Fight With Me

Chapter 37

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Chapter — The Distance Between Them

Hope

They do not warn us properly.

Freya says it like a suggestion at first. She says they need to try distance in controlled increments. She says it calmly, like she is talking about physical therapy or exposure treatment.

I feel the answer in my body before Josie even speaks.

"No," Josie says.

The word lands heavy in the room.

Rebekah straightens by the doorway. Keelin shifts her weight, already tense. Freya's face tightens, not in anger, but in that careful way people get when they know they are about to do something cruel for what they think is the right reason.

"We have to know what happens," Freya says. "If the bond is escalating this fast, proximity might be accelerating it."

Josie's hand finds mine. Her grip is iron. Her magic prickles against my skin like static.

"I do not care," she says. "You are not taking her away from me."

Freya looks at me then. "Hope."

I shake my head. "You feel it too," I say. "Every time we pull apart, something pushes back. You are talking about tearing that open on purpose."

Keelin steps forward. "That is why we are here," she says. "We will stop it if it gets dangerous."

Josie laughs, sharp and humorless. "You already crossed dangerous."

The room starts to feel smaller. The air thickens. My magic coils tight in my chest, restless and angry.

Freya exhales slowly. "One floor," she says. "Just one. Ten minutes."

Josie presses her forehead into my shoulder. "Do not let them," she whispers.

I wrap my arms around her like that alone might be enough to anchor us both. "I am right here," I tell her. "I am not choosing this."

Freya gestures, and the spell snaps into place before I can stop it.

The floor between us shimmers.

Pain detonates in my chest.

I gasp, my knees buckling as it feels like something is being pulled out of me by force. Not removed cleanly, but torn.

Josie screams.

Her sound cuts through me like a blade. I lunge forward, but the barrier throws me back. Magic slams into my ribs, knocking the breath from my lungs.

"Hope," she sobs. "I can't breathe. I can't feel my hands."

"I'm here," I shout, even though my vision is already blurring. "Look at me. Look at me."

Her face flickers. For a second she is standing in front of me. For another, she is covered in blood I know is not there. Then she is gone.

The hallway twists.

I am on my knees, hands shaking, my magic screaming for release. Every instinct I have is telling me to burn through the barrier, through the walls, through anything that stands between us.

Freya shouts my name.

I do not hear her.

All I can hear is Josie crying inside my head.

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Josie

The second the space opens between us, my body revolts.

It is not like panic. It is not like fear.

It is like gravity stops working.

My stomach twists so hard I retch, but nothing comes up. My vision whites out at the edges. I can feel Hope's pain like it is my own, sharp and roaring, echoing through my bones.

"Stop," I beg, clawing at the invisible barrier. "Please. Please."

The hallway is not the hallway anymore.

I am standing in the woods again. My hands are covered in blood. Hope is somewhere behind me, screaming my name, and I cannot turn around fast enough to reach her.

My knees hit the floor.

"Josie," Keelin says urgently. "Talk to me. What do you see?"

I shake my head. "She's hurt," I say. "She's dying."

"That is not happening," Freya says sharply. "Josie, listen to my voice."

I cannot.

The pain spikes again, white-hot, ripping through my chest. My magic surges out of me uncontrolled, cracking the lights overhead. Glass shatters down the hall.

I scream.

The scream does not sound like me.

I feel something snap inside my mind. Not break, but stretch past what it should be able to hold.

I see Hope collapse.

I feel it happen like it is my own body hitting the floor.

"No," I sob. "No no no."

I slam my fists into the floor, magic exploding outward. The barrier flickers violently.

"Freya," Keelin shouts. "This is too much."

Hope's voice cuts through everything.

"Josie!"

I look up.

She is standing right in front of me.

Her eyes are wild. Her face is pale. There is blood on her mouth. She drops to her knees and grabs my shoulders.

"I am here," she says fiercely. "I am not leaving you."

I cling to her, sobbing into her shoulder. The pain eases immediately, like a switch flipped off.

Then Freya screams.

"That is not real," she says. "Josie, that is a hallucination."

Hope's arms tighten around me. "Do not listen to her," she says. "I have you."

My heart stutters.

I pull back.

Hope flickers.

Her hands pass through me like smoke.

The real Hope is still on the other side of the barrier, collapsed against the wall, blood running from her nose.

I scream again, louder this time.

"Bring her back," I snarl, my voice not fully mine anymore. "Bring her back right now or I swear I will tear this place apart."

Freya drops the spell.

The barrier shatters.

Hope crashes into me like she was thrown. We hit the floor together, tangled, gasping, shaking.

I wrap myself around her, terrified to let go.

She clutches me just as hard.

Neither of us can stop shaking.

Keelin swears under her breath. Rebekah looks pale, her joking gone completely.

Freya stares at us like she has just watched something wake up.

"That," she says quietly, "was a mistake."

I press my face into Hope's neck, breathing her in like oxygen.

"If you ever do that again," I whisper, my voice steady in a way that scares even me, "you will not like what I become."

Hope tightens her arms around me.

And for the first time, I feel her agree.

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