trying to. For not letting the arcenciels go back in time. Probably for other infractions that I didn’t know about.
Soul broke the surface of the water, her silver hair streaming back. “You freed me from time,” she said to Shaddock.
“Reckon I did,” he said back. “But you can thank our Queenie for that.”
Above the pool, Gee perched in his Anzu form, preening and batting his wings in the rising and falling steam, like a bird. There was a small scarlet-winged lizard on his shoulder. I hadn’t gotten around to talking to him about that. One of many things I might never get the chance to do. The lizzie was staring at Soul, his tongue flicking out and in, tasting the mineral and blood-laden air. Gee said, “If the silver cuff were off, she could go through the rift. She would heal.”
“How do we get it off?” Shaddock asked. “I could—”
“Wait,” I whispered. Shaddock paused. Soul’s part-fish, part-human face froze in what could only be called fear. “I claim my boon,” I said to Soul. “Heal Bruiser.”
She tossed a spray of water into the air and studied the droplets as they fell. Without looking I knew they were moments of time. “You would trade your boon for a single life?”
“I’m nothing but a sacrifice. Right?” I whispered.
“You are what you fight for,” the Anzu said from overhead. “Not all sacrifices die. Some suffer and live and make the world a better place.” And wasn’t that a cheerful thought. The Mercy Blade flipped a wing and a long Anzu feather dropped from him to the crevasse floor. Eli picked it up and pressed it to my middle, over the wound where he had taped Dudley in place. My pain eased slightly. Not enough. But anything helped.
“Heal Bruiser,” I repeated, the words barely a breath. “I’ll owe you a boon.”
“It is too late. His soul is ready to depart,” Gee said, “ready to shatter the earthly bonds.”
My own soul shriveled inside me.
“With le breloque, you could have all the power of the world,” Soul said. “You could go back and keep all this from happening. You could go back to your father’s house and save him from the white men who killed him. You could stop the Trail of Tears. You could create the world that could have been. Or you could give it to me. Allow me to rule.”
Pain slithered through my insides like a ball of snakes. It took two tries but I managed to say, “No one should have that power. Not even the arcenciels.” I breathed in, fighting the pain. “So I’ll just take my chances, like I’ve always done, and pray and hope God’s listening.” Or Hayyel . . . Or . . . I’ll go to water, I thought.
The memory surfaced, like a whale rising through the ocean, shoving everything else aside. The rift had been called the Waters of Life. Who had used that phrase? I couldn’t remember. But Waters of Life sounded like . . . healing.
The way of the Cherokee was harmony, and to achieve harmony with others and with nature, we went to water. So I’d go to water here, and I’d take Bruiser with me. And Beast. The little witch. Tex. I’d take them all. I told Eli what I wanted to do. What I wanted him to do.
Soul looked us over, thinking. She splashed a fin and studied the droplets of time in them. Her eyes went wide. “You have . . . You might . . . This is a new possibility, one not yet posited or evaluated by the Conseil d’Arcenciels.”
From the darks of the crevasse, I heard the clatter of movement and saw lights. Soul slid deeper into the water, half-alarmed, uncertain, as she splashed and studied the droplets my words had changed. The noise of humans grew closer. Liz, the redheaded witch, walked into the small clearing, looking over the wounded and the exoskeleton. She bent her knees, putting one to the earth beside Eli, looking me over. “Dayam, woman, you look bad.” She placed a duffel beside Eli and opened it. “Got what you asked for.”
Eli reached in and pulled out the small white box holding my medicine bag. His face like stone, he opened the box and lifted the thong over my head, settling the bag on my chest. “Your teeth from when you were five,” he said. Then he removed le breloque and placed it on my head. It sealed to me tightly. I