Page 43 of Unhinged Magic (Cutters Cove Witches #2)

I wanted Morgan to be right, and the entire scenario implied just that. The way the candles surrounded her, the way her body lay as if she had chosen this. I wanted to believe all of this was something else, something more than the overwhelming lack of pulse suggested.

“I’ve seen these in the apothecary. What’s she taken?” Reid mused.

The group’s attention swung to him, and I swallowed over the heavy lump in my throat. I didn’t understand what this meant.

What had she taken? And why ?

Disbelief coursed through me, suffocating my logic.

My world turned black one last time, searching for her magic, any sign she was here with us, her scent, a heartbeat, but there was fucking nothing .

“She can’t be gone,” I croaked, running my gaze over her, fighting the sting of tears. “She’s my fucking world.”

Turning to Reid, I pleaded with him. “She said to bring her back. She specifically asked you to be here,” I demanded.

Reid froze, his shoulders tensing. I had never seen him use his magic, and he barely spoke of it. Like an unwritten rule among the group, we never brought it up unless he did first. If there was any time to break that rule, it was now.

The lack of heartbeat hitting my fingers turned me desperate. “Bring her back. Heal her,” I rasped, hopelessly begging. “ Please .”

I had asked nothing of him in my life.

Ty ran a hand up the side of his face and into his hair, his tortured gaze not leaving his sister. He ground out his words like he understood the consequences, every ounce of him ready to break. “I’ll do anything.”

Morgan swiped away tears, drawing her gaze between the two of them and back to Skye. A quiet sob wracked her body. She stifled it with her palm.

Reid stared at Skye’s lifeless body, agony spearing into every part of him and twisting my already wrecked heart even more than I thought possible. He ran a hand down his pants, his fist tightening on the material.

“You don’t know what you’re asking of me,” he ground out like we would never understand the consequences.

None of us knew of Reid’s burdens. The blood mage curse he had only hinted at under the influence of liquor. I hated asking this of him.

We locked eyes and I let him see the pain twisting my insides. “I’ll spend every day of my life in your debt if you bring her back to us. She’s my fucking soulmate. If she dies, my heart goes with her.”

His jaw ticked, palms fisting and splaying wide again.

His agonizing stare speared my conscience, but he didn’t waver. He inhaled a deep breath, pulling the air into his lungs as if buying time. Collecting his thoughts. His grim gaze circled the room, finding each of us.

“I need you to understand what that means if I do this. What I need to do to rebalance…” He fisted the hair at the nape of his neck, pacing over to the window.

Staring outside into the dark, he took a moment, silence ensuing.

He landed his palms on the sill in quiet resolve.

When he turned to face us again, circles of deep violet, so dark they were almost black, rimmed his irises. “It’s fucking with nature.”

The group remained silent, lost in our own thoughts. What that could mean for Reid, the burden we would all carry if he did this. He hadn’t gone into specifics, probably for reasons best left unexplained.

“I need to hear you say it. That if I do this, it stays between us four.”

Fuck. He was asking us to keep this from the rest of the group. Skye even.

No one said a word, our tears absorbing every emotion spiraling inside the walls of the manor. “No one can know,” Reid urged before turning to face us again. Heavy lines creased his forehead, evidence of his conflicting thoughts nestling into his skin like paint would a weathered piece of timber.

The group exchanged a knowing look, the weight laying heavily on his shoulders and spreading to our own.

A beat passed, like a soul’s final moment dragging out its last breath.

Ty and Morgan nodded.

“Wait.” I held out my hands, halting whatever came next. Everyone turned to me, confusion fused on each of their faces.

“The mate bond. We’re effectively one, right?” I offered.

Ty frowned. “Just say what you need to fucking say.” I ignored the comment, taking a steady breath.

“If Skye dies, I potentially die,” I said simply, directing my words at Reid.

He nodded, remaining quiet. All of us knew the mate bond was so strong that it could kill a soul’s fated mate if one of the two died.

I drew in a quick breath, my fingers never leaving Skye’s wrist. “I’m still here; give me the chance to bring her back without you doing this.”

“What? I don’t get it…” murmured Morgan.

I straightened. “Break my neck. If she’s in this void she has spoken of before, let me at least try to bring her back.”

Morgan’s words came out a whisper: “This is insane.”

“I’m not breaking your neck,” said Reid stiffly.

