Page 244 of May: Bloom & Bane

“So what we know,” I murmur sarcastically. “Is that my first shift was triggered by something. And this curse we all carry was woven into my first shift, and it tried dragging me toward Eden with the sole mission of taking her soul with the scythe.” I study Therael’s face, and then Damon’s. Neither of them gives anything away.

“The scythe had their names engraved on it,” I press on. “Eden’s, and Vaelína’s. The pull was like nothing I have ever felt before. I couldn’t stop it. I held onto one of the trees outside, but my wings⁠—”

The words hitch in my throat. A cold sweat breaks out across my forehead as I remember the sound of my own wings being hacked off. I try to twitch them. There is no response.

“They’re gone,” I breathe. “My wings. They aren’t coming back… are they?”

“We have no way of knowing for sure,” Therael whispers. “But the chance is vanishingly small that they would ever come back. Runak did the only thing that could be done. The flesh was so damaged, Ashán. He closed it for good. It was that, or watch the loop tear you apart for the next⁠—”

Damon clamps his hand over Therael’s shoulder.

“The next what, Therael?”

He parts his lips to speak, but the words stall before they hit the air. The muscles in his throat visibly squeeze.

“He can’t, Little Reaper,” Damon says. “The spell has him by the throat. If he tries to force it past his teeth, it’ll choke him to death right in front of you—well… not death. He cannot die. But you understand what I’m trying to say.”

The next what? Sage says.

“Time is involved, isn’t it?” I pant. “The next—what? Century? Millennium?”

Damon’s eyes find mine. “There is a time constraint,” he says. “But we’re not talking about a century.”

“Less?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Fifty?”

He stays silent.

“Twenty-five?”

Nothing.

“Ten?” I yell, the chains rattling as I surge forward.

“Five?”

“A year?”

“Six months?”

“A month?”

“Two weeks?”

“Days?”

Damon’s eyes fall to the floor.

Horror slams into my chest. “How many days?”

“Four?”

“Two?”

Therael nods his head.