Chapter 36: Limbo

GIANNA

~So this is limbo…~

I lay on the ground, looking up at the red-hot sky… ~So this is fucking limbo…~ I’d heard rumors of it, mutterings mostly. It had only been described to me once before.

Even then, no one was sure really what limbo was like. Most people who had made it there never really returned. They were stuck or had passed on, admitting defeat.

Kind of ironic, really if you think about it, how easily I could pop between life and death, as if I were walking into another room of my goddamn house. But I ended up stuck…in fucking limbo…

How long had it been now? A month? Two?

I’d lost track of how many days had gone past. I heard voices, but I was sure that was the beginning stages of my going positively mad!

I could have easily closed my eyes and allowed myself to slip into death and be done with it, but I didn’t.

Why? I prayed for the moments when I’d hear Liv’s voice, even if it was just in my head. She talked to me about her day like we were just having coffee…like old times.

“Hey, G! I got more flowers for you! You’ll be able to open a flower shop soon with all of these!”

I giggled to myself. Right on cue. There she was, my best friend, cheerful as always… Of course she was… She was in my head. I stilled myself, waiting to hear more of what my brain had to offer today.

“You know, the pack is so grateful to you, G?! What you did was so amazing, really it was! Honestly, though? I miss you, G.”

I sighed, remembering how Diego dragged me around the room, showing me the young wolves. My fault. It was all my fault. If I hadn’t frozen, then I could have avoided all of this.

I guessed I overdid it when I forced all of them back. Maybe this was my punishment for tipping the scales too far over… Who knew?

“I don’t want to leave her.”

My breath hitched in my throat; my eyes snapped shut to stop the tears from freely flowing… That voice… I’d know it anywhere. It belonged to my Kol, my love, my mate.

I hadn’t heard his voice since I’d gotten stuck here, and now that I had, it broke me. He sounded sad and lonely; he sounded heartbroken.

“She’ll be okay, Kol. She’s so strong. She’s gonna get through this.”

“Thing is, Liv, I can feel her fading away. She’s barely there anymore. Every day, she gets weaker. I’m losing her; I know I am.”

I sat upright and froze… Wait, what? Losing me? Fading? ~Shit, is this real? Can I actually hear them?~ I looked around me violently.

If their voices were carrying over, then that must have meant that there was a doorway somewhere or a window I could bust open… ~Great, what are you planning to do? Break into life? Nice one, Gia!~

I looked around again, and then I saw it in the distance—a glowing white light. It was small, but I knew what it was… Life.

Jumping to my feet, I ran toward the light. “Okay, Gia, you can do this. Just go through like you would if it were death. Piece of—”

OOMF.

THUD.

“Cake. Ugh, shit,” I groaned to myself as I rolled over. ~Okay, so I guess I really am stuck here, then… Great…~ My heart was racing, and I was straining my ears to hear more… ~Come on, Liv, talk to me…~

“I miss you, G! I dunno what to do without you. You were always the strong one. You always had the right answer. You always knew what to do.

“Kol is beside himself without you. I fear he may drink himself to death. Diego is on a murderous rampage. I just pray he’ll come back to me in one piece.”

“Your father is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He’s locked himself in his study.

“Your mother is rallying every witch coven she can find to try and find Merrida. We all want you back, Gia. We miss you so much. This family is falling apart without you, honestly.”

Whatever tears I had been holding back were freely flowing now. My family was suffering without me, thinking I was fading away, but I wasn’t. I was just fucking stuck!

I needed to get the fuck out of here. I stood up again and faced the glowing light, guessing that it led to life. “Okay, here goes nothing.” I braced myself and charged at the light again.

OOOMF.

THUD.

~Motherfucker.~

~Well, that backfired.~ I lay flat on my back again, sprawled out, feeling the beginnings of aches throughout my body.

“I spoke with that Ash boy. He said his mate, Marie, is doing better. She’s still on bed rest, but the baby’s vitals are picking up, and everything is looking good.

“I know you were behind it, Gia. You’re so kind like that.”

I smiled to myself gently, letting my tears flow down my face, hitting the earth beneath me. I was glad they were doing better. I never meant for them, for anyone, to get hurt.

