The first odd thing about the day was Elsie’s meow. It sounded normal enough, but Elsie never cried unless someone stepped on her tail, and even that was a hushed squeak that sounded like the skitter of mice. Colette was sure she hadn’t stepped on the cat either. Flora and fauna obscured her vision, the wide trees filtering the light through their leaves. Where had Elsie gone anyway? She never went outside her magics range.

  Before the question formed she had the answer. A quiver in the air. Barely perceptible, like a plucked guitar string.

  Magic shook in her veins. Elsie cried again, her back arching, hair standing on end. Something dark was close by. A demon? No. She would’ve felt it before now. Her heart pounded in her chest.

  Soft earth shook beneath her feet. Run. Before she could turn, she saw the beast. It was large, made of thick gray skin and black scars, tall as the trees and snapping its branches with its horns. A roar bellowed from deep in its soul. Loud, raucous, causing the forest itself to bow.

  Why here? Clenching the basket closer to her, Colette could feel the wood plaits carving into her skin. A flash of gold. Although her feet moved back towards the cottage, one slow step at a time, her eyes traced the gold. Divine magic warmed the air like humidity before a storm. Colette’s magic tingled in her veins. Was the man a god?

  She watched as the man hit the ground, stumbling back, adjusting his grip on the sword. The demon moved with surprising deftness, casting a dark spell towards the man. It didn’t land. However, she heard a yell of pain from the man anyway. A guttural cry that made her stomach twist. He needs help.

  Gulping down her apprehension, she took a small step towards the fight. It was easier that she thought it would be. Pulling her basket of herbs towards her, she took a second step, then a third, until she was moving briskly but with caution. The man continued to fight, gold sparks surrounding him, flickering, darkening. Were the sparks turning black? Warmth in the air began to turn dry, rusting like false gold. The demon swiped his hand forward to grab the man. Her heart lurched. No.

  Instead, the man jumped, yellow sparks glittering underneath his feet, weak and fading. He landed on the demons arm and ran up with impressive speed. Her eyes followed his small form like a moth to a flame. Although the monster tried to shake him off, the man’s shoes were buckled to its skin. A smile curled her lips. With a final lunge, he cut off the beasts head.

  Colette expected an explosion of gore. But there was none. The demon began to fade into ashes as all monsters do, but that wasn’t what made her start running. It was the man stumbling back, almost drunken, then falling. If he hit the ground, he would die. God or not. The image of the yellow sparks turning black burned in her mind.

  Raising her hands, her basket bucking against her hip, she recalled his shape and length. Tall, lean, and meager when compared to the demons stature. She watched him fall through the air like a stone dropping into a lake. Saving him would be hard. He was falling too fast for her to use her magic on his body. She would have to predict where he was going to fall and suspend the air.

  Coming to a halt, she picked a patch of air and used her magic to fill the empty spaces and condense it. Adam hit the patch. Her magic creaked and frayed under his weight. Clenching her hands into fists, she held the patch tighter, securing the holes that tried to form.

  The man groaned, his body soaking into the hardened patch like a mattress. Not all of his limbs made it on—she’d underestimated his height, so his legs hung off at an awkward angle, along with his wrists—but his head and torso were secure. Good. She lowered him onto the ground. His heels hit first, then his wrists, before the rest of his body collapsed against the soft Earth.

  Releasing her magic, Colette felt the tension drain from her form as she sunk to her knees. A weary grin played her lips. She had done it.

  However, that was only half the battle. By now, the demon had disappeared as though it had never been, but its magic still tasted thick in the air. Like the remnants of smoke after a fire. It made her own magic feel small by comparison.

  She turned to the man. Seeing him up close, she could see his toned muscles, the slashes in his clothes, equipment and trinkets hanging from his belt. Resting a hand on his chest, she could feel his heartbeat, heavy, pounding with adrenaline. His breathing was labored and hitched, but it was still there. Better than nothing. At least death wasn’t a hairs breadth away.

