Page 151 of Tracking Snow

I teleport in front of her and press the barrel beneath her chin. "Look at my face and decide if you really want to lie to me today."

"There’s a reversal agent," a different one blurts. "In the locked cabinet."

"Good choice."

Behind them, Queenie is backing away from Seven.

He stalks toward his mother with ominous, panther-like movements. It’s still the same body, but he somehow seems bigger, bulkier, more powerful than the rest.

"The Seven," she admonishes, trying to assert her authority, but her voice shakes.

"We are only Six now," he corrects. "But I think..." He closes his eyes. His shoulders twitch and jerk. A warm flare of red magic pulses from him, carrying the same life-giving force still moving through me.

His eyes open, and he turns to look at me, and I see red. Four winks at me. "Hey, baby, miss me?"

My breath catches.

Seven gave me back my magic. Then he reached inside himself and brought back the piece we both thought was gone forever. My heart pounds so hard it hurts. I could laugh. I could cry. Hell, I can set stuff on fire if I want to with him in the room.

All seven of the men I love are standing in front of me. Whole because Seven finally set himself free.

Then black swallows up the red irises. "Ah, yes. We are Seven once more," Seven says to his mother. "We all need to be here for this."

"You can’t do this," Queenie protests, still trying to keep her distance, but the wall comes up fast behind her. "Everything I’ve done has been for us."

"You’ve spent so much time and effort trying to make us the same again," Seven says in a low, gravelly tone that is deceptively soft. "We tried it your way, but the cost is too high. But don’t worry mother. We can still be a family."

He reaches out and gently touches her face in a loving caress.

Her fingers curl around his automatically, grasping for the control she lost.

His power flashes between their palms.

Queenie gasps and tears herself away.

She catches herself on the edge of a metal counter.

Vines burst from beneath her palm, twisting around glass vials and blooming with tiny purple flowers. Her mouth falls open.

She stumbles and grabs a scientist to balance herself. He cries out as translucent wings rip through the back of his lab coat.

She jerks away from him and grabs a rolling stool.

The metal legs bend beneath her hand. Hooves crack against the tile as the seat sprouts fur, a tail, and two curling horns. It tears free of her grip and gallops between the lab tables.

Seven watches his mother stare at her hands in horror. She falls to her knees as she begins to cry and scream like someone has chopped off a limb.

"See, Mother?" he says. "It’s what you wanted. For us to be the same again."

Chapter 47

Whistle While You Work

SNOW

Iteleport across Poison Apple with a stack of clean glasses balanced in my arms.

The gold flash drops me behind the bar beside Rap, who jerks so hard she paints a streak of black across the fresh wood.