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Is that true? Can that really free us from dark magic?
Simon looks back at my mates, having shifted back into their human form. They gather up their clothes to redress as Simon commands, “Go.”
“Go?” I feel confused. “You’re coming with us.”
He smiles, but it looks strained as he takes my hand. “I will. I just have to destroy the terrible machine first and I can’t do it with you here.”
Why not?
I squeeze his hand. “Simon?—”
“Go, Asha. This is something only I can do. I’ve seen them restore themselves using the orb, I know how it works. But if you’re here, it will distract me, and I need absolute focus. Okay?”
I nod reluctantly. My head hurts. My whole body hurts, and it’s hard to breathe, but something feels wrong.
“Go. Go now, get as far as you can.” I convey my alarm with a look of urgency, but he assuages my fear with a smile. “Just so you’re out of reach of its influence.”
Out of its reach? “But you’ll be safe?”
He touches my cheek. “I love you. I promise we’ll be together.”
My men have been watching my brother and I. When my brother’s gaze meets theirs, a silent understanding seems to pass between them that I can’t figure out.
“Come on, Asha,” Max says, steering me toward the door.
“Hurry, as far as you can go,” Simon says, emphasizing each word in a tired voice.
We obey, racing from the mansion as quickly as we can manage, back down the dirt path towards the main road. As we reach the car, I feel a tremor beneath my feet. There’s a warm bloom of heat at my back, and I see our shadows cast against the pavement, traced in a terrible orange light. An impossibly loud sound comes, so loud that it swallows all other sounds.
I spin around to see the mansion ripped apart by an enormous explosion.
The dark magic permeating the air evaporates, but so, too, does my hope.
Simon’s dead.
NINETEEN
Asha
I react without thought, hurtling back towards the rubble as fast as my legs can propel me while each breath burns through my aching lungs and my body shakes. When I reach the mansion, it’s nothing but a heap of wood and brick and glass and concrete with little fires burning all around it. Impossible. No one could have survived.
I start digging through it. My fingers burn. My body protests.
“Asha,” Max says softly behind me. “It’s not possible that he–”
“I need to look for him.” I end the words on a sob.
A hand squeezes my shoulder. I look up into Braxton’s solemn face. “Rest. We’ll search.”
“No.” I shake my head and continue, although I’m getting nowhere. One brick at a time when there’s a thousand bricks isn’t going to even make a dent in this mess.
“The chances of him surviving are–”
Braxton cuts off Orson. “Not great.”
“I don’t care,” I say, which is when I realize I’m crying.
Glancing through my tears at the mess, I realize I need to do two things: switch to the area the room was for my searching, which is the most likely place I’ll find him, and somehow dig deep and use my magic to search. Doing it this way will lead to nothing.
