But etched into my chest is a tattoo that links me to Fritzi’s magic.
And…
I raise my head, knowing inherently what I need to do. I cannot use magic to fight for her; I don’t know how.
Butshedoes.
And we’re bound.
Which means…could I? Could I use our connection to pull Dieter’s dark soul intome,and then she could use her magic to banish him?
“Come kiss me, lover!” Dieter says with Fritzi’s bloody lips, red spraying out and splattering her teeth, her tattered robe, the floor in front of her. The wound he gave me is nothing compared to what he inflicts on her. Dieter dances, Fritzi’s body moving jerkily like a puppet on fraying strings. I think he’s trying to mimic the dances from the bonfire night—was he watching through her eyes even then?—but it’s macabre, eerie in itswrongness.
I close my eyes.
I listen to my heartbeat.
This spot, she’d said.This spot on your chest. It’s mine.
My hand covers that spot. It’s where the tree tattoo is, I realize.
It’s hers.
And I can feel…something—a magical pull, aconnection, just like the one I felt when we first bonded.
My heart to hers.
It’s a rope that binds us. It’s a light that illuminates.
It’s abridge.
I look with my mind’s eye down the golden connection between us, and I can see a darkness like smoke burning off Fritzi’s body. I snort.
“Why are you laughing, Ernst?” Dieter says in her voice. “Is itfunny?” He stretches her cut lips with his fingers, widening the split, ripping the already severed flesh.
I sober. I was amused because the hold he has on her—and I can see it now—is not that strong. He doesn’t have a very good grasp of his magic. No—ofhermagic.
But it was enough to search this library for something, I realize.Enough to hurt Fritzi.
I lunge forward—not with my body, but my soul.
And my soul grabs his.
Fritzi crumples to the ground.
I feel his soul, slick like oil, wrestling with me, frantic, manic, stronger than I had given him credit for. He pulls away from my grasp, struggling to get back to her, to torture her.
But Ihold. His soul squirms away, and I pull him closer. Closer.
Fine, his voice says, the word slinking into me like a snake slithering through my head.I’ll just takeyouinstead.
He quits fighting me.
His soul slams into my body, the blackness overwhelming. I feel my soul shriveling up, cowering, my conscious thoughts receding into a tiny part of my mind, a part that has no control. How did I think his magic weak moments ago? It was only weak compared to her. Against me? Overpowering.
He lifts my hand. I want to fight it, but I have no control over myown body. My fingers do not tremble as he forms a fist. Gone are the jerky movements, the hesitant puppetlike nature of his possession.
Hehas full control.
