Lilith's Arc

Chapter 9 of 40

Lilith swam home with the finished spell locked in her chest. It glowed there, yellow at its heart, teal at its edges. She had bled for it. She had traded memories for it. She had let a guardian wolf go empty to keep it. Now she had to cast it. She had never worked a spell this large. One wrong note could bind her family the wrong way, and forever. She gathered them in the front room at dusk. Tre held the baby, Hadley, against his shoulder. Novalee sat on the floor with her knees tucked up. Gabe stood near the wall, still, watching Lilith the way he always did when she worked. He said nothing. His eyes moved over her hands. "I have to sing something over you," Lilith said. "It will keep us together. All of us." Tre looked at her a long time. "You've bled too much for this," he said. "I see it. You forgot why you started." He was right. She had forgotten the night he almost died. She reached for the fear and found empty water where it used to be. But she still had this. "Let me finish," she said. "Please." He nodded once. He trusted her. That trust weighed more than the spell. Lilith began to sing. Her goddess side took the thread and held it steady. Her siren voice carried the intention out into the room. Light rose off her skin, yellow, then teal at the far reaches. It reached for Tre first. He shut his eyes. The thread pulled hard. Too hard. The note bent under her, sliding toward something wrong. If it broke here, it would bind them crooked, tangled, wrong for all time. Her voice shook. Hadley started to cry. The cry cut through her. Lilith looked at the baby, at Novalee's frightened face, at Gabe standing so still. She thought of the wolf lying dark on the library floor. She thought of the pixie she had given away years ago. Everything she loved, spent one piece at a time. She held the note. She pushed her mermaid voice under it and lifted it back true. The light steadied. It wrapped Tre, then Novalee, then curled around Hadley and quieted her. Gabe let the glow settle over him last. He did not flinch. The song ended. The light sank into their skin and vanished. The room went quiet. Lilith dropped to her knees. It held. The binding held. Her family would not age past her now. She had cast it clean. Then Gabe spoke. His voice was flat and careful. "Mom," he said. "Why don't I remember learning to swim?" Lilith went cold. The memory she had paid to the dragon was his, not only hers. The spell had taken. But the price had followed it home, and it was already spreading.