Page 157 of Earthbound

Furi repeated the words haltingly but grew in confidence as she got used to their rhythm.

As they chanted together, Lettle’s mind became eclipsed with thoughts of Rayan.

His brown eyes that crinkled in the corners when he smiled.

The feeling of his hand on her lower back just to let her know he was there.

How he preferred Lettle to cuddle him in the bed from behind, his large body cradled in her arms.

The way he loved her.

The way she loved him.

Please, Bosome, let this work.

The spell came to an end and Lettle looked around. Rayan lay unmoving on the ground. Amnan and Pila, still in their obeah forms, flanked Ajax’s dying body.

Lettle squeezed her eyes shut, spilling tears onto her cheeks.

It didn’t work.

Then Furi gasped.

Lettle’s eyes flew open. It took her a moment to realise what she was seeing. At first she thought it was snow, fluttering down from the ceiling. But then one landed on the grimoire. She picked it up. It was a leaf, white and skeletal.

‘The Tree of Souls,’ Furi whispered.

The ancient baobab tree was shedding its leaves. One by one they were falling. Amnan howled behind them and Furi’s eyes widened. ‘I can’t feel Amnan, he’s not in my mind any more.’

Did the spell work after all?

‘Lettle?’ Rayan coughed and sat up. ‘What’s going on? Why can’t I feel Ajax?’

Lettle ran over to him and pressed her head to his chest, listening to the comforting thump of his heart.

‘I’m here,’ she sobbed. ‘I’m here.’

‘Where is Ajax?’

Lettle keened quietly as she pointed.

Rayan tensed, his eyes widening as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. ‘So much blood,’ he whispered. ‘Why won’t he get up?’

‘He’s dying, Rayan,’ Jay said. They removed the gauze, ending his torment quicker.

Rayan crawled across the bloodied earth to Ajax. His cry was animalistic, full of a pain few would ever understand. His soul had been ripped from him and Lettle knew he would never truly be the same again.

But at least he was alive.

She wrapped her arms around him as he cried, and when Ajax’s final breath came, Lettle said, ‘Look in magesight, watch him fly free.’

They both watched as Ajax’s soul, a swirl of bronze, was carried upwards by a breeze no one of this earth would ever feel.

‘Where is he going?’ he asked.

‘I do not know.’

‘Somewhere without bloodshed,’ Rayan said, his voice rough.