  Leaning closer, she saw a cut in his stomach. An orange substance bled out, thick like blood between her fingers, but sparkling like gold. She’d heard gods bled gold. But this was orange, as though someone had saturated gold in red until it lost its luster.

  A loud breath, a cough, and Colette flicked her eyes away from the cut in his stomach. His eyes flickered open, foggy but focused on her. She smiled and leaned closer to him so he could see her. “My name is Colette. I’ve studied healing my whole life. I’m here to help. What’s your name?” she asked, keeping her voice clear but soft enough to not startle. Over the years, she’d learned that warriors were a volatile people when injured. Some were willing to punch out their healers while others behaved like nursing babes.

  “Adam,” the man replied, his voice raw and thick. He coughed again, sucking in a harsh breath.

  A golden spark flickered, turning black before fizzling out. It had appeared just above the cut in his stomach. “What’s your lineage?” Colette asked, an edge entering her voice.

  “Demigod. Son of Esione.”

  It took a moment for the words to sink in. Esione was the former god of justice and battle. A few years back, a devoted follower of his named Itrix tricked him into giving up his divinity and sent him to the Nether, earning her right to goddesshood. Moreover, it explained the blood. The divinity in his blood was gold, but it had been watered down by his human lineage.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Nodding, Colette pressed her palms against his chest. Pushing her magic into his body, she let her fae magic run through his system, muscle fibers, and blood stream. Dark magic hit her like a train. The cut in his stomach was tainted with black magic. She could feel his divine magic screaming as it was poisoned. A mournful sound, like the howls of a dying wolf or a smothered babe. Golden sparks ran along his veins and muscles, but as the shadow passed over it, the gold faded into led and gripped against his body like claws. Nausea rolled over her.

  Pulling away, Colette put a hand to her stomach. A curse. The wound was cursed. Ataraxian magic was pure, holy, which made it the strongest of all magic types. However, what made it strong also made it sensitive to black magics. It was like drinking flames for gods. For her, the black magic hurt, but it wasn’t fatal. Fae magic was neutral, so it neither tainted nor purified others. It’s what made her an effective healer.

  “Adam. Can you hear me?” Colette asked, leaning over to him, pressing a hand against his cheek. His eyes opened and focused lazily on her. “Your Ataraxian magic is cursed by black magic. If we don’t hurry, it’ll get to your soul and kill you from the inside.”

  “Lovely,” Adam responded, eyelids fluttering as he choked on his breath.

  Colette bit her lip to hold in a hysteria-fueled laugh at his reaction. “I’m half fae. If you agree to it, I can make a contract that can save your life.” Adam frowned. “You’re a demigod. With anyone else, I could just siphon out their magic, but if I do that your magic will attack me. I need you to consent to tethering your soul to mine so I can heal you from the inside before it kills you.”

  “Don’t. It’s not worth it.”

  Colette raised a brow. “Why?” she asked, letting her annoyance edge her voice.

  Adam coughed. “I’m a demigod. You’ll just put yourself in danger if you tether your soul to mine. I mean, what will happen to you if I die?”

  “The bond will be severed, I guess. I’ve never had someone I’ve bonded to die on me before.” Then again, Colette ended the bond as soon as she was done with whatever she was doing. A bond had never lasted more than a few hours before she severed it and left without consequence. But none of those had been a healing on this level, and never on divinity. What would happen to her? Could she sever it again without hurting one of them?

  Adam’s eyelids fluttered. His eyes were bloodshot, red beginning to enter the seafoam green. “Is there no other way?”

  Colette shook her head. There wasn’t another way. It made her chest ache. “I can only give you a comfortable death otherwise.” She blinked tears away. Unlike other patients, she couldn’t force him to live. He had to choose her. That fact alone scared her more than the tether ever could.

