Soul Master

11. Asha

Blitzen had come, a cold hand had wrapped around me like a coil and bound the spell tight like a noose around me. The moment Amii had whispered the word return, it was like the spell was somehow intertwined with my bones, the feel of Blitzen's hands and claws tore across my body, as though rushing to prevent my shift into human form, caging me inside myself as a wolf, tucking what was human of me away in my bones, with nothing more than primal gestures for communication and notably dulled senses.

When I had lashed out at Amii so harshly, I had left her with Mally. Making my way home so that if I were to shift it would be in the safety of these walls, I had waited patiently for this moment so that I could share everything with her, and now with the house now in silence and nothing more to be done, she seemed eager to leave. If I knew Mally well enough, he would have already smoothly slipped her his number and had her messaging him.

I tried to follow after her but Zayne pulled me back by the lose fur at my neck. I didn't want to leave her for the rest of the night to talk to him, but my ability to shift was locked down under the spell that had been tightened around me. I wasn't comfortable letting her speak with Mally, he had a way with getting what he wanted, and had shown the guys plenty of nudes of some of the girls he had on his phone. Aside from casual hook ups, he never spoke to most girls. I couldn't let that happen to Amii. A look from Penteluck stopped my train of thoughts from invading her space, I couldn't exactly barge into her room when I couldn't even open the door in this form. Besides, it was her birthday, she should spend it as she wished. My mind flickered to my bag, in it was the gift I had a goblin from the make belief realm create for her. It was coated in faerie glamour, and the stone itself would be a way for us to connect. It took the little goblin four months to perfect the ideal gift for her, with me always sending him off to correct anything I thought was wrong with it. It had to be perfect. I wanted to explain everything to her tonight and show her through memory fasting, why I had become so distant, but it looked like I was doomed to be a house pet. Why wasn't she worried about our missing bond. Did she really believe we had nothing, I mean, I guess the picture of her killing me was enough to make that judgement.

I whined, then resigning myself to the fact I was out of favour, I curled up on the sofa and slept.

Some time during my sleep, I felt the strange shifting from my dreams, as though being sucked up into a vortex so fast I was unable to breathe without the air being sucked from my lungs, my dream self was hurled every which direction until I found my self falling through a blue sky and landing softly among a few pine trees, as though I had merely jumped in the air. I took in the familiar scent, in my wolf form the smell of pine overwhelmed me, then the soft scent of spring, budding flowers, grass, the flowing stream, I followed the unforgettable subtle scent of sweet cherries and coconut, the scent of Amii, and found her here in the realm between. It was about then that I realised this wasn't a dream, this was her summoning me to a place we both knew well, a place that had no boundaries or limits between us, the only sanctuary where our bond had remained true and untouched by darkness. She was communicating at last. At least her end our connection was all go. I wondered what exactly Blitzen had done to me to hold the spell on me, and why. In the past we had never got along, but when it came to Amii, we tried to keep our differences aside for the two weeks she had the mark. It mostly involved me making sure he never touched her, and we in turn worked together to ensure nobody else would either. It wasn't his fault he was tricked into being her slave, he was just unfortunate enough to fall for Zayne's cunning ways. I drew my gaze up to Amii, as she sat on the grass.

She looked so... broken. I shook my pelt and playfully I bounded over to greet her, I wanted her to connect.

Are you okay? The words in my mind seemed so ridiculous, I knew she wasn't I could tell by looking at her she was far from okay.