More embers drifted up from the fire, swirled around me and entered my mouth with my next breath. The panic calmed, lulling me back to that even-keel state that reminded me I had a beautiful opportunity in front of me. I needed things. So many things. And it all came flooding into my system. My next wish spilled off my lips. “Give Fletcher his magic back. It’s inside of me. I took it on accident.”
She made a ticking sound with her tongue and shook her head. “I have no interest in messing with magic, darling.”
“Then how do I give it back to him?”
She tilted her head, the hood gathering to one side like soupy dough. “You must die,” she crooned, hervoice carrying a weight of inevitability that turned my blood cold. Then, the lines of her oversized robe began to move, as if a pack of serpents were seeking a new position on her body. “Only when you die can you donate your magic to a new owner. Magic cannot be ripped part.” She straightened her head, the slinky-like fabric that made up her beige robe repositioned itself with a sinuous grace. “The strain of the initial imbalance causes it to get stuck and immediately seeks a new equilibrium that cannot be undone. This is precisely why I do not meddle with such forces. Because it is all or nothing.”
Without warning, the searing pain returned with vengeance. The number two on my skin began to writhe and twist, morphing into a new number. Four.
“However, to keep the balance, youmaytransferallof it to him.”
The promise. The hope. The sheer happiness to correct what I had done to Fletcher. Embers swathed my consciousness, the agreement forcing its way up my throat and out of my mouth before I even had time to ponder it. “Do it.”
The magic inside of me rumbled in my chest before I saw them spindling out of me in wisps of aquas andlilacs. It swirled above me like a vortex then shattered in an explosion of kaleidoscopic light.
The four morphed into a six. I could have fallen to my knees and wept. I was devastated. My soul had been ripped from my body, its home. But after seeing Fletcher’s magic, I knew both his and mine would be kept safe with him. It was his turn to have magic.
I took a deep breath, more embers coating my lungs. She was fixing all my problems. I was a step closer to being free and being with Fletcher.More, more, more!Our life together could be utterlyperfect.
“Relieve him of his ten-year burden to you.”
She smiled, diseased gums glossy with her saliva and reflecting the verdant fire. “It must be transferred, Ripley.” She waved a leathery hand over the fire, sending a plethora of embers into the air and into me. “All or nothing.”
Without thought, I blurted, “Give it to me! I’ll take his burden.”
“As you wish.”
The pain was nothing compared to the pure bliss entering my system knowing that Fletcher was finally free. No longer would he wear the mark of the sorceress on his skin. I’d hold this burden with unrelenting possessive care because it gave life toFletcher Darkly. I was honored to carry it for him. He had saved me in more ways than he knew. And now I got to return the favor.
The burning of my skin altering from a six to an eighteen barely fazed me this time. The embers kept me calm, soothing my panic with their loving embrace that began entering my magicless blood stream.
Now for the Cidris. It was all I wanted. To take them down. To save my people. To send them to the grave after torturing all of us.
But, Fletcher was a Cidris. I couldn’t wish them all gone, could I? “Kill every Cidris except for Fletcher Darkly. I want them all to drop fucking dead.”
She shook her head. “I take years, not lives.” Her wrinkly hands lifted and her robe readjusted itself. She moved back to her original spot near the fire. She straightened her back, chin held high, and with that subtle movement, it was like the darkness around us came alive. Shadows swirled and whispered, reaching their claws out for me. “If you would like, thereisa way you could grant yourself as many demands as you would like without my rules to stop you.”
Every inch of me wanted what she was promising. “How?” The embers in my lungs sung loudly, pulling me closer to the fire.
“Trade places with me,” she hissed with an enticing smile.
It was so simple. The claws reaching out to me from the dark surroundings wrapped around my throat, as if coaxing me to join them, to take her place, to remain with them evermore. I could grant all my own wishes.
Tendrils of shadows suddenly exploded into broken mists that slithered back into the murky black as something agonizing burrowed into my back. It gripped a hold on my spine and hauled me backward. It was strong and demanding and so powerful that I couldn’t resist as it dragged me away from the sorceress. Those embers in me froze, confused. Without access to my magic, I was at the mercy of this unknown entity. A puppet on a string, destined to go where this thing was taking me.
The sorceress’s face contorted, her features bulging and expanding as if they were on the cusp of bursting. Her hand reached out over the flickering flames. Her jaw unhinged, swaying in a grotesque display as she unleashed a scream that felt like a physical blow. The echoes of it accosted my ears, sending my head limp with vertigo.
The pain in my spine seared up my back and threatened to slash my muscles as it towed me out of the den and to the floor.
Sunlight hit me with its blinding golden rays and the grip on my spine finally released. I skidded across the dirt outside the den and lay there for several long moments, deciding if I were dead or not.
My limbs quivered to life as my gaze shot up toward a towering figure looming over me. His presence alone was like a hurricane, fierce and unforgiving. It swirled around me with violet sparks of rage that crackled up his arms in sharp angles. His eyes were molten with acrimony. It wasn’t until I took in his clenched fists and diamond-shaped face did I realize it was Fletcher. His body was wrought with tension and his aura pulsed with lilac fury. His daunting face was illuminated by his lethal magic, a living embodiment of power and vengeance.
In a slow, harrowing thread of words, he gritted out, “What have you done?”
CHAPTER
TWENTY
