After I said thank you and she nuzzled my neck, Enbarr galloped back to Tir fo Thuinn.

Iarfhlaith headed back to Berkeley.

Gavin drove Mom and Aiden over to Nancy’s again in mom’s car.

The rest of us went off to see the wizard.

Tamera looked shocked to see us when she answered the door. It was obvious she’d lost all hope in me healing her husband. Maybe she sensed my apprehension. Whatever. I was here now.

As we moved upstairs I noticed the family pictures on the wall and stopped. The familiar face of Nehemiah’s oldest son stared back at me. He looked like the wizard, but not like Tamera in the slightest. I’d seen this picture once before, but now it held a new meaning.

He was the son who Nehemiah lost.

Pain stung me. He was young in the picture. Younger than I was now. Between Anna and Dad, I knew how bad that hurt.

I took a deep breath and resolved to follow Tamera upstairs. Each step felt steeper than the last, as if I were choosing one path, but forsaking all opportunity of going down another path.

I found myself besides Nehemiah’s bedside. Somehow he looked worse, and it hadn’t even been forty-eight hours yet. He really was knocking on death’s door.

But I had the power to save him.

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Tamera stood next to me, silent tears streaming down her face. She did not believe we’d be able to heal her husband.

“Can you give me a moment,” I said.

Tamera and Charice and Gavin all eyed one another.

“All of you. Please. I need to talk to him.”

They shuffled out of the room. Tain moved to just outside the door as if standing guard to make sure I had the privacy I needed.

I eyed the dying Nehemiah. I wanted to hate him so bad. But with Tain, my dad in dog form, so close at the door, I couldn’t. Now that I’d spoken to Dad and knew how he felt, it was hard to hate the wizard.

“You ruined my family...but I guess it was because yours was ruined first.”

The wineskin was in my hand. All I had to do was give it to Nehemiah and make sure he drank every last drop. But that would mean no healing for anyone else. I’d still have my Keening. Gavin, his dragon form. Charice her Bad Luck wings. And most of all, my dad would be reduced back to a dumb and mute dog. But none of us were dying. Not yet at least.

“What you did was wrong. You left my dad to die.” His son’s picture filled my mind. “But I get why you did it now. It was for your son, and your family.”

His tossing and turning stopped, as if he were actually listening. They say that people in comas can hear everything said to them with unreal clarity. Perhaps Nehemiah could actually hear me now.

A deep breath filled me. “I forgive you.”

I waited for my emotions to whisk away, for the sun and the birds to come out. But nothing changed. At least nothing visible.

I let Tamera back in and handed her the broth from Dagda’s cauldron. “Make sure he drinks every last drop, and soon. Or it won’t work.”

She nodded and thanked me with a sobbing hug. I returned her hug and let it extinguish the bitterness in me.

I left down the stairs in a hurry. I didn’t want to be around when Nehemiah came around. Too awkward. Each step I descended felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders.

Somehow, I’d done it. I’d forgiven Nehemiah. It didn’t mean we had to go back to being best friends, but it still felt...good.