Page 36 of Brave Spirit (Bound Spirit #6)
A feeling of helpless despair washes over me as I return my gaze to the madman who holds a piece of my heart at knifepoint.
I have to do what’s right, even if it breaks me.
“You think everything will be better once Mom comes back, but what do you expect will happen when she finds out about this?” My heart begins beating like a thousand drums in perfect unison—loud, violent, and angry.
“How will you explain the hundreds of times you cut, broke, and burned her daughter to the point where she begged for death? Or the lives you destroyed and ended all in the name of bringing her back from the dead?”
His cool confidence morphs into an ugly rage that’s so consuming, he nearly forgets Felix, who is growing limp in his grasp.
“It doesn’t matter,” he shouts, his lip curling in an angry snarl.
“She can hate me all she wants. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for her.
The magic in your blood nourished her spirit as well as gave me the power I needed to bring her back.
These fools will provide the vessel for her life.
Every hateful word she says will be worth it, because she’ll be alive. ”
“Until the guilt eats away at her,” I challenge, taking a step forward. I don’t know if my bastard father can be reasoned with, but I have to try. “She’ll be alive, but she won’t be living. The weight of your actions and the price for her to have a second chance at life will tear her apart.”
My words are a double-edged sword, slicing through me for all the damage I’ve caused because I couldn’t let Felix go. Although my methods aren’t as egregious as my father’s, the sickening weight of the consequences are the same.
Fresh tears rain down my cheeks as my gaze shifts to Felix. Will I have the strength to follow my own advice? “You have to let her go.”
A weak smile tugs at the corner of his mouth, and his eyes are tired but full of love. Carefully, he mouths, “Let me go.”
I shake my head, the delicate tendrils of curls framing my face swaying with the motion.
Tonight should have been a happy memory of dancing in my pretty dress.
Instead, I’m faced with the painful decision that to save Felix, I’d have to curse my mother with a life born of death and torture, wearing the face of a woman who’s shunned by her community.
My father’s eyes are wild as the logic of my words conflicts with his life’s purpose.
“She’ll understand.” He shakes his head like he can dislodge the muddying thoughts and drags Felix with him as he approaches the ritual prepared around Gina’s dead body.
“I will explain how they were my choices and that they were worth it to bring her back. If it wasn’t for the council, I wouldn’t have needed to go to such extremes.
They stopped me before I could bring her back. ”
Time is measured in the drips of blood that won’t stop raining from Felix’s wounds. Every precious second is a beat closer to a gruesome goodbye if I can’t heal him soon. I need to get him away from my father.
“She’s a spirit witch,” I remind him, cautiously approaching as I keep fighting back the thrumming power of magic tied to my desperation to protect Felix.
“Empathy is our gift and our burden. She’ll never see it your way.
If I bring her back, it will ruin her. Drop the knife and let Felix go, and I promise to give Mom the peace she deserves. ”
My father’s eyes turn cold, and his head tilts to one side as he sneers, “Felix?” Don’t you mean James?”
Sheer terror pierces my heart like shards of ice, its freezing hold splintering throughout my chest. “Yes, I’m speaking from experience.
I brought him back because I couldn’t let go, and he suffered for it.
He’s forced to navigate a life that’s not his own, weighed down by the guilt of stealing it from another. ”
“Don’t bother with your lies.” He looks down at Felix, who’s barely holding onto consciousness.
“You’re a selfish, ungrateful child. You’ll bring your boyfriend back from the dead, but not your own mother.
” The knife kisses Felix’s skin, another shallow cut, this time running across his Adam’s apple.
“Lecturing me to let go? Practice what you preach, daughter. If Helina doesn’t get a second chance, then neither does he. ”
“No!” I scream at the same time the front door breaks open, and a brown wolf the size of a large pony barrels inside, followed by a wet and muddy Nolan.
Connor continues his momentum, leaping toward my father, but he isn’t fast enough to stop the knife from slicing through Felix’s throat.
With a muttered word from my father’s lips, the Lyncas arcane focus glows around his neck.
Before Connor can tackle the bastard to the ground, he, Nolan, and Felix’s limp body are thrown against the far wall of the entryway.
My father, still holding the bloody knife, stares at me with challenging disdain.
Whatever sanity held me to this world snapped when Felix’s blood sprayed across my pink dress. I release my hold on the cool ancient magic I held at bay, letting it fuel me and my madness.
The storm outside rips the walls from their foundation, the rain turning into pellets of ice. A cold, ancient voice infuses my own over the roaring wind. “Adelmo Santiago, you have violated and perverted that which the goddess values most. You will pay for your actions with your soul.”
He holds the Lyncas arcane focus out like a talisman to ward him from harm. “Rage all you want, daughter. As long as I have this, your magic won’t work against me.”
With a flick of my wrist, a cylinder of fire surrounds the bastard. As his skin blisters from the heat and he starts choking on the smoke, I respond with nothing but frost in my veins. “Through you or around you, death is promised all the same.”