Fateful Signs (Ballad of the Seer, Book Three)

Chapter 44 - Loss

Jack's last words were left unfinished when his head lulled back against her arm. Still, Dianna didn't need to hear it to know that he loved her. He died proving just that.

Tears streamed uncontrollably from Dianna's eyes. She blocked out the rest of the world, focusing only on the boy in her arms. The boy she loved. She kissed his cheek before laying him to the side. She carefully closed his eyelids.

Then, she turned her eyes, narrowed to slits, to the man responsible.

She looked back at Jack for a moment to say, "I'm sorry." She removed the dagger from his back and charged at the murderous monster who stole him from her. The man threw up his hands, trying to blast her with telekinesis, but it was useless. His powers couldn't stop her. He turned and ran in the opposite direction, suddenly fearful. Nothing could stop her.

Nothing, except an extremely strong pair of arms wrapped around her waist, pinning her to whoever they belonged to. She struggled against their grip. She brought her elbow back into the man's solar plexus. He coughed. "Dianna, it's me."

Dianna froze, chills running down her spine. She couldn't believe it. It was too good to be true. It must be a magic trick. But magic of the mind didn't work on her.

Slowly, so as not to break the spell, if it was one, she turned her head up to see Jack's smiling face. "Hi," Jack said.

She pushed away from him, confused and cautious and happy and a whole slew of other conflicting emotions. "But how?"

Jack held his arms out looking at himself. "I have no friggin clue."

Dianna laughed, amazed. She ran and jumped into his arms, locking lips with him. Her legs circled his waist and her hands caressed his face. When she pulled back, she stared at him, mystified. "You died."

"Yeah," he said with a nod.

With her feet firmly on the ground, she rubbed her hands across his shoulders, his chest, down his arms. He was definitely real. At least, he felt real. "What happened? Are you like a zombie werewolf or something?"

"I have no cravings for brains, so I'm gonna go with no." He rubbed her arms, before taking her hands in his, intertwining their fingers together. "I feel more me than I have in a very long time. If that makes any sense."

"It doesn't." she said. "But I don't care."

A strange look crossed his face and she was suddenly flying through the air. He placed her on the ground behind him and lunged at a warlock who was about to attack.

In midair, Jack's body exploded into a mess of tattered clothes and black hair - actually, fur would be more accurate - and reformed into a wolf. An honest-to-God wolf. Jack had become a wolf.

He looked nothing like the demonic half-man creature he used to turn into. He was a large, beautiful wolf. His body long and lean, covered in a thick black coat.

After taking down the warlock, the wolf looked back at her with Jack's crystal blue eyes and nodded. "My boyfriend is a dog." she mumbled, stunned. So, what else is new? she thought.

-

Lily and Duncan had Mia on the ropes. She was no match for the two of them at full-power. That didn't stop her trying, though. She threw one trick after another, unsuccessfully. She had used up so much magic already, with every new attack she grew weaker. She had the powers of a warlock and a Light Bearer and that was only doing her a disservice, sapping her strength twice as fast. Apparently, no one had taught her about magical exhaustion.