Page 56 of Shifters Unifying

“I can’t,” I wailed.

“You have to,” Olivia commanded, her voice harsh. “You don’t have a choice.”

Her tone shook me out of my shock, and I darted to where she crouched and summoned more energy, placing my hands on the medallion. The etched design luminesced.

Logan made whining noises in the back of my mind, but I pushed his questions away.Not now.I didn’t have time to explain.

Olivia deposited the object in the center of Izzie’s chest, and Logan’s beta jumped to her feet, re-linking the hands of all nine. Another gust of multimorph magic sent energy rolling through them like a wave.

I fought against the memory of Logan’s death and focused instead on the sensation of knitting shifter cells back together.Healing… Healing…

A shudder rolled through, one by one. Finally, when Reuben, the farthest away from me in the circle, stopped convulsing, I released the magic and fell back on my ass, dropping my head into my hands.

“What did I do?” My whisper didn’t sound like me. It sounded choked and raspy, as though I wasn’t me anymore.I have to get out of here.

I jumped to my feet and bolted toward the exit, determined to leave, to escape.

At the reinforced door, Dr. Wise stepped in front of me with her hands held up. “If you could, I must speak with you, Emma. I’ve discovered something about the multimorph which might shed some light on what just happened.”

I shook my head, trying to exorcise the images from Logan’s balefire death. What if the next time something happened to Logan was my fault? What if I couldn’t fix it? What if I hadn’t fixed this?

“Will it teach me how to keep from hurting those I care about? What if it’s Logan next time? What if something happens next time?” I groaned. “Drawing that much energy isn’t something I should do, is it? I shouldn’t use them like that.”

Her mouth pinched. “It’ll explain why you might have to.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

emma

Damned universe. The chosen one… Me!

Fuck no. It never should have been me.

I had been the rainbow vet from Willow Creek with a thriving veterinary practice. Logan ran a successful construction business, but he didn’t have to be there in-person every day. I did. My success had depended directly on me.

Everything changed. My magic had damaged those who I’d meant to help, who someday might need to help me. Did that mean I was nearly as bad as Acheron?

The door of the training gym clicked closed behind me, and I wished it would have slammed. It would have made more sense. Logan hadn’t made a peep since I’d mentally pushed him away.

Dr. Wise exited behind me and trailed after, huffing as she tried to keep up. “Where are we going?” she grunted. “Do you have a place we can sit down and talk? A cabin or something? Anything out of the way?”

I didn’t have an answer. I’d never slept anywhere in Six-Mile except the Alpha’s Manor. Yet instead of retreating into Logan’s bedroom to be alone or into his arms to be comforted, my feet ate away the distance around the corner of the warehouse and toward the forest beyond.

“Emma,” Dr. Wise panted. “Please.”

I glanced over my shoulder and stopped short, realizing I’d come to a stop in the place Theo’s Death Rite had been performed, and a sweaty Dr. Wise halted beside me. The Louisiana humidity must bother her more than the rest of us in Six-Mile.

After a moment, I asked her, “Have you ever seen the Death Rite?”

“I’ve seen the ritual performed. My husband wanted to be cremated in the old way.” Her eyes turned glassy, and she blinked rapidly to dissipate her tears. She cleared her throat. “As a non-shifter, I wasn’t allowed to light his burial shroud. Though, it would have been my duty otherwise, and it became the moment I chose to learn and compile everything I could about shifters. There had to be a way to help future generations.”

Her softly spoken words lingered in the air and muted my anger. Pain wasn’t unique to me, and Dr. Wise was trying to provide information she believed necessary for my task as the prophesied savior of the clans. She was trying to do the job she’d been given.

My shoulders sagged. “Has there ever been a multimorph who refused their calling? Who changed their mind and abandoned their duty?”

She considered me for a long moment. “Only two that I know of.”

“What happened to them?”