He was saying something to Kellan.

Kellan replied, a savage retort.

I tuned them out. I could only focus on Aumae now. The wind stopped. The current was all around us, zapping against my face, my hair, my back. It was completely enveloping us.

“My child,” Aumae thought to me, walking toward us. Her hands lowered, and she dripped blood onto the dirt.

“What are you doing, Aumae?”

“I am saving you.”

“How?”

“This is why I sought you out. Kellan thinks he sent for me, but it was the other way. I sent a suggestion in the wind for him to seek an ally. I knew he would come to me. This is why I remained on Earth after your mother left. You are that reason. This moment is that reason.”

“What—” I started shaking my head. No. No. Sadness, grief, pain. All three rolled into one, and I felt them low in my gut. I was going to live. I felt that joy, too, but the mourning was already there. I felt her intentions before I fully knew. “Aumae, please don’t. We’ll find another way.”

“There is no other way. This is the way. This was the reason for me being here. There was never another way.” She lowered her head a fraction, so her eyes could look right into my core. “The other plan was never going to work. Your father is too powerful. Now, my child, I will tell them above about you. You will be protected, and your father will be persecuted. Do not worry. I will watch over you from the other veil. I will be there, along with your mother.” Then, she called out, her voice strong and clear, “Sachiel!”

He whipped around. “Wha—”

She held her hands in the air with a knife poised at her throat.

The throat—it was always the throat. I winced, feeling the blade against my own throat, even though it wasn’t. It was only against my aunt’s.

My father put two and two together. “No!” He looked around, feeling the new power finally. “No, no, no.” He kept whipping around. “You couldn’t have done this.”

“It is done.” And with those words, my aunt sliced her own throat.

Blood gushed from her, and my father began clawing at his own throat. As her blood rained out, so did his. His was darker, almost black, and his entire body was soon drenched. He fell to his knees as her body went to the ground. Her eyes had rolled inside, but I felt her touch on my shoulder. It was a gentle touch, a goodbye and a reassurance. She whispered into my ear, “Goodbye, my sister’s child. Until you may join us in another life.”

Then, she was gone, but the rest of the spell was only starting.

My father’s blood was draining out of him at a racing speed, but he was fighting it. Whatever she’d done, he began to chant, summoning his power to break it. Wind began whipping around us again. The thunder and lightning started crashing, filling up the darkness. This was why she warned for us three to remain connected.

An arm slid around my waist. It was Kellan’s, and he pulled me into his chest. He yelled into my ears, sounding like he was far in the distance, “We have to become anchored.”

I yelled back, lifting my mouth to graze over his ear, “How do we do that?”

“You guys!” Damien was yelling to us, too.

I clamped my hand tighter on his arm. Kellan grabbed his other arm. He pulled us even closer and yelled at Damien, “Use your power. Secure a hold in the ground.”

“What?”

“Just do it!” Kellan yelled back and crashed his forehead to mine. As he did, we were linked in mind, body, and soul. Together, we sent our magic down into the earth, going further and further. We were roots, growing out like a tree, claiming our stand where we were. It was working. We weren’t going anywhere. And the farther our roots spread, along with Damien whose root was right beside us, the stronger we were becoming.

I could hear my father raging. He was fighting the spell. He reached out, grabbing me, but Kellan shoved him back. As he did, the power grabbed my father’s body and swept him away, far away. The farther he went, the wind began to fade.

Suddenly, it was done. We were there. We were alive, and my father was not. His body was a hundred yards away, but no. As we pulled back, withdrawing our roots until they were back in our own bodies, we separated and went to stand over Sachiel’s body.

He opened his bloodied eyes and coughed.

“He’s still alive.”

“Not for long,” Kellan thought, bending by my father’s head.

Sachiel met my gaze. “Your aunt bound her life to mine.” He coughed again, blood spilling over his lips. “Bitch.”

Damien fell behind us, becoming silent.

I had no words. There was nothing to say. Unprecedented grief sat on my chest. Aumae sacrificed herself for me. I’d never been loved like that, but my eyes fell on Kellan. That wasn’t true. I had been loved like that, since I was six years old when Kellan saved me from his father, saying, “Dad, let her go.”

Kellan took out the same knife he’d held to Damien’s throat and laid it against my father’s. I held my father’s gaze for just a moment. There was no sadness or regret there. I thought there might be. There was just anger, and without a word, Kellan moved his hand—and I turned. I didn’t have to see my father die to know I was freed.

Finally.

We went to the sanctuary house again.

We stayed for a long time. I’d like to give a certain amount of days, or weeks, or months, but the truth was that I lost count. I didn’t know if Damien would want to come with us, but he did. He admitted one night when all three of us had too much to drink that he wasn’t ready to see his family again. He was ashamed of what he did to us, even though he helped make up for it. I was fairly certain that Damien blamed himself for Aumae’s death, but that was ridiculous.