Without thinking about it, Ivy's hands flexed, and Reece's heart jumped in answer. She could feel it leap, answering her silent call to wake up. Ilex guided her hands lower, pressing them into Reece's fur-covered belly. He should have been warm, but all she felt was cold stillness and the faintest echo of a heartbeat.
“Breathe, Ivy. Breathe life into him,” Ilex murmured.
Ivy obeyed, drawing breath into her lungs, pushing the energy of her exhale down along her arms and into her hands. In her mind, she saw Reece's lungs expand and felt his ribcage rise up, then down, matching the rhythm of her breaths.
Adrenaline coursed through her, the muscles beneath her hands rippling, thickening. She felt the lion twitch, the surge of life, the power of holding it all in her hands and knowing she could just as easily take it back.
The idea was dark and seductive, terrifying, but Ilex squeezed her hands and pulled her back from that sinister abyss whispering wicked things of ultimate power to her. To take it all and horde it for her own.
“Good, Ivy. Now let go. Let go, little sister.”
She jerked her hands away from his, all but throwing herself back away from the evil temptation. Uriah was there to catch her, pulling her even farther away, cuddling her to him while she gasped and panted like she'd been drowning and finally broke the surface.
Shaken, Ivy opened her eyes and saw a massive golden lion with a thick, tawny mane lying in the tall grass. Breathing, vibrant, and very much alive.
Reece looked like he was sleeping, his huge paws twitching as though chasing a rabbit through a dream. Ilex looked back at her with a proud, satisfied smile, thumping his hand down against the beast's side and looked to Abel, waving at the restored cat with a shaky hand.
“He is alive, but his soul is not here. You need to call to him. Call his spirit back to his body.”
Abel was white as a sheet, his eyes so wide they threatened to fall right out of his skull. “I don't exactly have the gods of the underworld on speed dial, man.”
Ilex snorted a laugh, but it was Kerrigan who pushed herself up to sit on her own, elbowing Abel weakly. “I'm completely out of juice, I can't do a damn thing here, but you're a cat. Cats are naturally attuned to the spirit realm. You're his people, his brother-in-arms. Order him back here.”
Abel shook his head, his wonder replaced with hollowness as he leaned forward and buried his hands deep in Reece's mane. “It's not that simple. Only his alpha could possibly do something like that. I can call Tynan—”
“I don't think we have that kind of time, and from the way she's flagging, Ivy won't be able to bring him back twice,” Kerrigan argued. “You need to try. When I summon a ghost, I call them by name. How would you call out to a lion who's lost in the wilderness?”
Ivy was indeed flagging, she could feel the power the Twin Blade flower had given her draining away like water through a sieve, and in a silent moment of honesty, she was relieved. Ivy never, ever, wanted to hold that much sway over life and death again.
“You can do this, Abel. I believe it,” Ivy told him softly, knowing that's where the real power was. In believing.
Abel looked at her with a wide-eyed shake of his head, and whatever he saw in her expression made him decide not to argue. From one moment to the next, he went to all fours and got furry.
The coven scooted back and made room for the lions to surround their fallen brother, and Abel was the first to throw his head back and roar, loud and furious. When the others joined him, the sound was deafening. It vibrated Ivy's blood inside her veins, and for several straight minutes, all the lions did was let loose their coughing bellows.
Just when she thought nothing was happening, that it wasn't working, Kerrigan reached out and smacked at something. Her hand swooshing through the air like she was smacking a basketball into the net.
Reece jolted like someone had yanked his tail and was on his feet so fast he made his brothers scatter in surprise, nearly knocking down the witches surrounding them.
Reece spun around wildly, his sides heaving, ears pinned to his skull, his lips curled back in a violent snarl. When he realized no one was attacking him, he stumbled back and plopped down on his butt, head hung low in confusion.
Reece made felines sounds, little yowls, growls, and grunts like he was trying to speak, but clearly, it was a language only the cats understood.
Abel shifted back to human form, reaching out to ruffle Reece's ears, giving the fur under his chin a tug. “I don't even know where to start, buddy, but I think it's fair to say we won. You missed some shit, but we'll hash it out later, okay? I need you to shift so we know all your junk is in the right place.”
Reece went from lion to man almost instantly, his hands going straight for his groin with a look of abject horror creasing his face. “What happened to my junk? Why wouldn't it be in the right place? I feel weird, man! I feel seriously weird! Last thing I remember was feeling like my balls were getting sucked up my asshole and out my eyeballs!”
Ivy enjoyed the show, the two naked shifters quite a sight to see, but Uriah's big hand came up and clamped over her eyes with a territorial growl, depriving her of the show.
“As much as I enjoy looking at naked dudes and their assorted junk, can we go home now? I feel like I downed a case of tequila, skipped the drunken fun, and went straight to a hangover,” Callie groaned piteously.
Ivy peeked through Uriah's fingers in time to see Kerrigan nod, and she didn't seem much better off than Callie. “Definitely. Someone remind me why didn't we bring a car? It's a long-ass walk back to the house.”
“Please,” Ilex said. “Let my warriors help you.”
“That's not...” Rowena made it as far as her hands and knees before slumping back down to her hip, wrinkling her nose in irritation. “That would be most appreciated. When I'm not seeing triple, you and I are going to have a long talk about using my Brownies as spies.”
“Of course,” Ilex murmured, standing up in a graceful push. “One moment. Before we go, there is something I must do.”
Uriah peeled his hand away so Ivy could watch her brother march across the meadow toward the huge, ugly tree in the middle of her beautiful meadow. Ivy wasn't sure what she thought Ilex was going to do, taken completely by surprised when he took a wide stance and pissed on the trunk with his middle finger extended high over his head.
“You know,” Juliet started, lifting her hand to shade her eyes against the sunshine. “I think I like your brother.”
Callie started to laugh, Juliet joined her, and before long the entire group was cackling with relief. It had been a close call. Too close, but everything turned out all right in the end.
Well, almost everything.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“He has regained no memories of you at all?” Her brother's guilt-laden question tore at her heart.
They were going on nearly three weeks after the showdown in the meadow. Three weeks since her father nearly succeeded in killing the big bear currently splashing in the river, fishing for his afternoon snack.
Ivy sat on the mossy bank, chin in hand, resting on her updrawn knees beside Ilex. “Not a one. It's like the last two years never happened.”