“Wait until you see the city.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it.”
“You will. I’m sure.”
She nodded. “I hope so. I guess it all makes a weird kind of sense. I wasn’t fully myself. I just knew that the woman—Eve—felt good to be around. Then, when you arrived, it was like I’d been waiting for you. Time passed, and you became more and more familiar to me, like my memory was returning.”
“And that’s why you turned up the other morning and took me to the Shadow Guild tower and showed me where the book was.”
“Yes!” Her eyes flashed with the excitement of memory. “That day, it was like all the pieces were falling into place. I knew you would save me, and that the answers were there.”
“Was it my magic that would save you?”
“It had to be, right? This whole place runs on magic, from what it sounds like.”
“That’s true.” And I had been coming into my power more and more.
“I could feel your power growing,” she said. “It made you more familiar to me. Like I was tied to you. Like I’d been tied to you since the moment I died, but I didn’t remember until you
gained more of your magic.”
“And Eve?”
“She helped, somehow. Her power kept me on this plane until you showed up.”
I leaned back in the chair. “I truly have no explanation for this.”
Beatrix shrugged. “Well, I think you saved me.”
I laughed weakly. I wanted that to be true. Not only because I didn’t want her to disappear again, but because maybe that was my secret power. Maybe I could save people from death.
Maybe I could save Grey from death.
A knock sounded on my door—two fast, one slow, distinctly Mac—and then it pushed open. She stood in the doorway, staring at Beatrix and me.
“Why is Eve’s raven suddenly a person?” she asked.
“You can tell?” I said.
“Don’t you feel it?” Mac pointed to Beatrix. “Her signature is just like the raven’s.”
I hadn’t noticed, actually. I’d been so shocked over her arrival. But she was right. The air around her felt like a howling wind, thin in my lungs. It’d been such a faint signature when associated with the raven that I hadn’t consciously noticed it. but I did now. It was extremely faint, but definitely there.
“I’m not a bird,” Beatrix said.
“Nope, you’re definitely not.” Max strode over and held out her hand. “I’m Macbeth O’Connell.”
“That’s quite a name.” Beatrix grinned and held out her hand. “I’m Beatrix.”
“Beatrix?” Mac’s brows rose and she turned to me. “The Beatrix? Beatrix of the books?”
“The very same,” I said.
“You’re not dead,” Mac said.
“Apparently not.” Beatrix looked at me. “You still have my books?”
“Only thing I have from our old life.”