I stared him down. This was a shit idea, but one that would mean he didn’t have to use his gift. If this void was time-driven, if Skye had time to choose if she crossed over or came back to us, I had to try. I had to do something.

The weight of his stone glare crushed me.

Suddenly, Reid’s pupils blew out, staring at something behind me. His hands flew in front of him. “Wait!”

A loud crack.

Then my world turned black.

***

My stomach clenched tight, and I clutched it, certain it was about to empty involuntarily. Dry retching, I doubled over, but nothing came out.

“Wesley?”

The voice hammering my mind sounded strangely familiar, but not at the same time. I lifted my attention to it, dizziness throwing another wave of nausea through me as I came face to face the mirror image of myself.

“Landon?”

My twin stood in front of me, utter confusion spread over him as he looked at me, then to his hands as if they weren’t his own. Like he’d never seen them before.

He frowned, the motion drawing his brows together.

He studied me closely, tracing the length of me as I did him.

Suddenly, I realized where I was. Where we both were.

If Reid didn’t break my neck, how did I get here?

I cleared my throat, swinging my gaze around the… space. The manor had a strange haze about it; the same but not quite.

“Are we?” I started but couldn’t finish the sentence.

“I don’t know…” Landon’s gaze travelled the room until it landed on Skye standing quietly in the corner.

She stood motionless, save for her eyes darting between the two of us.

“Look at you both,” she whispered, swiping a tear from her cheek. “You really are identical.”

Smudges beneath her bottom lashes hinted at the fact she had been crying, and a predatory rumble rattled my bones, not understanding the reason for her sadness.

Obviously, there was a lot going on here, but I couldn’t decipher it all at this point.

I wanted to rush to her, check she was okay, but my feet wouldn’t move, stuck in some form of fucked up paralysis.

Landon broke the silence lingering between us. “Where are we? What is…” He drew a finger between the three of us. “This?”

Skye stepped closer, searching Landon for something, it seemed, her gaze fixed on him. “Landon?”

He took a step away from her, his voice stretching with slow uncertainty. “Yeah?”

Relief or sadness caused her shoulders to drop. I couldn’t decide which.

Landon’s brows creased together, still studying the room in wild sweeps.

“What is this place? How am I here?” He focused on me again, then stared down at his hands.

“All these years, I couldn’t…” He struggled for words, his head shaking profusely as if trying to rid it of thoughts.

“I don’t understand what’s going on here. ”

I cracked my knuckles, unsure what to say. How do I explain this when I didn’t know the half of it myself?

“Another soul wouldn’t let you cross over.”

We both turned to Skye, now staring out the window. The haunting sadness in her tone spoke words she didn’t need to. I wanted to hold her, bring her back. But it seemed she knew things I didn’t, so I remained silent.

“Another soul…” Landon continued to stare at his hands, ran them over the fabric of his pants.

“My husband from a previous life.” Her voice drifted wistfully through the room.

The fuck?

A predatory growl threatened to surface, but I forced it down, swallowing it.

What the fuck was going on here?

Skye turned to face us, strips of emotion tearing down her cheeks.

Landon rubbed at his eyes, confusion swimming in them. “I’m sorry, I don’t follow.”

I felt her voice like a shiver, the woeful timbre lifting the hairs on my arms. “You don’t have to worry. He’s gone now.”

Her delicate tone screwed with my heart. I didn’t understand the feelings coiling inside of me so strongly, pushing to the surface.

“What does this mean?” I asked, keeping my voice calm, trying to ignore the bond between us that seemed to have intensified.

Her teary gaze drifted to me, and I felt it like a graze, scarring me on the inside, imprinting me like a branding.

She continued, speaking directly to me. “It means he couldn’t move on, that he could not accept his death. Instead, he somehow jumped souls, into Landon.” She glanced at him momentarily before drawing her attention back to me. Like some unseen tether tugging us together.

Landon’s voice pulled me from her stupor. “I died?”

It was clear he needed help to understand. This other soul Skye spoke of must have been with him for years, unable to let go. It seemed he remembered nothing of that time.

I slipped my hand into my jacket pocket, my fingers brushing over his death notice.

A shiver slid through me as I pulled it out, staring at it.

I moved over to a mirror leaning up against the wall, where nothing reflected back.

What a fucking mind trip. The death notice stuck to my hand like a memory would someone’s mind, like it wouldn’t let me ever forget it, and I never would.