’s heart begin to beat under my fingers.

“Thanks, Fintan,” I whispered. “Thanks, Gran.”

After a small eternity, Sam’s eyes opened. “I was dead,” he said.

I nodded. I couldn’t talk to save my soul.

“What … how’d you do that?”

“Tel you later.”

“You … you can do that?” He was dazed.

“Not again,” I warned him. “That’s it. You got to stay alive from now on.”

“Okay,” he said weakly. “I promise.”

Eric left while I was with Sam. He left without speaking to me.

When I got Sam to stand, we had to walk past Jannalynn’s body. Sam looked at the corpse of the woman he’d dated for months, and his face was blank. He had a lot to process.

I didn’t give a shit about the rest of the Were evening. I figured no one was going to chal enge Alcide on the spot, and if they did, I wasn’t going to stick around to watch another fight. I also figured if Mustapha wanted to join the pack, no one was going to vote against that, either. Not tonight. I didn’t even worry about the effect of tonight’s spectacle on the smal er teenage Weres. They had their own world to live in, and they had to learn its rules and ways pretty damn quick.

I drove, because I figured a guy who’d just died and come back probably should be left to think about the experience. Sam’s truck wasn’t hard to operate, but between driving an unfamiliar vehicle and remembering the way to get back to the county road to go home, I was pretty preoccupied.

“Where’d Eric go?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know. He left in hurry. Without speaking.” I shrugged.

“Kind of abrupt.”

“Yeah,” I said briefly. I figured his was the voice I’d heard yel ing, before I’d focused on Sam. The silence hung around and got awkward.

“Okay,” I said. “You heard about Freyda. I figure he’s going to go with her.”

“Oh?” It was clear Sam didn’t know what reaction to give me.

“Oh,” I said firmly. “So he knew I had this thing. This magic thing that I used on you. And I guess he thought it was kind of a test of my love.”

“He expected you to use it to save him from this marriage,” Sam said slowly.

“Yeah. Evidently.” And I sighed. “And I kind of expected him to tel her to go to Hel . I guess I thought of it as a test of his love.”

“What do you think he’l do?”

“He’s proud,” I said, and I just felt tired. “I can’t worry about it right now. The most I can hope for is that Felipe and his crew leave for home and we get some peace.”