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“You are welcome.”

“Do ya have any idea how I can get back to my body?”

One of The Three looked up and studied the stone ceiling. It had to be at least twenty feet over our heads. “Perhaps it will work similarly to your out-of-body travel while scrying. That is your term for astral travel, is it not?”

Of course. She was currently unconscious in her physical body and traveling in astral form. Why hadn’t she thought of that?

“Do ya think ghosts might be people who’ve left their bodies and find they can’t get back to them? I’ve heard that happens when people are killed traumatically. Ya lose yer physical form too fast to process the loss.”

One of The Three chuckled. “It is a viable theory. Do you fear becoming a ghost?”

My shoulder still hurt, but I no longer felt like I would fall. “Are ya truly able to save me?”

“Yes, even if I have to regenerate you completely. So long as your dying takes time, we can restore you. Now, if you lose your head in battle—well, that’s something we won’t be able to fix. I suggest you allow your various parts to pass on if that happens. Lingering would indeed make you a ghost or even something worse.”

“Sounds like good advice,” I said, trying not to sound sarcastic. I had a hunch that One of The Three wouldn’t get it. “Since I’m for sure not dead right now, dying is something I prefer not to do anytime soon.”

One of The Three walked to a cauldron. No fire was under it, but the cast iron lit from within when he stood over it. He selected a long crystal wand from a nearby table and tapped the edge. The sound it made resonated in the room. He chanted until the sound faded away.

He paused and looked at me. “You are correct. Your physical body still lives and breathes. Those you consider friends are watching over your physical form. Only one of them knows your true self does not currently inhabit it. I believe it was wise of you to cultivate so many connections with such powerful beings. Lust aside, I get a sense that your bed partner likes you more than you like him. I found it quite amusing that the dark witch believed you’d enslaved him. And she was being totally honest.”

So he had insights into everyone and not just me. “Does Felicity Benson practice dark magic?” I asked.

“Dark versus light is a matter of belief, Aran. She calls on dark gods for some of her power. The life she once lived built up a reserve with them. Once she uses up their magic, though, she will be powerless or have to make other arrangements. This is true of many witches. However,yourmagic is limitless becauseof your openness to all the many possibilities in your realm. You are very much like The Dagda himself.”

“Is that an insult or a compliment? Don’t ya hate him for what he did to yer friends and ya?”

“I felt anger and sadness in the beginning. Eventually, I accepted his gift of redemption. I could be reincarnating every few years and starting over all the time. Instead, my soul is full of light, and I have more magick now than ever. Immortality suits me. My companions do not feel the same. They miss being physical with each other.”

Yet they had all made a deal to keep their magick over dying. Did I feel like that about my power?

I practiced little magick in the seven years I’d spent in Demon Hunter prison. I’d stayed in prison for Fiona’s sake and would do the same again.

But it hadn’t been the practice of magick I’d missed the most during my incarceration. It was the absence of those I loved and not being able to be with them. I missed the laughter and the hugs. I missed spending time in their company.

I rubbed my shoulder, which was feeling much better. “So, which of my friends knows I’m not in my body? I hope ya don’t expect me to guess because I suck at guessing. I either know or I don’t. Right now, I don’t.”

“You know instinctually which one knows. It is the being you share magick with every chance you get. Do you realize that you’re mostly an experiment for him and his kind? The watcher was celibate forcenturiesbefore you. I can tell that from reading his energy. You’re the only female energy he’s been exposed to that permeated his aura.”

“Don’t ya miss having bedroom companionship yourself?” I kept asking personal questions because it was hard to believe what I was seeing would ever be enough for any being in anyform. He watched over his comatose friends and waited for me to need him.

One of The Three smiled. “My light form feels no hunger, no thirst, and no lust. The primary drivers of humanity do not affect me any longer. I am like the watchers were when they first came to our planet. I exist as a being of light but with my human conscience mostly intact. The watchers try and try to learn to be human, but most find they cannot achieve it. Your grandfather had more success than most. That’s how he won your grandmother’s heart.”

I laughed dryly. “I don’t think Orlin’s human form reveals much about what makes a good human. I’m not even sure Orlin makes a suitable guardian—or watcher, as ya call him. I know you like to use the old-school term for his kind.”

One of The Three smiled at me. “It was a great tragedy that your powerful grandfather lost his life so horrifically and that he couldn’t tell your grandmother what happened. His regeneration was neither joyous nor victorious when it was done. His grief over her loss remains with him still. Perhaps your watcher grandfather succeeded at learning the most about humans because he suffered like one.”

“So Orlin truly did love Murieann.”

“Yes. And she loved him deeply in return. They connected in ways most beings never get to do. Her only mistake was not being honest with your father from the very beginning. Just like a chronic disease, living with regret can have long-lasting and detrimental effects on one's well-being. Your father deserved to hear the truth from his mother.”

A wave of dizziness washed over me. “I think I need to go back soon. I’m feeling woozy.”

“Yes. I agree. I will withhold the irrevocable part of the recovery spell until you are back in your physical body. It wouldbe unfortunate for it to enter a coma state because you were not present.”

“Did I come here because I was very close to death?”

One of The Three shrugged. “I can’t be completely certain, but I would say no. I think you just wanted to have a concrete reason to believe that the mages in the Dagda stone truly meant to heal you. Seeing us in person was your way to do that.”