“Pardon? You are willing to swap bodies with Ryanne?”
Surely Nash hadn’t heard Rylee correctly. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. The idea of Ryanne inhabiting Rylee’s body creeped him out to no end.
“Not bodies,” she corrected. “Circumstances.”
“You will take on the attributes that have placed her in stasis?” Was he understanding this correctly?
“Yes.”
“Rylee, you might never recover. You could be in stasis for the remainder of your life.” Why he felt the need to caution her was questionable. He should take the gift of her life in exchange for Ryanne’s and be grateful.
Rylee’s dark, troubled gaze shifted to her twin’s still face. “She’d do it for me.”
“Would she?” He wasn’t so sure.
“In a second. It’s who she is. Who she always was. My sister would give the shirt off her back. It’s what made her an easy target for my machinations most times.” Rylee closed her eyes, and a single tear escaped down her cheek. “She wanted to see the best in me. I am so undeserving of her.”
“Yes, you are,” he agreed. “We all are.”
“Not you, Nash,” she argued softly. “You are the one person who is worthy. You both deserve to be happy. Together.”
Rylee touched his wrist, and it was all Nash could do not to snatch his arm away.
“Let me help. Please.”
What choice did he have? Ignore Rylee’s overture and let Ryanne waste away? Or let Rylee do a selfless act for once in her miserable life and possibly save Ryanne? There was no real choice to be made.
“I swear to you, if this is a trick, I will cut your heart out and drop it into a vat of maggots.”
“A vat of maggots?” She laughed in disbelief. “Okay, tough guy.”
Rylee’s amused words were similar to something her twin would’ve said. Ryanne would have scoffed at him, too.
Nash felt a pang in the region of his heart. His eyes involuntarily shifted to Ryanne’s still face, and he ran a thumb along the underside of her jaw.
“It’s going to be all right, Nash,” Rylee said softly. “I know my promises haven’t been worth the paper I might write them on, but in this, I’m not lying.”
“What else did my uncle say?”
“That in a place where she wasn’t supposed to feel pain, Ryanne is walking about weighed down in sadness. He said time is different there. For us, it’s been hours. For her, it’s been a week, and she’s in deep mourning for you. Despite what both he and Isis have told her.”
“Isis?” he asked sharply. He focused all his attention on Rylee, looking for any sign she was playing him false. “Are you sure he said Isis?”
“Yes. He mentioned that she wasn’t allowed to get involved. Something about giving her word to Serqet. It’s why Preston is taking point on the transmutation from his plane.”
“Why would you want to help now when you were the one to set this all in motion, Rylee?”
“Because Victor swore to me that my sister wouldn’t be harmed. He said the plan was foolproof and only you would be hurt.” She turned her face away to stare up at the ceiling. “I didn’t know she loved you to the extreme that she’d take her life to save you. I suppose I should’ve guessed she’d do something like that, but I didn’t see that far ahead.”
Her ravaged face and halting words assured him, as nothing else could, that she now spoke the truth.
“I’ll get Spring,” he said. This time, he touched her wrist. “Are you sure you want to do this? You’ll be forfeiting your life.”
Her face softened with her smile. “Your uncle assures me that my parents are waiting for me on the other side. I’ll be okay. Promise me you’ll make my sister happy, Nash. Don’t ever break her heart. She’s had enough of that.”
“I promise,” he said gruffly. “She’ll never want for a thing, and I’ll love her until my dying day.”
“That’s good enough for me.”
They shared a long look. Each in silent agreement.
“I’ll get Spring.” He had taken four steps when it occurred to him that she’d never mentioned talking to Ryanne. He pivoted back to see Rylee stroking her sister’s face. Tears poured from her eyes, and the raw pain was there for all to see. “Rylee?”
She swiped at the moisture on her cheeks. “Yeah?”
“If you were in the Otherworld, why didn’t you see Ryanne?”
“I went to a plane right before the final destination. Preston found me.”
He nodded and left her to her goodbye.
Nash entered the living room and studied the haggard faces of its occupants. Turning to his father, he said, “Rylee’s awake. She’s still weak, but she said she talked to Uncle Preston during our spell.”
His father noticeably paled. “Preston?”
Aurora reached for Alastair’s hand. In a gesture of unity, he wove his fingers through hers with a light kiss to her knuckles.
“What did he have to say?”
“That Isis mentioned a spell from the Book of Thoth to save Ryanne.” Nash shifted his gaze to Spring. “Apparently, you might be familiar with the spell? Transmutation.”
She nodded slowly and glanced around with a frown. “Obviously, I’ve never performed it—we’ve never needed to—but I have it up here.” She tapped her temple.
“Do we need to be in the clearing again, like with Mama?” Autumn asked from her position by the window. “You know, to light the stones?”
“No. We can perform it here. We will need a few items from my shop. If I’m not mistaken, the spell is also written in our family grimoire.”
As if she’d be mistaken. Nash did a mental eye roll. Spring was the smartest person in their family, and she possessed a photographic memory that kept the Thorne clan in awe more often than not. She knew the spell book inside and out. If she believed there was a transmutation spell in the Thorne grimoire, there damned well was.
“Are there any special requirements? Time of year, phase of the moon, or anything like that?” He moved toward the kitchen with the intent of brewing a pot of coffee.
Quentin had anticipated his need and met him halfway with a steaming hot mug and a shrug when Nash raised his brows. Accepting the offering, he spun back to face the crowd. They all wore thoughtful expressions.
“How does the process work?” Knox asked.