  A sharp breath. Adam cried out in pain, a gush of blood spewing from his stomach. Grabbing his hand with her free hand, she felt the curse take another magic receptor. One step closer to his soul. His hand squeezed hers with every he had. Stroking his cheek with her other hand, she moved her thumb along his forehead. She used her magic to feel along the pain receptors in his mind, that aching in his brain, and softened the blow until the pain had dulled. Adam relaxed. Colette kept her focus on him.

  “I don’t want to curse you with me,” he whispered, his voice steadier now. “But I don’t want to die like this.”

  Colette flicked her eyes up to the forest. The breeze had left with the demon, its ashes decorating the ground like the remnants of wildlife. Magic was thick in the air and scratching against her throat. Sunlight beamed through the trees, as though the world was already moving on. It was an isolated, muted way to leave the world. Almost lonely. When she pictured a gods death, it didn’t look like this.

  Turning her gaze back to him, she watched his expression turned sorrowful. “I’ll do it. Bond, tether, whatever,” he stated, the words rushed, as though he was already losing the courage to say it. Colette grabbed the air he’d spoken of the words into with her magic. I’ll do it. “Just…be careful. For your sake. Gods are fickle.”

  Relief flooded over her. A hysterical chuckle escaped her before she could bite it down, and she rested her head against his chest. “Thank the gods. I thought I was gonna have to watch you die.”

  “We aren’t out of the woods yet,” Adam grumbled, but she felt his hand stroke her back, his thumb running along her shoulder blade. I’ll do it. She used her magic to entwine the words with her own memory, reconciling them, binding it together until they were one. Because of she was fae, she could use words and memory to create contracts and bonds with other people. The nature of the contract depended on what the parties were agreeing to. Because the contract was between souls, it wasn’t as easy as other contracts could be with a tattoo on the wrist or a handshake. She had to imprint it on his soul.

  With a heavy sigh, she pulled herself off his chest, breathing in her magic and pushing the contract into her soul. She winced as she put a pin prick on her soul, tying a small red thread through her core. A small yelp escaped her. It felt like pushing a needle in through the spine and out through her heart. Adam’s hand gripped her shoulder, keeping her steady.

  Pushing the red thread out of her soul, she forced it to expand, lengthen, condense until it was as thin as possible. If it grew to thick, it would unravel and she’d spill the contents of her soul into the void. When she opened her eyes, she could see the thin strand out of her chest, moving towards Adam. Despite his clear apprehension, he didn’t flinch away from it. Colette forced the thread through his chest.

  Adam cried out. Colette ignored him as she pressed the thread through. More than ever, she could feel the black magic tainting his body, pricking his muscles, his magic screeching as it was reduced to rivers of stone. The curse was designed to pollute all of his magic reserves before it reached his soul. Because of this, the curse was on the outer edges of his magic system when she pierced the red through the taint. The black magic burned her magic but it didn’t taint hers as it had Adam’s. Colette cried out as she pushed the needle through the molasses.

  The curse growled, the sound like nails on a chalkboard. It made her magic ache and ripple but she forced it not to fray. Not when she’d come so far. Forcing it onward, she pressed the thread through the curse until it reached the other side. For a moment, she saw his soul, a golden flame, small, flickering, but brilliant in its light. Most of the time, when she reached the soul, it tried to run or defend itself against the intruder. However, Adam’s soul was surrounded by the curse and weakened from being cut off from its magic. It leaned into the thread.

  Colette pierced his soul with the needle, threading it through the core, feeling the flame soak into the thread. A burning light pulsed through the thread and into her soul. It grasped for her magic, her life, like a drowning man gasps for air. It begged for her. All at once, his body was like her own. The pain of the curse, the rock hard magic reserves, and every uneasy breath resonated in the back of her mind. As though it was her own.

  With the walls of unfamiliarity gone, her magic raced through his body as though it was his own. She wasn’t strong enough to fight the curse right then. However, she had just enough left to stop the bleeding and cast a protection spell around his soul until she was at full strength again.

  As she pulled her mind back to itself, she watched the thread fade, but a calm burning settled next to her soul. A second heartbeat behind her own. It lulled her into a dreamless sleep.