"Shia?" Xavier speaks over Lycer's shoulder. "Zay is-"
"Follow me."
The Paramount Pack members follow Shia back to the pack in a somber silence, Jared beside Shia as the two mourn together. Jared wonders how he'll tell their parents. Wonders how he'll ever live without his sisters laugh. Her smile. Her annoying 'I know more than you' attitude. How will he tell Delian that she's lost her aunt when her mother is so quickly fading?
Xavier carries Celeste who could barely walk, holding her tightly as he can without hurting her. He can't imagine the pain Shia is in. To feel a bond snap like that, to lose a mate like that. Even the three weeks he spent without Celeste cannot compare to this. How many did he lose today? Zay was as much a sister to him as she was to Jared and she surely wasn't the only one gone. He felt so many links break today that he'd lost track. How many bodies would they have to send off? And why this one, of any of them? Yes, why any of them at all but his sister - his little Zay who he watched learn to walk. Who kicked his ass in training more than once as a teenager. Who helped him with his mate more than anyone else in the pack.
Bodies line the grounds of The Paramount Pack. Xavier's heart clenches as he notes each one and what families they belong to.
The warriors that went with them leave them to find the body they're in search of.
Zay lies in the snow, flakes gathering upon her unmoving form. Jared shifts, crouching over her body as a sob wracks its way through him. He remembered the day she was born. She was so pink and so little. He vowed to always protect her and yet -
Set down to sway in the snow, Celeste turns away from the sight of her dead friend. Xavier holds her tightly, tears welling his eyes as his mate cries into his chest.
Lycer is the first to speak up, "Shia, you could-"
"I know." She crouches in the snow, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Jared, I need your help."
"What?" He pulls back his head, his hands never leaving her arm.
Shia begins to rip at Zay's shirt until her unmoving chest is exposed.
"Shia," Jared starts, knowing her intentions. "She wouldn't want this."
"I don't care." She turns to him, a cold gleam in her eyes. "She can be mad at me for the rest of eternity but I refuse to lose her. Not like this." She holds out her hand. "Give me your hand. I can't do this alone."
Jared doesn't move and this infuriates the magi. She reaches out, yanking his hand forward.
"You have to give it willingly. Say you will." His jaw is tight. How many times had his sister come to him crying because she felt conflicted on this? "Say you will. Or do you want your daughter to grow up without her aunt, as well as her mother?" He glares at her for that card. "Please Jared," she begs. "Wouldn't you? If you could?" His shoulders slump. If he could save Katherine, he would. A thousand times over, consequences and feelings be damned.
He opens his palm to her.
"Thank you."
Her hands are shaky as she takes the med kit previously abandoned on the ground, opening it and rifling through until she finds the pair of scissors.
"This might hurt," she warns, opening the scissors and pushing it against Jared's palm until it breaks through his skin. He barely winces as the blood begins to bubble up to the surface. She guides his hand over Zay's still chest, letting the blood drip down. "Spirits," she mumbles, "with this blessing, I ask you to guide a soul back to its rightful place." She lets go of Jared, pushing his hand gently away and guiding her hand over Zay's blood stained chest. "I give part of myself, I give my own soul, my own heartbeat to revive this soul, this heartbeat." A small yellow light forms in the center of her palm, a ring of the same color forming around the pupil of her blue eyes. "Guide this soul. Bring her back." The lights brighten, the circle in her palm growing wider as it begins to latch onto Zay's skin.
The Paramount Pack members watch in awe as the ripped skin of Zay's neck is stitched back together, leaving no wound behind on the blood stained skin.
"Take my soul and entwine it with hers, to guide and to love." She leans down, brushing a hand over Zay's cheek and brushing her lips against hers. "I will guide and protect her, forever entwined." A speckled blue and gold light flits from Shia's lips, passing through Zay's. Zay's chest lifts as Shia presses her lips to hers, slumping into her.
Their lips part, Zay's chin jutting up as a ragged breath is torn from the air. A scream bursts from her lips, her hands attempting to fly up only to be stopped by Shia's own hands.
Celeste buries her head in Xavier's chest as the scream continues to pierce the air.
"Ssshhh, I got you. I'm here." Shia's reassurance is quiet, a tiredness taking over her body. "Zay, look at me."
Zay's eyes open, her lips gasping for air that feels as though it's never coming.
"Shia, what's happening?" Jared flies to his sister's side, grabbing onto her arm. "Zay-"
"It's okay, it's okay," Shia tries to assure everyone. "Zay, darling, look at me."
Jared is surprised to find a ring of deep blue around Zay's lighter blue eyes. She gasps several times over, reaching her hand out until she grabs hold of Shia's shaking hand. "Shia? Shia. . ."
"I'm here, darling. We're all here."
Zay looks around the pack grounds, finding the eyes of her friends and brother. She lets go of Shia's hand, grasping at her bloody neck. Tears well in her eyes. "Shia?" She finds her mate amongst the chaos. "Tell me you didn't."
Shia shakes her head, guilt curling in her stomach. "I had to."
Zay pushes herself up, a guiding hand from Jared helping her up. "Go away."
"Zay?" A tear falls down Shia's cheek.
"Go away." She pushes the tired magi off of her. "I need to be with my family right now."
"Zay - I am your family."
Zay's lips pinch together and she looks away.
Shia hangs her head, nodding in understanding, and standing on shaky legs to walk away.
"Zay?" The soft voice of Celeste breaks through the tense air. "You - you're back?" Xavier guides her over to the sitting woman with newfound life. Lycer and Xavier help her kneel down in the snow, her hand shaking as she reaches for Zays.
Zay's lip wobbles. "I'm back."
word count: 1144