Blame it on the shame Part 2

"It hasn't been that long," the witch yells back. "It takes weeks, sometimes even a month or two for a positive result."

I can physically feel the anger brewing in her now. "And with what you just did to her...you might have ruined everything all on your own."

"I—" I can hear DeLuca pacing the basement floors. "Well, then fix her. Now."

I can feel the witch's eyes on me before she walks over and takes my hand. "Her body is very battered and bruised. Her nose is broken, 4 of her ribs are broken, and she has internal injuries."

I feel tears hit my hand before she says, "There's only so much damage a body can withstand before it's so destroyed that neither magic nor medicine can ever fix it again."

She places a kiss on my forehead. "Including the heart and soul."

I feel DeLuca's presence looming over me. "You're saying you can't fix her?"

I'd be lying if I said the sheer panic in his voice didn't shock me.

"I don't know," she whispers.

"You have to fix her," DeLuca booms. "I can't lose her."

She lets go of my hand. "You should have thought of that before."

"Make her forget," DeLuca whispers. "Make her forget what happened tonight."

"What?"

"You heard me. Just do it. I need her to forget this ever happened."

"No," the witch argues. "I won't."

"You know, there are still some members of your precious coven I haven't gotten to yet," DeLuca threatens.

There's silence for a few moments before I hear her say, "Fine, but you need to go back to Italy. I need to concentrate and she can't be anywhere near you while I attempt to fix her. I'll meet you at the Council's headquarters after I'm finished."

"You have 48 hours, witch," DeLuca says before he sweeps a finger over my cheek. "I'm sor—" he stalls. "Just fix her," he barks.

Two sets of footsteps walk up the stairs and I try again to open my eyes to no avail.

"She's hardly recognizable," a shaky voice whispers after what feels like hours have passed.

It's a voice that I recognize. Emilio's.

"You should have gotten me sooner," the witch says curtly.

"I tried. You weren't that easy to find."

The witch sighs and reaches for my hand again.

"I never thought I'd agree with DeLuca on anything," Emilio says softly. "But maybe making her forget is the right thing to do."

"I'm not making her forget a damn thing," the witch declares. The bite in her tone causes me to shiver again. "She's going to need this anger to do what needs to be done."

Terror shoots through me. I have no idea what she's talking about, but it terrifies me.

The witch snaps her fingers. "We need to get her out of here. She's starting to wake up."