Page 81 of Solivagant

I listened, trying to determine if I really had heard anything, but nothing came to me except for the breeze. That was wrong. There should have been more sounds. Birds. Insects. Everything was silent. The way the forest often was when something was very wrong.

Where was my Jo?

I set off in the direction he’d walked in, following the faint lingering scent of him through the woods.

He didn’t smell injured. There wasn’t any blood. Not here anyway.

I kept going.

He’d altered his path. He started heading back toward the creek.

The building dread in my core escalated.

I made it very clear he shouldn’t follow that path. It was for his own good as well as to protect Jem. There were things the soul and mind weren’t strong enough to handle, and his past self was definitely one of them.

Yet the scent got stronger.

He’d definitely come this way.

I dropped to my hands so I could run faster.

Please no. He shouldn’t have come this way. It wasn’t safe. I’d tried to tell him it wasn’t safe.

I saw the temple I’d built for Jem from the wreckage of the village and the wall that had once surrounded it and kept us separated. There was a hole in the side of it, with golden light spilling out into the surrounding shadows.

No. I whined.

Jo was inside, lying on a bed of soul flowers. Next to Jem.

No. No. No. No. No.

He was hurt. Bleeding from his nose. From his mouth. His ears.

His body was so damaged, but I couldn’t find the cause. And his soul. Something was very wrong with his soul. With Jo. With Jem. Both.

Soul decay. Their light was flickering and fractured.

They were dying.

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I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t be too late again.

I had to save Jem this time. Had to save Jo.

I whined as I knelt by his unconscious body. He was still breathing, but it was so faint, and he was so cold.

Please no.

I had to save him. I couldn’t be without him. Not again. Never ever again. I wouldn’t survive it another time.

His eyes fluttered and gold spilled from mine in relief as he opened them to look at me.

“You came.”

His voice was weak. He was weak. I needed to make him stronger.