him at bay.
Colors swirled in the serene sky as the wind died down. Ripples of magic floated like sheer ribbons. Sam felt himself get lifted off the ground. He floated beside the magic, weightless as the ghostly faces of people he didn't recognize transformed into animal spirits.
The ancestors.
Chapter Sixteen
Iinuet Mountain
The beautiful spectrum of colors in the sky churned and writhed like waves upon the ocean. A million stars twinkled, lulling her towards the bright light that flashed behind her eyes. But Itsá leaned over her. Mary Ann saw his lips moving, but she heard nothing. Panic settled in his eyes, and Gabriel pushed him aside.
She had only met him recently, but Mary Ann liked Gabriel. He had a beautiful spirit and he always knew how to make folks laugh even in dark times. Though Itsá was his brother, Gabriel had light hair and an icy gaze where Itsá was all the warm hues of brown typical of their people. Mary Ann understood why Gabriel had resented his brother for years. Itsá had abandoned Gabriel and their tribe to look after Boone and the others; he had chosen the cursed wolves over his family. There was a time when she resented Leroy for leaving her alone with her drunken father and her ill mother to help strangers get across the borders.
But she had faith that Gabriel would work things out with Itsá. However, she didn’t think Sam and Boone would ever be the way they were as kids. Their love was strained and fragile, barely hanging on by a thread. Mary Ann wanted what was best for Sam, she always had, but she felt herself slipping away into that cold place. Out the corner of her eye, she saw the Skadegamutc. “Ssssuffer,” it breathed. “I feed from your paain.”
Mary Ann turned her head and looked into Gabriel’s eyes as he fought to save her life. She poured her strength into helping the spell work. Dying meant leaving Sam and the others behind to fight that wicked creature alone. Dying meant never seeing her baby. Dying meant rotting as a cold corpse instead of being with the man she loved. Mary Ann fought with everything she had, searching inside for the tendril of Gabriel’s magic.
His words became clearer. “There we go! Come on, Mary. You got this!”
Itsá joined his brother. Their combined power made it easier for Mary to push through the pain. She squeezed their hands and watched as a glow encompassed her body, wrapping her in a warm cocoon of light until the wound in her chest healed. The pain began to fade, and Mary Ann prayed that her baby was all right. She twitched and trembled. Each aching nerve in her body was on fire, but she held on. A flash of darkness and Mary Ann was hurled across a scorched glade…
The sky was black and lifeless. Petrified trees of white bark and bare limbs circled the field. Patches of dead grass and shriveled flowers cluttered the ground. Mary Ann walked on bare feet towards the center of the field. Before her stood the Wendigo Spirit and the Skadegamutc. Their mouths opened, and black blood spilled from their lips. A man stepped out of the pool of darkness. Sam. Like them, he had taken the form of a beast, half-wolf and half-man with sightless eyes. Mary Ann reached for him, trying to call out to her beloved, but Itsá’s voice broke through…
“Mary Ann!”
She shot up off the ground and sucked down painful breaths. Her hands trembled as she clutched her chest. “Sam...where’s Sam?” Mary Ann demanded. A strange film covered her eyes, and she fought through the lingering images of her vision. Gabriel and Itsá helped her up and walked her over to a large, flat stone that served as an altar of some sort. She blinked through the haze in her mind and saw Sam floating in the air amidst the ancestors.
“He is beginning the trials.”
Mary Ann nodded, thankful that he was all right. “You saved my life...is the baby…?”
“Your child is well,” Itsá responded. “For a moment, I feared the worst, but she has pulled through just as you have. She is strong.”
“She?”
The shaman smiled and patted her on the shoulder before walking over to Sam. Gabriel sat beside her and handed over his water canteen. “You are very brave, Mary. Not many women carrying a child would have risked this journey. You must really love him.”
“I do. There has only ever been Sam for me,” she