Power (Soul Savers) Read Online Free Page A

“I
was sitting right here. As always. Praying for her to wake up, as always. And
then … well, she did. Her eyes slowly opened and she eventually focused on me.
That’s when I called for Ophelia to retrieve you. She looked around the room,
as if lost. Confused. Even when she saw you.”
    Mom nodded. “Yes, I noticed that, too.”
    “She … she does not recognize us?” Ophelia asked, her voice tight
with worry.
    “She has been unconscious for eight months,” Mom said.
“Although Tristan and I have thought her brain waves appeared fairly normal,
she may have trouble returning to us completely. At least at first. We don’t
know the extent of the dark magic’s effects on her.”
    Before we’d defeated Kali at Tristan’s trial, she had
blasted Rina with a powerful spell. At least, we thought we had defeated Kali.
We truly had no idea what happened to her soul after leaving Martin’s body. Or
what happened to Martin’s body, for that matter. It had disappeared before
anyone had noticed its absence.
    Lilith and I had been hit by a similar spell in the Florida
Everglades, but somehow I had recovered. Lilith never had. Hopefully, Rina
will, although she’d been hit at a much closer range than either Lilith or me.
    “Now that she’s come out of it, maybe I can reach her mind,”
I suggested as I gazed at Rina’s once again still face. My telepathy had been
useless with both her and Lilith before. Their brains were too far under to
reach.
    Mom nodded, and I gave it a go. Rina’s mind signature
definitely felt different than it had the last several months, as if it had
more substance, but still not the same as it had been before. And when I
followed it to her thoughts, they were thin, gauzy, like a mist trying to take
shape but unable to solidify. I concentrated harder, as if I could focus her mind
for her, but, of course, I couldn’t.
    “At least she has thoughts now,” I said. “I just can’t tell what they are.”
    “Well, that’s better than the complete blank you were
getting before,” Mom said.
    “I hope they clear.” I squeezed Rina’s hand, giving her as
much Amadis power as I could. Between sharing it with her and Lilith for so
long, however, pushing all that I had into them to heal their bodies and souls,
I was drained.
    “Alexis, you need a break,” Mom said. “I’ll stay with her
today and tonight.”
    “I’m fine,” I said, laying my head on Rina’s bed. “I just
need to rest a little.”
    “You need to sleep ,”
she corrected. “You need to recharge and regenerate.”
    “Rina needs me,” I said sleepily.
    “She needs your full power. Go. Get some real sleep. Spend
some time with your family. You need it.”
    I opened my mouth to protest. I didn’t care what I needed.
Not when I’d failed Lilith because I hadn’t given her enough of what she
needed. Not when I could still fail Rina.
    “Your family needs
it,” Mom said, cutting me off. “ Rina needs you to do it.”
    She knew how to get to me. I sighed with resignation, but
couldn’t bring myself to move from Rina’s bed. It wouldn’t have been the first
time I’d slept in her bed, but as long as I did while keeping my hand tightly
around hers and feeding her my Amadis power, I’d never truly regenerate. Mom
was right. I was depleted. Exhausted. Too tired to even move.
    The next thing I knew, I woke up in my own bed.
    A large, hard body pressed against the back of mine and a
heavy arm draped over me and held me tightly. I wrapped my hand over Tristan’s
and entwined my fingers with his. A thick, strong river of his love washed into
me, filling every cell as though I’d immersed myself under a waterfall of
emotion. Besides sleep, this was exactly what I needed. I drew on his love with
a hunger I hadn’t realized I’d had, as if my soul had been starving for this
connection. How blessed I am to be his ,
I thought as my power began to rebuild within me.
    Then Tristan stirred, and his mind signature brightened