eyes.
The lions had come to protect the coven without anything other than orders from their alpha and leaped right into the fray with the full knowledge they were facing down an immortal. A god.
They hadn't hesitated, and if there was even a chance Ivy could bring back the one who'd died, how could she possibly refuse?
Ivy pressed her hand flat against the ground, silently urging the dirt to soften and the grass to lengthen and harden, acting like ten thousand little fingers to gently lift and roll the lion's body over to her.
The four big cats all made sounds of distress and astonishment, trotting after the corpse to crowd around her in confusion. Uriah gripped her tighter, nearly pulling her away from them, but Ilex looked at her with wide eyes, then threw his head back and laughed so hard tears glistened at the corner of his eyes.
“You never actually said you bound your magic.”
Ivy snorted. “I wasn't going to cripple myself and leave my family exposed while an immortal murderer came to visit. Abel, what's his name?”
Looking somewhat gobsmacked himself, it took Abel a second to answer, “Reece. His name is Reece. I saw what that horny bastard did with a peach pit, but a piece of fruit and a lion are two hugely different things. Can you do this?”
Ivy had no idea, but Ilex seemed confident they could. “Together, yes. Astrid, may I have the flowers, please?” Astrid handed over the two delicate flowers she'd held onto, and Ilex passed Ivy the female flower, toasting her with the male. “Eat it. Stem and all.”
Ivy watched him eat his flower, following his lead with hers. The stem was crunchy, the petals delicate and soft. It tasted like... like a flower, with the barest aftertaste of honey.
Ilex moved to kneel beside the carcass, holding his hands out to her with a wiggle of his long, scarred fingers. Uriah made an unhappy grumble about her leg, but it hardly even hurt now. Just a dull throbbing deep inside the bone.
“I'm alright. I'm not going anywhere,” she reassured him with a smile, not objecting in the least when he stayed right behind her as she moved into position on Reece's other side.
Her brother's eyes were calm and steady, though when she looked closely, she saw a soft glow burning deep within, like a candle lit at the very back of his iris, flickering softly.
She wondered if her eyes looked the same right now. As soon as the flower hit her stomach, Ivy certainly felt a warm buzzing sensation start in her fingertips.
She took Ilex's hands, emotion swelling inside her because his touch made him somehow real. Not a trick of the eye or some spell, not just a name on a page or a figment of her imagination.
He was real and warm with strong hands to hold onto. He smiled in understanding, as though he could read her mind and laced his fingers with hers, their palms hovering only a few inches above Reece's sunken belly.
“What do I do?” Ivy asked hoarsely, face-to-face with her twin, touching him for the first time since their birth.
Ilex took a deep breath and instructed her to do the same. “Think of this body as a seed, just like the one Brickkle gave you, dry and withered. I will open myself and let my power flow into you.
“All you have to do is close your eyes and search for the heart of him, just a single spark to feed. Take what you feel from me and give Reece life, the same as you did for the flower.”
Ivy felt the pulse of Ilex's magic as he called it into his hands, there, waiting for her to take it and feed it into Reece. She had no idea if she could do this, but she couldn't kill him any deader, could she?
Uriah touched a kiss to her throat, his hands on her hips. Bliss stole through Ivy in the wake of that simple touch, relaxing her, steadying her. She closed her eyes, thinking back to the day she'd first truly felt her power flow through her. To the sound of his voice and how he'd stood behind her then, too.
Picture it in your mind, not as it is, but as it could be.
Her brother offered up his power, trusting her completely even as Ivy realized she could take what he gave her and anything else she wanted.
Ivy envisioned Reece's heart, small and withered in his chest, the blood