Page 71 of Enchanting Her Monsters
Shadows swirl over the fray… Osen’s incubus magic.
The witch screeches the last of her strange chant, in a language I’ve never heard before. She raises up her dagger and slams it down into my chest.
I hear something shatter.
But it isn’t glass, it feels like my soul.
Before I can think about it, I’m consumed by my own flames.
The next thing I know, I’m hovering in the corner of the warehouse while the ash gathers and my body is remade. Osen and the others stand by in silent vigil. The witches and warlocks who fought them are piled in a heap, but I don’t see the one who tortured me.
I don’t understand why I’m seeing things this way, from above, out of my body. This has never happened before. When I see my body suck in a breath, I panic. I should be in there now.
Who is in my place?Whatis in my place?
After my body has completed its regeneration, thethingpretending to be me leaves me behind. With my friends and my lover.
I rush to follow, but I slam against some invisible barrier.
I’ve been trapped.
I don’t know how many days, years, decades that have passed. I’ve gone insane waiting for my body to return.
Like a whisper, I feel it. A call. A gentle caress over my spirit.
Then I watch as an angel walks in with the thing that kidnapped my body.
She can’t be an actual angel. The Seraphim race is rumored to be long extinct. But she appears like one to my senses. Glowing brightly with perfect features and containing a powerful magic.
The angel looks up andseesme. Maxum, Arran, and Flint are with her, but they don’t see me. Not even the being inside my body. I’m worried when Osen isn’t among them. What happened to him? I don’t want to entertain the thought that he’s no longer alive, but that’s the only thing that makes sense. He would be here.
Pushing that aside for now, I test my theory that she is aware of me by swirling around the warehouse. She watches my acrobatics in awe.
I’m tugged in her direction, and I go willingly. I don’t know why I trust her, but I do. Besides, what do I have to lose?
I slide into her body and sense I’m not the only extra soul in here. Before I make sense of it, I’m moving again. It’s like someone pulling a plug in a sink, and I’m sucked into my body.
Finally reunited.
“Calder?” a woman’s voice draws me back to consciousness.
I fight to greet her, to answer her call, but my body doesn’t respond to my wishes. I sense I’m in my phoenix form, which means I’m on fire.
Am I hurting this angel who has returned me to my rightful place?
That thought frightens me.
Why do I feel like I know her?
I don’t know her name. Do I?
Jade.
I’ve been stuck in that warehouse for years, but I’ve also lived a life with my pack. I lost Osen. My heart contracts and spasms with the grief.
But I’ve not lost him completely. He still lives on inside her—my angel.
The urge to claim her love is overwhelming. Then all goes black.