I sighed to myself, standing up again. “Okay, Gia. Third time’s a charm.” Mumbling to myself, I braced myself and charged.

~ARGH.~

OOMF.

THUD.

~Son of a bitch!~

~This is no longer funny. Here I am again on my back, and my body definitely hurts now. What if my family gives up? No, they wouldn’t… Would they?~

“You’re gonna be an auntie, Gia. I’m pregnant! Please come home, Gia. We need you here, all of us.”

I let the words sink in, and I sobbed to myself. ~My best friend and my brother are gonna have a child, a pup, and I’m lying here feeling sorry for myself that I’m stuck in fucking limbo!~

~Who even invented limbo anyways?!~

“Fuck this. I am not missing that,” I muttered darkly to myself and braced myself again. ~Here goes fucking nothing…~

~Two hundred ninety-eight fucking times.~

~Two hundred and ninety fucking eight…~

~That’s how many attempts I made to enter life again, and my body fucking hurts! I can’t lift my head off the ground, and I don’t think I want to either, to be honest.~

“You are the most powerful creature on earth, yet you can’t escape somewhere as simple as limbo?” A voice rang out behind me.

I flicked my eyes up and took a chance, regretting it immediately and growling to myself darkly.

“Merrida, I would say it’s nice to see you again, but I don’t like to lie, so I won’t. It’s not. What the fuck do you want?”

“I told you before, your power. You are clearly not worthy of it.

“Then again, if you’d spent less time taking orders from a beast on a throne and more on honing your gifts, then maybe, just maybe, you might have gotten out by now.”

Her singsong voice was pissing me off no end. “Fuck off, Merrida. I’m feeling particularly murderous right now, and I’m sure I can manage to pass your sorry ass over to death.”

Her cackle boiled my blood. “And that beast, as you so eloquently put it, just happens to be my father.

“Choose your next words wisely, Merrida, because my patience with your shit is wearing dangerously thin,” I muttered to her, dragging my body to a standing position.

“How the fuck did you break your nose?”

Her eyes darkened. “Your mother was here,” she grumbled. My heart stopped, and I looked around. Merrida cackled again, and I glared at her.

“Oh, she left, dear. When given the choice to save her darling sons or her only daughter, she chose her sons without hesitation.”

“You’re lying. She wouldn’t leave me here,” I growled at her, my hands clenching into fists.

Merrida took a step forward. “No? Tell me, wasn’t it your mother who suppressed you for all those years? Who hid you away from your true self?

“When will you learn, child? What people don’t understand, they fear, and what they fear, they seek to destroy.”

I stepped away from her, my mouth open in horror at her words… Bitch was actually making sense…

“That precious council of theirs wanted you dead, Gianna. Such a waste of power if you were. You are a force, Gianna. You could have it all, ruler of life and death.

“Of course, if you do not wish to do so, I would happily relieve you of such a burden.”

I clenched my teeth and glared at her. There it was, the real reason she’d locked me in here. My family would never leave me. They would never betray me.

They did what they had to do to protect me. If they really feared me, they would have taken my power away completely, and I never would have gotten the chance to get it back.

“You’re sick,” I spat at her. “All you want is power. You’ll have to kill me to get mine, and trust me, I won’t go down easy.”

She cocked her head to the side as if weighing up her chances, but before she could say anything, blood started pouring from her mouth. She coughed and sputtered, her eyes wide.

I automatically took a couple of steps back to avoid the blood splattering onto the ground. She fell to her knees, coughing and breathing heavily.

I took a couple more steps back, unsure of what to do. I didn’t really want to save her, but she seemed to have the key to get out of here.

As if on cue, I felt a warmth behind me and chanced a glance over my shoulder. The light was glowing brighter. Maybe she needed to die for me to get out.

It was pretty obvious that she had trapped me there, so she obviously had some form of control over the place. A scream snapped my attention back to her, and my mouth fell open in shock.

Merrida was ablaze, rolling on the ground, screaming. Before I could act, the sky above started to rumble, and the earth started to shake.

Without another second’s hesitation, I turned and bolted for that damn white light that had been busting my ass.

~Hold on… I’m coming home…~