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Valen. He’ll help Lucas if they can find each other. Please, please let them find each other. Please, Valen. Save him.
“Jinx…” I wheeze.
My eyes are beginning to focus. I am no longer in that darkness, nor am I trapped within Alasdair’s prison. Lights flash all around as if we’re traveling at a great speed. I blink, struggling to get my eyes to work in the same direction. I peer at Jinx, who has transformed into a billowing black cloud of smoke.
Her massive fangs close around my broken body like a deadly cage. My blood pours into her mouth, and I choke on my own tongue when I see my pumping heart and expanding lungs within my splayed ribcage.
“Jinx…” I sob. “Am I dying?”
“No!” Jinx roars, but her jaws around me do not move. Her tongue wraps around me like a slimy embrace. “We’re almost there. Hold on, Tori. Just hold on!”
Pressure builds, pressing and stretching all around me, distorting my form. Then, it all comes to a stop with a pop. I gasp, eyes wide, splayed ribcage shifting with my panting breaths.
The cosmos stretches out above me. Billowing solar clouds mix together in a blend of purples, pinks, and yellows. Stars fill the sky, so numerous that I could never dream of mapping them all. A few fall in the distance in a spiraling, hypnotic dance, their glittering trails mapping their descent. My fingers twitch as if to reach out and touch them.
Jinx pants, her breath washing over me. My hair flows all around me as if I’m submerged in water and my mind spins. Spots form in my vision. “Where…”
“You were in the in-between space between our dimensions. But I know the way to the Weave. We’ve made it to the other side. Your soul will be safe with me as long as we stay away from the Tapestry of Magic.”
“How…” My eyes are heavy. I feel like I’m being dragged down and down.
“I’ll tell you all later. For now, stay awake. We’re not safe—”
She dives when something lunges into the space we were just in. I fall from Jinx’s mouth, rolling painfully away. My blood smears across a section of the cosmos and reveals the reflective ground beneath me that mirrors the night sky. The platform highlights my broken body, my blood shimmering in the light. Little tendrils wind under me, only visible when my touch brushes them.
I drag my gaze up from the smooth surface to watch a massive creature that defies all logic battle a black cloud that must be Jinx. They twist together, Jinx’s fanged mouth snapping at the creature in deadly strikes. Our attacker is a long and slippery slug-like creature with tiny, grasping limbs. Jinx rips chunks from the writhing, screaming creature as it fights to reach me. It hurts my brain to witness its mouth snapping like a distorted sphincter, rows of needly teeth flashing.
Before it can get to me, Jinx tears into it in a flurry of claws and fangs. It contorts until its head twists and pops away from its massive form.
The head squelches onto the mirrored surface, light sparking under it as it rolls away.
Jinx shakes, her smoky cloud rippling to reveal glimpses of a feline body with multiple tails whipping back and forth. Prowling over to me, she scoops me back up into her jaws. “We need to get farther away from the Tapestry. Only then can your soul heal.”
I wheeze, lips trembling. “Am I dying?”
“As long as your body is alive within Alasdair’s cursed statue, your soul will remain alive. But be warned, your soul is badly damaged and traumatized. You need to rest.”
“Then…” I bounce lightly in her hold as she runs along the mirrored surface. “What… what’s the plan…?”
Silence stretches before Jinx says softly, “Survive until the curse is broken or Alasdair is killed. His death will end it.”
“But… my body…”
It all comes rushing back. Jinx ripping from my chest. Alasdair alive. The burning pain of Antonia’s statue encasing me. The unending awareness of everything.
Lucas. Oh, fuck. Lucas.
“One crisis at a time, Tori. We’ll figure it out.” Jinx finally stops, her head whipping back and forth. “This will do. We’re at the farthest edge.”
My eyes lazily scan this duller version of where we were before. The inky night sky is no longer a lustrous wonder, but a matte, dim space with barely any flecks of light. Even the mirrored surface we land on is faint, as if a thick layer of dust covers it, muting the light under Jinx’s paws.
Jinx transforms, her smoke becoming a sheet of shiny black fur. I’m rolled within her, and I moan when it eases my bolting pain. Warmth envelops me as if I’m floating in a warm pool.
Rest, Tori. I’ll keep us safe while you recover. Then, we’ll talk. There is much I haven’t told you.
I try to respond, but then Jinx’s rumbling purr surrounds me. My eyes close as I become one with the vibration, with the warmth, and slip into a deep, peaceful slumber.
CHAPTER 11
