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"I felt so e, Derek She was afraid It was as if she knew…" Her voice faltered, then strengthened "And I was her e overflowed and I fought hiot lucky"
Her tone suggested just the opposite "It knocked hiht, I realize he hadn’t expected any resistance at all, so he hadn’t projected with any real strength I vanquished hiht hiining her standing alone against so like Asmodeus, whether he’d done a lazy, half-assed projection or not But she’d done it His girl had done it At a terrible, terrible cost
"He hurt me… injured me The trauma… She died inside me, Derek" Her voice trembled anew "I was connected to her soul, hers inside of ht feel a fetus die in the woh, but a witch, with her enhanced powers and connection to the Earth… It would have felt like her very soul was being ripped out Especially since it seemed the child had possessed nascent abilities, abilities that had very likely twined their essences together, in a manner similar to twins, but different The baby had been nourished not only on her mother’s body, but on her soul as well
"He’d thrown me into the street before I sent him back to the Underworld When I rolled off the windshield of a car, I was lying on the pave away She’d been laughing, Derek, and now she was afraid She could feel herself slipping away, and she was reaching for o I had to protect her," she repeated
She’d studied soup in her h during those years to remember how her academic interests had blossomed on their own, until she’d becos arcane Not just for dutiful recitation She co level, made connections far beyond her years She’d have ier Bacon In fact, he saw quite a few siht Divine and the learned monk who’d explored the scientific aspects of sorcery
Early wizards, such as himself, had come before order and science was applied to nature He’d been part of both worlds, the instinct and chaos that was felt intuitively, that required genetic acuic beca the patterns and lines, the order in Nature
Her unborn child had helped her unlock her inherited acuity, and her years of study had already been there, ready to ht, that union had occurred Her vast knowledge had unfolded like a sky of constellations in her head, while her intuition had been the navigator, knowing exactly which course to take a the hazards
"I pulled froht I didn’t care if I was draining them That didn’t matter to me"
Raina had said that wasthe streets were dead, birds limp and fallen as if they’d hit s A water main busted, a storefront on fire She’d assumed whatever had attacked Ruby had done it They hadn’t considered it was Ruby herself
"I put her sonant Not a mark on me No stretched skin, my breasts suddenly just back to the way they were before I was pregnant…" Her voice broke "It was horrific, wrenching, like it had never happened"
Which hy the nant woic One that would have required asa near-ternated state was about as adverse to Nature as any nificance of that told him she was about to head into even more troubled waters
"I simply shifted her into a different kind of womb," she said softly "I wove a teht she was still there I hummed a lullaby, wove it in with her, so she’d hear it whenever she needed it I hoped that would hold her until I got out of the hospital, and it did Once I got out, I went to work That’s when I brought it all together, figured it all out How to eht in a unique way And I used it not only to give her a permanent Paradise, but to find ain "My mother, you, Raina… You all had the fireworks and the knowledge for so long When I started e that power, it was the first time I’d ever felt the fireworks"
He knehat she was talking about It had been a long, long tilorious ether and beca until it became expertise
"I’ve made sure she’s in Heaven, Derek," she concluded softly "Not the kind where there’s doubt whether or not it truly exists, or a temporary way station to a new life She’s in a place where she’ll never be afraid, never know anything but love and beauty Every day is sohter"
Holy Goddess He repeated the mantra to himself, even more fervently Ruby had created a soul prison