Chapter 73 A message
ZORA
Grace was staring at me like I had no hope anymore.
"Maybe we can focus more on learning? I'll try the meditation techniques you taught me to later, maybe my wolf will come back."
She shrugged, "Not like we have any choice. Check the grimoire, maybe there's something in there that can help. Perhaps there are a few things you can focus on instead."
"I didn't come with my g-"
She cut me off.
"Pick it up and stop wasting time!"
I followed her gaze.
The grimoire was sitting pretty on a branch. I could have sworn I didn't bring it with me, so how the heck was it here?
I picked it anyway and sat on the floor.
When I opened and laid it across my lap, the silver-lined pages glowed faintly, like they had been waiting impatiently for me to come back.
Every time I blinked, the letters seemed to shift, like.... was it trying to pass a message or??
Grace leaned against a tree, watching me with her arms crossed, chin tilted, the perfect picture of nonchalance.
"Can you quit admiring and focus?" Her voice cut through my thoughts sharply.
I rolled my eyes at her but obeyed.
I lifted my hand, focusing on the energy around, and as expected, silver threads wove around my fingertips, shimmering.
It was beautiful.
Deadly.
Mine.
Grace tensed automatically, her eyes following my movements. "Try to increase your focus span?"
"Yes, master."
"I just can't with you!" Grace muttered under her breath.
I almost chuckled, but I caught myself quickly.
The first pattern the page showed me was simple, a spiral meant for binding.
The grimoire said the threads could hold.
Whatever that means.
I followed instead anyway.
I focused, moving the threads into circling around a nearby branch.
Slowly, the silver thread wove together around it, tightening until a crack line appeared on the bark.
"Not bad," Grace said grudgingly. "That could hold a wolf and snap their spine only."
I smirked. "Guess I’ll practice on you later."
Her eyes flashed, but before she could retort, I turned to the next thing in the grimoire, creating a shield.
The threads resisted at first, eager to cut, not cover. Like I was forcing them to do the opposite of what they were made of.
I gritted my teeth, forcing the pattern I saw on the page into existence.
My threads bent reluctantly, layering one over the other until they formed a thin, shimmering wall in front of me. It looked fragile, almost as delicate as a spider's silk.
"Test it," I told Grace, not entirely sure if her spirit form can do anything.
But with her, Semya, and powers, I've soon come to the conclusion that anything was possible.
And I was right.
She gave me a big grin and lunged, her claws long and ready to slash.
The moment they touched the barrier, sparks of silver burst outward. The shield held but barely.
My knees buckled under the effort of holding it, but it held.
When she backed away, I gasped for air.
Cold sweat breaking on my forehead even though the breeze was cool.
Then she picked up a rock and hurled it. The moment it hit the barrier, the threads flared silver, but it didn't go through.
I fell face flat unable to keep it up a second longer.
"Stronger than I expected," Grace admitted. "Though you’d collapse before you finished protecting anyone."
"Always so encouraging," I muttered, wiping my forehead.
"That's something that least." She shrugged. "What's that?"
She pointed at an image in the grimoire.
"Life Siphoning,"
"Try it but in a more ladylike manner."
I rolled my eyes but didn't complain. It's the one thing I was already good at without training.
I extended my hand toward a bunch of wildflowers a few feet away from me.
The silver threads lashed out greedily, wrapping the blooms in smoke like coils. Within seconds, the vibrant petals shriveled, and it life sucked dry.
My chest throbbed with the now familiar feel of adrenaline.
"See?" Grace’s tone was flat. "That part, you’re perfect at. Natural killer."
The words stung, but I didn’t let it show.
Instead, I flipped to the page for the main reason I started all these.
Healing.
The hardest one yet.
"Here," Grace said suddenly. Before I could ask, she grabbed a jagged rock and dragged it across her own arm. Blue transparent fluid leaked out of the supposed wound.
She stretched her hand to me, "Let's see if you can do well with basic healing."
I flinched. "What the hell are you—"
"Practice," she said curtly, still holding out the bleeding arm. "Or are you too scared your real self will surface? That you're just an imposter and a failure?"
