“You don’t understand,” Stella replied impatiently. “I’m telling you he’s not dead.” My star, I need your help. I can’t find my way.
A sob escaped Lena’s whitened knuckles. Astar hugged Stella close. “I’m so sorry,” he said, tears in his voice. “I wish it wasn’t true.”
Stella shook him off. “He isn’t dead. Let me go. Let me work.”
“Let her do it,” Zeph said.
“But, Zephyr, she—” Astar protested raggedly.
“She’s a sorceress, an empath, and a healer—which makes her wiser in this arena than all of us put together,” Zeph snapped. “Let her try. Wouldn’t you do anything to save Jak?”
“Not at the risk of losing Stella, too,” Astar ground out.
“I’m all right,” Stella replied absently, hands on Jak’s cold skin. His dark beard stood out starkly against his pallor, along with bloodless cuts and purpling bruises. Otherwise, he looked like he might be sleeping—and likely to open his eyes and make some joke about fooling them all and only pretending to be dead. She touched the pulse beneath his ear. Nothing.
“His heart isn’t beating, and he’s not breathing,” Lena said quietly from the other side of the table. Stella refused to think of it as a bier. “I keep checking.”
I can’t find my way. He was holding the Star out to her.
“Where’s the Star of Annfwn?” Stella asked, not looking up.
“Lost in the fight,” Astar answered. “Gen is out looking for it, but…”
“But it’s been nonstop snow and wind ever since,” Zeph filled in. “If it’s out there, it’s buried.”
Stella could go right to it, but there wasn’t much time. Good thing Jak had wakened her when he did. She send a thought to the Star, funneling magic into it so it would glow. “We need to warm him up,” she said. “He’s too cold.”
“Nilly, please!” Astar nearly shouted, and Zeph hushed him.
“We can always freeze his body again,” she said very quietly, though not so quietly that Stella didn’t hear. His body. No, she wouldn’t let it happen.
“There are blankets,” Lena began, turning.
“No,” Stella said, stopping her. “Use your weather magic. Warm the air around him.”
“I didn’t think of that.” Lena put her magic to work, the air in the immediate vicinity heating like sand baking under a desert sun.
“Not desert,” Stella said, stretching her senses to find Jak within the tomb of his body, healing his lacerations as she encountered them. “Think tropical, like Nahanau. Thick, clinging humidity.”
As if she’d created it herself, the weather thickened at her order, the sweet humidity as fragrant and comforting as home.
“I still don’t feel a pulse or heartbeat,” Lena said.
“It’s there, just very slow.” There. Like teasing a thread out of a tapestry, she found a line to Jak’s life force. He received her mental touch with a rush of welcome, relieved she’d found him. It took all she had to hold him in place. “Not yet.”
“I’m not doing anything more,” Lena replied.
“Not you.” Her native magic wouldn’t be enough. Already she was flagging. “I need the Star.”
“Nilly.” Astar sounded at wit’s end. “I told you. We can’t—”
“Found it!” Gen sang out, the inn front doors slamming. “I found the Star! It was glowing in this snowbank. I don’t know why I didn’t—Stella! You’re up…” She trailed off, making it almost a question.
Stella held out her hand, snapping her fingers. “Give me the Star.”
“Your wish, my command,” Gen replied, an odd note in her voice. The Star, warm and exploding with magic, settled in to Stella’s outstretched palm.
Pulling open Jak’s fancy dress shirt, she centered the Star over his heart, holding it in place with both hands and carefully focusing her healing magic through it.
“What is going on?” Gen whispered.
“She thinks she can save Jak,” Zeph explained.
“Did you explain to her that—”
“We tried,” Astar cut off Gen’s question. “Nilly isn’t listening to reason.”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m a stubborn child,” Stella said mildly. “I know what I’m doing.”
Astar snorted. “Because you’ve raised so many people from the dead.”
“I told you: He isn’t dead.”
“Maybe she’s delirious, or out of her mind,” Gen whispered.
“Stella can’t possibly hurt him, and she just might save him,” Zeph snapped out, her staunch defender. “So everyone shut up and let her work.”
An awkward silence ensued. Stella was peripherally aware that that Zeph had led Astar away to a chair, where he now sat with his head in his hands. Zeph crouched beside him, talking soothingly. Lena remained a solid presence across the table, maintaining the air temperature. Gen reappeared, a carafe in one hand, a mug in the other.
“If I were trying to save him,” she said quietly, “I’d have him drink this. To warm up from the inside.”
“Good,” Stella answered without taking her attention from the Star. “He’ll need that in a moment.”
Aware of Gen and Lena exchanging helpless looks, of Zeph comforting Astar in the corner, of Rhy here and not here, Stella held them all in her expanded perception—along with the growing thread of Jak’s presence, his life force weaker than theirs but no less present.
“This will be a bit tricky,” she told him, mentally taking his hand. “The timing must be exactly right.”
“Fortunately, I have excellent timing,” he replied in her mind, a phantom grin flashing.
“That cocky arrogance will serve you well.”
“Is she…?” Gen asked.
“Shh,” from Lena.
“All right, Jakral Konyngrr,” Stella murmured, “let’s do this.” With her mental hand, she pulled hard on the solidifying thread, simultaneously pouring magic into his heart, brain, and other internal organs.
He convulsed, arcing on the table as if hit by lightning, a tight scream scraping from his throat. A chair clattered in the background, and Gen nearly dropped her mug. Stella continued to infuse Jak’s body with healing magic, weaving his spirit back into his body, warming his blood and repairing the damage from freezing and lying inert for so many hours.
Without the Star, she could never have done it.
With the Star—and sorcery she’d never realized herself capable of—she brought him back.
~ 12 ~
Pain hit him like a mailed fist to the head—except it didn’t stay in his head. It radiated through his body, all of it—bones, ligaments, muscles, even his skin—cramping with convulsive force. He was simultaneously viciously cold and burning up with fever.
“Stay with me, Jak,” Stella coaxed, her voice like a gentle sea on a warm afternoon. “I know it hurts, but it won’t last long.”