Page 12 of Make Me (Immortal Vices and Virtues: All Hallows’ Eve #1)

“You’re going to be fine,” Natalia says distantly, her voice echoing like it’s moving away from me. “Eventually. Just don’t fight this or the next part will only bring you more suffering. While fun, let’s not waste time, yeah?”

I want to question her, but without warning, she raises the dagger and plunges it into my chest.

Pain—hot and bright and staggering—rips through me like a tidal wave. My mouth opens on a gasp, but no noise escapes. At least not at first.

Then the screeching begins.

Sounds that I didn’t know lived inside me. Raw and primal, terrifying even to my own ears.

My body tries to arch, to writhe, to run, but I can’t move. Whatever potion she gave me has pinned me to this moment, and I have no choice but to endure it.

“By all means,” Natalia says dryly, “keep screaming like that. I’d so appreciate it. It really helps me focus.”

The dagger twists deeper, and a searing white light explodes behind my eyes. My shouts are cut short as the agony grows to unbearable heights and then …

Nothing.

No sound. No pain. No heartbeat.

Just coldness.

It feels like my last breath drifts from my lips, and I’m somehow able to watch it swirl above me, but the further away it gets, the more drawn I am to it, as though the sky itself is pulling me free.

Except this pull doesn’t stop until I’m floating.

For a moment, I don’t even realize what’s happened. Then, I’m hovering just above the bench, looking down at my own body—the ruined corset, the blood blooming like a crimson flower over my sternum, the slack stillness of my limbs.

Holy shit. I’m dead.

Not metaphorically. Not magically.

Just plain dead.

Yet, this doesn’t feel like an ending. There’s no fear, only peace, filling me as I watch Natalia work over me, muttering words I don’t understand and sprinkling ingredients into the wound she’s caused.

The world shifts around me, and from the shadows beyond the trees, a new shape emerges. A form woven from twilight and stardust, gliding on silent paws through the veil of spirit and memory.

My wolf.

She’s beautiful. Magnificent even.

But she’s scarred.

Her dark maroon fur is streaked with silver lines, as if grief itself has clawed across her soul. Her eyes glow with the same green as mine, only deeper, wilder, more infinite.

I sink to my knees, though I have no body here. A sob racks through me, painful and soundless, as I look at what I’ve done. What I cast away out of fear. This—this half of me—I betrayed her.

And yet…

She bows.

Her head lowers, and she presses her snout to my knees, the contact filled with forgiveness. Not fury or betrayal or even submission. Only acceptance.

There’s no air left for me, but she seems to hear the words I can’t say, feels the breaking in me.

And she absolves me of the past with just one look.

With a single blink of her luminous eyes, she stands tall and turns, striding toward the table where my physical form—our form—lies motionless. Almost as if she’s saying: It’s time.

Her entire being tremors until she’s no longer in the shape of a wolf. Her energy swirls in the night air, pulsing calmly before lowering toward my body like moonlight into water, dissolving through skin and soul.

I reach for her, feeling the absence of her presence as I watch her disappear, but the isolation is fleeting.

Pain returns, tenfold.

My eyes squeeze closed as I’m nearly certain fire is consuming me, turning my bones to ash. I start to fall, and the landing comes abruptly, zapping the last of my energy.

I try to open my eyes, but my bones start to break. One by one, they snap and grind and shatter. My skin feels like it’s being shredded with a grater, and when my spine curves inward, curling my body, a snarl escapes me that shouldn’t be real.

But that anguish quickly turns to relief.

I’m not dead any longer.

I’m shifting.

Fur sprouts across my arms, my legs, my chest. Every nerve is ablaze as my body reshapes itself into what it was always meant to be, what I never should have been ashamed of.

And she returns with a vengeance.

My wolf’s howl is shrill and guttural, shaking leaves from the trees. Her limbs lengthen and claws dig into the dirt, and when we finally rise onto four paws, the world is new.

And the first thing I see is Talon, slumped and still, chained by magic he didn’t ask for.

All rationale leaves me, and a growl builds in my throat.

Natalia turns, lifting her hand as if to command me, and I nearly lunge.

Logically, I know she means us no harm, but my wolf doesn’t. She only knows that she’s keeping him from us. That the witch has harmed our mate.

“Easy, girl,” Natalia mutters, but her fingers twitch nervously. “That’s a lot of teeth.”

My snarl deepens, lips curling back to reveal every inch of gleaming fangs.

“Okay, okay—damn, I just brought you back from the dead. Give me a second!” She goes to Talon, and we watch her every move as Natalia grabs the silver chain and mutters a spell under her breath. The instant it unravels from Talon’s wrists, he wakes.

His eyes snap open, wild and molten, locking on mine.

And everything stills.

He doesn’t speak or move.

He just looks at me—really looks at me—and I feel it.

The bond.

It slams into me like a crashing tide, like the earth itself is shifting beneath my paws. My soul stretches out and finds his. A tether. A call. A belonging so fierce it could tear down kingdoms.

I step closer to him.

He raises his hands slowly, no fear in his expression, only wonder, awe, and love.

“Kasha,” he breathes. “You’re perfection. All of you.”

The rage drains from me like water over a cliff.

My wolf steps toward his outstretched hand, resting her head against his chest as he strokes our fur.

“ My turn ,” I tell her. “Please.”

I expect hesitation after all I put her through, but she takes one more breath in this form then the shift reverses.

Bones crunch and fur recedes. My human form returns slowly, though not as painfully as moments ago. As I rise to my knees, bare and gasping, Talon’s already there, wrapping me in his arms, in his warmth, and in us.

I no longer feel like I’m breaking.

I’m whole.