Chapter 235

I opened my eyes to find Wendy and Toya staring at me expectantly. “What’s wrong?”

Wendy glanced at Toya, and she turned back to me. “We just wanted to see if it worked?” I stared at her for a moment, and she smiled. “Your wolves? Are they okay?”

I smiled and opened my mouth, but instead of words, a yawn large enough to crack my jaw hit. “Yes,” I smiled softly. “They are tired, but alive.”

“Thank the goddess.” Toya sat back and went back to my hair. “Now, your wounds?”

“The Mara. I didn’t know she could hurt me. But as I ran away from the caves, she grabbed my hair. She was dragging me back into the caves and I knew I couldn’t let her pull me too far back or else I would get lost. So, when my hand shifted to my claws, I sliced through my hair, but she had already done some damage.”

“Some damage?” Wendy scoffed.

“You are missing a huge chunk. And I know it will grow back fast, but you aren’t healing properly right now, so I don’t actually know that.” Toya paused with her fingers on a tender spot. She traced a rather large circle. “This is how much you are missing.”

I felt my eyes widen and cut to Wendy, who was just nodding. “When I was finger combing your hair, there were a few shallow cuts, but mostly that chunk looked like it took not only hair off, but skin.”

I nodded. “Well, I got away.”

“Ruining your hair in the meantime.” Toya tsked and kept cutting. “Hopefully, I can salvage what’s left and you'll like your new cut.”

I just chuckled. “I’m sure it will be fine.” I closed my eyes, leaning my head against my arms. “What happened to your back and arm?” Wendy prompted me.

“She was able to catch up a few times. She clawed my back and grabbed my arm, trying to stop me from getting to my body.” I shivered as I remembered the pain of the first slice down my back. “I think she was hoping to slow me down enough to get here first.” I turned my head to look at Wendy. “She almost made it. She leaped past me at the last moment and I thought she was going to get here first, but then something happened.”

“What?” Toya ran her fingers through my hair, almost styling it.

“The goddess came.” I closed my eyes and remembered the last few seconds before I slipped back into my body. The Mara leaped past me. I could feel her hair trail down my arm and she shouted in joy as she dropped next to my body. She tried to slip in, and I screamed out, ‘No.’ But then a hand pulled her back. “She made it to my body first. And she was slipping in, but the goddess grabbed her shoulder. She tried to fight, before she realized it was the goddess.” I scrunched up my face, remembering her scream. “But the goddess pulled her back and the Mara froze.” She stopped mid scream, and then she crumpled. I opened my eyes and looked at Wendy. “She started to sob. Beg, really. She begged the goddess to give her my body. Her words bounced in my mind.

“What do you mean?” Toya’s hands stilled.

“The goddess pulled her back and shook her head. She told her that my body wasn’t hers to have.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “She wailed and collapsed at her feet. Her voice was raw with pain as she screamed back. The Mara, the woman, begged the goddess to give me to her, that she had walked for over a thousand years, alone and lost, and this was the first time she had the chance to live again.” I shivered.

“What did the goddess say?”

Chapter 235

“She told the woman that she had been looking for her for a very long time, and that it was time for her to come home.” I could hear the wail in my mind when she said that. “The Mara still begged. She didn’t want to die.” I felt Toya wrap her arms around me.

“It’s okay.”

I shook my head and whispered, “She was terrified and I couldn’t tell you if she was more afraid to wander for another thousand years or to die in truth.” Toya’s arms tightened. “But the goddess knelt and hugged her to her chest. And then she told her that even if she was afraid to die, wasn’t the wandering worse? The darkness, the cold, the loneliness.” I looked over my shoulder and met Toya’s eyes. “In that moment, if I didn’t have you, my mom, my dad, I would have given it to her. My body. I would have let her live again.”

“Amy.” They both admonished me, but I felt a tear fall.

“In that moment, I felt her loneliness. It was this cavern, so deep, so dark, there was no end in sight. And she lived in it for a thousand years.”