“It’s fairly straightforward. It’s a simple spell, really.” Spring stood and glided toward the bedroom door. “She’s willing to trade her life for her sister’s?”
Autumn joined her sister by the open doorway. “Pfft. I find that hard to believe.”
“I believe her.” Nash joined the sisters and stared at the twins on the bed. Rylee had fallen asleep and shifted positions, resting her forehead against Ryanne’s shoulder, as if to seek a connection.
“Should we all trust your tendency to believe that chick, cousin? Because she’s screwed you already. Or have you forgotten the knife to Spring’s throat and the cursed necklace?” Autumn, although tall in her own right, grabbed him by the ear and jerked his head down to meet her burning gaze. “I promise you, if she tries anything else, I’m going to fry her ass. One wrong twitch of her hand, and it’s a fireball to the head. You got it?” To emphasize her warning, she conjured a dancing ball of fire.
Irritation bordered on anger, and he shoved her arm away. “I have done everything this family has ever asked of me, Autumn. Every. Last. Thing. Despite going against the Council, despite the risks to myself or others, despite making enemies in the witch community at large, I’ve done whatever was required for the good of this family.” Ryanne’s houseplants wilted under the barely contained fury in his voice. “I’m asking you to trust in me now. You do this, and I’ll never ask another thing of you. And before you answer, let me remind you that I was the one who saved your butt once upon a time.”
The fireball snuffed out, and Autumn ducked her chagrined face. “I’m sorry, Nash. Truly. I’m still reactive where Spring is concerned, all things considered.”
“I get it. And if this is too dangerous for the whole…” He paused and swallowed, shifting his gaze to Spring. It hadn’t occurred to him that it might be. “Is it? Dangerous?”
“Not to any of us. To the two of them?” She compressed her lips and shrugged. “Like I said, it’s a fairly simple spell, but the repercussions could be anyone’s guess. Technically, we’ll be altering Fate’s timeline.”
“Would Isis have suggested it if she saw a long-term problem?”
“Who knows with gods and goddesses?”
Autumn snorted. “And they call us volatile.”
None of them dared contradict her. The woman had firebombed her husband’s truck when they were fighting.
“What about the Chintamani Stone?” Autumn suggested. “I hadn’t thought of it until right now, but didn’t it give you the boost you needed to wake me?”
“Dad?” Nash redirected the question to Alastair. In this, his father was more knowledgeable.
“It couldn’t hurt, I suppose. Spring, is there anything you can remember about the original spell that would indicate a magical artifact might muck it up?”
“No, but I’ll grab our book just to be sure. Be back in a sec.” With hardly a ripple of the air around them, Spring was gone.
“I’ll retrieve the stone and return momentarily. Son, I don’t need to remind you to keep an eye on that viper in there.”
Nash turned his attention back on Rylee. “She seems regretful.”
“She’s a duplicitous bitch,” Autumn argued. “You go get some rest. I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“I’ll rest when this is over, but I will take a few minutes to shower, if that’s all the same to you.”
“Whatever you need, Nash. When you come out, we’ll have something for you to eat.”
“I don’t want anything.”
“Too bad. You’re going to eat anyway. You need to keep up your strength for when we wake Ryanne.”
Nash opened his arms to his cousin. “Thank you. I know your bossiness is your way of showing you care.”
“You’ve become vital to all of us, and not for that incredible brain of yours. We love you, Nash. It kills everyone to see you suffer.” She sniffed and squeezed him harder. “We’ll bring her back because you deserve to be happy.”
His high emotions wouldn’t let him form a verbal response. Instead, he dropped a light kiss on her forehead and released her.
Alastair watched his son hurry away before anyone could catch a glimpse of the emotional tidal wave crashing over him. But Alastair saw. Could feel it, too. His son had empathic abilities and felt more than most. The flip side of that coin was that when he was hurting, Nash’s feelings pulsed out and smacked at others, like him. Similar to the way the sea beats upon the shoreline on a stormy day. For that reason, Nash was always contained.
The exception was Ryanne. With her, his son had come alive. Deviltry and happiness frequently shined from Nash’s bright jade eyes whenever Ryanne was near and giving him sass.
Alastair hated to see how dark his son’s eyes had turned in his pain. If they couldn’t pull off a resurrection, Nash would become a shell of his former self. That much was obvious.
With a side glance at his niece, Alastair placed an arm around her shoulder. “Whatever you want, whatever you need, if you help my son, it is yours.”
“I’m not doing this for personal gain, Uncle.”
“I know that, child. But I’m offering you a boon anyway.”
“You’ve already paid a hundred times over.” She turned away but then stopped and shot him a grin over her shoulder. “But if you want to set up a trust fund for my children, who am I to stop you, you rich old Midas.”
His own laughter caught him by surprise. “What is it with you girls and my money?”
“If I have to answer that, you don’t know women at all,” she teased.
“Fair enough.” His smile died out. “Nash likes his steak slightly seared with a faint touch of pink in the center. He’d most likely devour that and a baked potato with a pint of Guinness. Will you see that he eats? I have an errand to run before I pick up the Chintamani Stone.”
“Yes.”
He nodded his thanks, and visualized the clearing by the Thorne estate in Tennessee. Pausing for a second, he cast Aurora a concerned look. “Go back to our place and get some rest, Rorie. It’s liable to be a long night, and you’re still recovering. Will you do that for me?”
She smiled softly. “Of course. I’ll have Alfred get the Chintamani Stone from your vault. It will be ready when you return home.”
“I’ll be there soon.”