Morana knows she's different from other people in more ways than one. Firstly, she's sixty-seven years old but stopped ageing in her twenties. Weird things have also happened around her right after she's wished for it. But most importantly, no matte...
It rang a bell. I knew I had read about them somewhere, but I couldn't remember where. The name gave me an ominous feeling though.
"What are the Death Shadows?"
Morana looked down as I asked the question. Her shoulders went up a bit. It looked almost as if she was trying to disappear into herself. As if she was afraid of what my reaction would be.
"They are where Necromancers get their abilities from. Or rather, a Necromancer's ability is to communicate with them."
I frowned. It felt odd that she knew about magic I didn't. And what she said also didn't make sense. If it took a Necromancer to speak with them, then why had they resurrected me? Unless...
"That's why there's something a bit weird with your magic. You're a Necromancer."
She looked up again and nodded. "My dad was one and my mom a witch."
So I had actually died. That made me shudder somewhat. It felt surreal and somewhat creepy. But also not. Or rather it did, but it didn't matter that much. If it meant I could be with Morana, if it meant she was happy, then that was all that counted.
That would explain the sore muscles, I assumed. That it was a side effect of having been resurrected. But there were still a lot of questions that needed answers.
"How... How do you know all this?" I asked as the first of many more questions I held.
She averted her eyes again. This time towards the window and this time she rather seemed to straighten herself.
"The voices I've been hearing. They are the Death Shadows." She looked back at me. "When I first read about them in the Library, I got scared and didn't really read the whole explanation of what they were. But they have always felt friendly and when you died, I felt them near. They've told me they'll help if I need them to, so I ask for it and they finally appeared. They're the ones who explained it all."
"But..." My head spun with a thousand, thousand thoughts, but there was one that stood out. "Don't they require a life to resurrect someone? Whose life did you give?"
My voice came out angry. I hadn't meant for that and almost apologized as she flinched. But before I could, she gave me a mischievous grin.
"Not any life that anyone will miss, as it was a life never lived," she told me.
I just stared blankly at her. "Come again?"
"When I was a baby, when I died at the hospital, but then didn't. I didn't die because of a deal my dad and a faerie struck with the Death Shadows. Blood from three different magical beings and three lives, and they promised to resurrect me every time I die until I'm ready to die. That's how I survived the truck hitting me as well."
"A faerie? What faerie? Why would she get involved?" That struck me as very odd and a bit worrisome as faeries seldomly helped unless they gained something in return. But what Morana said next drove those worries away.
"You tell me. You're the one that has met her!" she huffed and glared at me.
"What? When?"
"When you consented to killing our mate bond."
My ears rang and my eyes were wide open. That didn't make sense. I had never met a faerie and I would never have consented to killing our mate bond. That was just absurd. Why would I have done that?
"The Death Shadows said you did," she said defensively, likely reading my disbelief from my face.
"I think I would remember that," I snapped back.
"Apparently not!"
I scrunched up my face, tried to remember. I was seven years older than her and she had been a baby when it would have happened. So then, I had max been seven years old when I had consented. Something that got me slightly angry thinking about. How could a seven-year-old be allowed to consent to such a thing?
But a memory slowly came to mind. A memory of me waking up at a playground some distance from the coven's house after having overexerted myself in an attempt to learn magic. It had been one of the first times I had tried.
A woman had been there. I had been apprehensive at first, all women around me at that time had belonged to the coven. But she had waited patiently for me to warm up to her. Told me stories as I did. Then she'd given me tea, the same type I had been forcing Morana to drink. We had talked.
She had told me all would be fine, that things would get better. She had told me to stay brave until I found my mate. That my mate would be strong. More so than most witches, because that was the type of mate I deserved. Then she had said that my mate's life would be tough though and asked what I would be willing to give up to keep my mate safe.
Anything, I had answered. I'd give anything for her.
"That's some bullshit!" I yelled and Morana jumped slightly where she sat on my lap. "Just fucking manipulation and not even a proper consent!"
"What you mean?"
I told her the memory, and she nodded slowly as I finished. "That's what I thought. The Death Shadows didn't really answer when I asked what counted as consent. But they seem to be fine with very vague ones. Likely as soon as anyone says they'll give or do anything for someone, they take it as consent."
"Assholes," I muttered, and she laughed.
That laugh. That beautiful sound. There couldn't possibly exist a better sound.
I still had questions, still things I didn't quite understand. But all of that could wait. Morana was my mate. She was on my lap. Smiling, laughing. There was only one thing I wanted to do at that moment.
I placed a hand around her neck and captured her laugh with my lips.
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