Page 134 of Pirate Witch

I pause my song just long enough to add. “And Opal can’t feel their bond.”

Elsie pales, but doesn’t otherwise react as she climbs onto the bed beside me.

“I need you to let her wake up so I can evaluate her.”

I glance at Val, who nods. “I’ve got her,” he promises.

It would be stupid to release her all at once, so I lower my pitch bit by bit, relaxing my song’s effect on her slowly.

She comes to, and immediately her breathing quickens. Her eyes dart from left to right, but she doesn’t seem toseeany of us. The screaming hasn’t started yet, but she looks like she might begin again at any moment now.

Elsie’s hands glow with sunlight as she places them on either side of Nilsa’s head. Our mate’s head drops back onto the pillows, but her posture doesn’t relax at all as the Solar mutters prayers under her breath. If anything, she slowly gets worse.

It takes a long time, but eventually the teenager pulls back and nods at me. “Put her back under.”

Nilsa has been clawing at her ropes for the last few minutes, so I don’t need telling twice. As soon as I start singing, my mate drops back into a doze and I hate myself for the relief I feel.

Elsie does a few more checks, including turning Nilsa over and examining the sigils on her back. The ink on the sun and moon marks in the centre have turned from a plain, ordinary black to blood red. While the others on her limbs have faded to a pinkish-grey colour. The Solar’s hiss of dismay is almost inaudible, but we all catch it.

“Her whole body is in chaos,” Elsie confirms, carefully rolling Nilsa back onto her back and slumping against the headboard. “The Solar magic she used is messing with the seat of her power, which in turn is playing havoc on her bond to Opal. The mark of the Sun on her back is actively pushing to merge with her Lunar powers, and the mark of the Moon is pushing back. There’s something else there that’s keeping the two in check—for now—but they’ve overwhelmed her mind.”

“Fate’s mark,” Val mutters. “That crazy fucking witch said it would keep her sane. She was fucking wrong.”

“No, she wasn’t.” Elsie rubs at her temples. “If Nilsa didn’t have that mark, I’m pretty sure she would have lost her bond to Opal entirely the second she called on the Sun’s power. Alletta doesn’t have a familiar, and neither did Lily. There’s a reason for that. They’re attuned to the magic of one Goddess or the other. A Lunar familiar can’t bond with a Solar witch and vice versa. Her bond to Opal is still there—it has to be, or Opal would’ve reverted to a regular cat—it’s just muted.”

“Is that what’s happened to our mating bond? Fucked up by Solar magic?”

Elsie nods. “Solars don’t have mates. It makes sense the Sun’s power would disrupt such a bond as well.”

So get rid of the Solar power and everything returns to normal?

“So how do we get rid of the Solar magic?” Ry asks, echoing my thoughts.

Elsie shakes her head. “I have no idea.”

“Fuck, fuck, fucking fuck,” Val curses.

“You got that right,” Cas mumbles.

“I think… I think we need Reva, and maybe Danika as well. But I need to research…” She reaches into her satchel and rummages until she finds a tiny vial of murky grey liquid. “This will keep her unconscious and comfortable until we know for certain what we’re doing. Hopefully Fate’s sigil is enough to keep the Sun and Moon’s powers separate.”

“Do we have time for research?” Cas asks, staring at Nilsa as Elsie gently tips her head back and pours the grey liquid down her throat.

Elsie glares up at him. “If we don’t research, this could end up much worse. We could end up destroying Fate’s Sigil, and it might not just destroy her bond to Opal. It could wipe out her bonds to you too. After all, neither Alletta nor Lily have a harem, and statistically speaking, at least one of them had to start out as a Lunar.”

Her words shut all of us up as she shoves away from the bed and heads for the door.

“Dock the ship in the port. I’m going to find Reva, then we’re going to scry a message to Danika.” She stops in the door. “We’re going to fix this,” she promises. “I refuse to lose another friend.”

She vanishes as quickly as she arrived, leaving behind five shattered males, an unconscious fae, and our broken mate.

“Gonna go find the cat,” Ry grunts after a few seconds. “She won’t want her upset.”

“She’s with Titan,” Val mumbles. “Upper deck.”

The vampire nods and presses a kiss to Nilsa’s cheek before heading out of the room.

ChapterForty-Four