My stomach twisted.
The threads wiggled almost excitedly.
Is it possible to kill a dead person?
I shook my head, I didn't want to find out.
Healing meant reversing that pull, pushing life back instead of sucking it. Could I even do that?
I forced my focus onto the wound, fingers hovering over the wound slightly.
Nothing happened.
I clenched my jaw and pushed harder, weaving the threads into the pattern the grimoire showed.
Slowly, agonizingly, the bleeding slowed. The skin knit together in tiny bits, silver light stitching her flesh until nothing was left, not even a scar.
I gasped, my chest heaving from the effort. The threads flickered out, leaving me drained but....
I did it!
Grace flexed her arm, inspecting it.
Her lips curled into something almost like approval. "Not terrible. For a witch."
"Don’t act impressed," I said, though her words secretly warmed me more than I wanted to admit. "I nearly passed out."
She smirked, "Progress, let's take it further."
Before I could ask what she meant, a bleeding deer appeared and collapsed a few feet away from me.
What happened? How did the deer get injured sp terribly?
The woods were quiet.
Too quiet.
Isn't that suspicious, or does it have anything to do with Grace?
"If you don't act fast, it is going to die." Grace reminded.
I jumped to my feet and closer the distance between me and the deer.
I opened myself to the energy I felt around me.
The silver threads were back and were moving wildly in the air.
Whenever they touched nearby grass or leaves, it ends of shriveled and dead.
I took a deep breath, my fingers hovering over the spot where the deer was bleeding from.
I could feel its life slowly ebbing out.
I closed my eyes and focused on healing internally, especially. I didn't want the deer dead.
"If you continue that, you're going to kill it, not heal." Grace mumbled.
I opened one eye, then the other.
The deer was still on the floor, but it was breathing, and the wounds were gone, like it was there to begin with.
I sagged forward, chest heaving. My body felt hollow, drained, but a smile crept up my lips.
Alive.
The threads had given life, healed in a real scenario, not sucked out it life.
A sudden snap of dry branches in the bush made me whip my head up.
The threads twitched violently, I couldn’t control them.
Another deer stepped into the clearing, its dark eyes wide and ears flicking.
My power surged instinctively toward it, the urge to siphon overwhelming.
The threads stretched from me before I could stop them, wrapping the deer’s slender body. Its legs buckled as it fell, the threads glowing.
Was I somehow feeding them? Because I feel nothing whenever I ki— suck out the life of something.
I gasped out, very horrified. "No!"
I yanked back, tearing the threads away.
The deer stood, staggering on its feet, then disappeared.
My hands shook, anger surged through me.
I turned to Grace, ready to lash at her, and I found her smiling.
"That surprisingly went well,"
"So that was you? What exactly is wrong with you?"
"You're learning," She shrugged, "I believe we are done for the day then."
"Why are you here, really?" I fired at her.
She frowned, "uhh.... to help you?"
"No, not that. What's keeping you here? As a ghost, and why me?"
"You know your way back, right?" She turned her back
"I swear it, if you don't answer me, I'll—"
"Ryker." She interrupted, "Ryker is the reason I'm still here."
"Ryker? How?? Even as a ghost, you can't let go of him."
"I want to talk to him one last time and that's only possible if you've healed him. I can't go into the after knowing he is still cursed, and he blames himself for everything,"
I scoffed.
No, I almost laughed
Ryker? Blames himself?
That's the funniest thing I've heard today.
Grace fixed me a glare, "You wouldn't know because all you do is see the worst in him. Ryker is very fragile."
I snorted, "Not when he's out to make life a living hell for me."
"Or have you considered that perhaps you bring out the worse in a person."
"Was that why you accused me? Did I bring out the worst in you?"
"It isn't an accusation if it's true, is it?"
"It wasn't true then!!"
"If I was alive, you'd be sucking the life out me now, won't you?"
"You bet!!"
"All that anger, and there's nothing you can do to me. How frustrating can it be?"
I scoffed, fixing her a stony glare, "Sending you to the afterlife should be easy. Maybe I can just experiment on it no‐"
She disappeared.