Chapter 159. Severing The Witch’s Hold

Xander’s POV

“Alison…?”

Her name slips from my lips like a prayer, hoarse and uncertain. My eyelids feel like lead, but the moment I pry them open, the first thing I see is her, her face streaked with tears, her arms trembling as she cradles me like something fragile, something broken.

“Xander?” Her voice cracks with so much emotion it guts me. “You’re back. Oh, God, you’re back.”

Before I can process a single thought, she throws her arms around me, burying her face in the crook of my neck. Her whole body is shaking.

What the hell is going on?

Last thing I remember, I was lying down.. drained, but safe. Now I’m on the sandy floor, tangled in Alison’s embrace, her scent flooding my senses, her sobs pounding against my ribs like waves.

I gently pry her off me, trying to gather the fragments of memory that feel like shattered glass inside my skull. “Alison… what happened?”

She pulls back slowly, eyes red and glossy, her hands cuppi