Edge of Pathos (Book 4 of The Conjurors Series)

Epilogue

Chrome couldn't get used to the lack of space in Ming's crowded neighborhood, but that one complaint was a speck of dirt on a meaty bone. Guarding the human pup called to him like a full moon on a cloudless night.

Even now, when he was sitting by her feet while she ate dinner with her family, the restlessness in his heart was quiet. He hadn't thought it ever would be again. He listened to Ming chattering with her family about the new powers that everyone was trying to come to grips with.

"It's like I can sense the minds of everyone around me," Ming's mother said.

Ming was pouting, her bottom lip sticking out a little. "Everyone's got magic but me."

She was wrong. Chrome sent her an image of a flame bursting into a fire. It was hard to tell what was happening to his little charge, but the scent of the magic within her was unmistakable, and vaguely familiar.

After dinner, Chrome slipped outside for a run while Ming got ready for bed with her mother. When he returned, she was sleeping. He rested his front paws on her windowsill and watched her breathe until the sun came back over the horizon and Ming's eyes cracked open.

She grinned when she saw Chrome watching her. "Hi, puppy."

He sent her a vision of himself tackling her on the grass outside as playful punishment for her teasing, and was rewarded with her giggle.

She tumbled outside, and as promised, he tackled her. Shrieking with joy, she ran across the small lawn, and he let her get away, only to chase her again when her back was turned.

He surprised her, and Ming released a burst of magic, opening a portal to her bedroom. Chrome was so stunned that he stumbled, and they both went through.

The smell of her magic was unmistakable, like burning leaves in the forest. The last time he'd smelled that magic trail was when he'd followed Reaper. Ming had inherited the powers of his greatest enemy.

Ming was on her knees, eyes wide. "What happened?"

He'd heard of such a thing, of course. It wasn't uncommon when powerful Conjurors died that their powers were released into the universe and ignited in someone else.

"Chrome?" Ming's uncertainty came off her in waves as she gently patted his back. "Did I do something wrong?"

Chrome sent her a vision of a wolf pack surrounding a fire, hoping she understood that he was telling her that she was safe. Her face smoothed. No one had understood him as well as Ming since Jet.

He sent her an image of Azra, and the girl's eyes sparkled.

"Yes! Can we see Azra and Clarabelle? Now that Mom has met her, she says I'm allowed to see her any time I want to."

Clarabelle's scent was the only one that was easy for Chrome to detect through the cloud of magic hanging in the air, burning his nose like gunpowder since the battle two months ago. Clarabelle was in the woods of Arden. Chrome was thinking of the spot as Ming continued to stroke him, and another little burst of power came from her.

A portal opened, and through it he could make out the hazy image of two unicorns.

"I did that," she whispered, and Chrome nudged her with his nose so she could walk through.

You must be the guests Clarabelle said were coming today.

It was strange to see Azra now that she had no scent, having given her magic to her daughter. Chrome had to rely on his other senses to communicate with her, and it put him a little off-kilter.

Clarabelle was nuzzling Ming already, and the unicorn was pinging messages into the minds of everyone in the little grove. Ming could create portals, manipulate matter at a cellular level, defy laws of physics, like gravity, and even the laws of magic.

"I don't understand, what is she saying?" Ming asked.

Chrome's and Azra's eyes connected. Ming's magic had been awakened, and it was fully as powerful as Reaper's had ever been.

The magic that lives within you is awake. You are a powerful Conjuror now, little Ming.

"Me?" Ming's voice squeaked with glee. "Will I be able to help heal people, like Dr. Freeman? Or protect people, like Valerie?"

You can do both, and more. We look forward to seeing what you will do with this magic of yours.

Ming began dancing around the grove, and Clarabelle frolicked with her.

Azra's next message was to his mind alone. The power is the same as Reaper's, but it is hers to wield, and I think it is in good hands.

Chrome did, too. In his own mind, a vision unfurled of running through the open grasses he had been raised in as a pup, and he knew that his adventure, which he thought was winding to a close, had only begun now, at Ming's side.

THE END