Darkness faded into light. Black became white. Numbness clouded thoughts. A sense of disembodiment flooded into the void then flared into awareness. Comprehension followed shortly after.
KT was laid in a bed staring up at a white ceiling. White walls surrounded her. Another bed was at her side. Her mother was propped up on her elbows and stared across at her happily. She looked pale and bruised but full of life. On chairs between the two beds sat Kai and their father. They too bore bruises and small cut.
Memories clicked into place. She remembered being at the lodge. There had been a strange smell, then an explosion. During brief moments of consciousness she could recall hearing people talk about some kind of gas explosion that had killed several of the lodge’s guests and injured the others. Everything was alright now though. She was safe and well.
“You’re finally awake. How are you feeling?” her mother asked her softly. Everyone was looking at her.
“Good. Tired and sore but good.” It hurt to speak.
“You’ve been out for a few days,” her father told her. He reached out and held her hand. “You were declared stable two days ago and have been drifting in and out of consciousness since.”
“Well I’m back for good this time,” KT smiled. “Kai, how are you?”
“Me?” Kai shrugged. “I was only thrown around a bit. This head’s too thick to take damage. You almost managed it though. You drove me mad with worry. Where would I be without you there to keep me on the straight and narrow?”
KT closed her eyes again for a moment. “I’ll always be there to keep an eye on you. You wouldn’t last a day without me.” She suppressed a flutter of a frown. It seemed that he remembered the explosion. For KT, other memories had started to overlay that inferno.
She looked around herself slowly and noticed Ava’s necklace on the table beside her. With unsteady fingers she picked it up and stared into the mesmerizing swirl of silver. Resolve filled her soul like a tsunami.
Black Annis still lived, Déaþscúa was imprisoned and Heaven’s Gate was severely weakened. The red haired woman’s parting words loomed at the back of her mind too. Big changes were in motion and she needed to be strong enough to face them.
For Ava and Uncle Frank, and now Aunt Susan, and for everybody that the witch had ever taken from this world, KT would see her dead. This she vowed to herself.
‘It would appear that the Grand Moot was not informed of your resistance to magic. That is a mistake that I feel will come back to bite them. This will prove to be an interesting lifetime…’
The end.
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Matthew Roys 