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The Shriek surged forward as Yvonne and I struggled to get to our feet and that gray, billowing smoke surrounded us. However, this time I felt a shift in the air; an unnatural drain of energy that whispered of danger and violence.
Then, suddenly, I couldn't breathe.
My first instinct was to panic, but I clamped down on that with everything I had. I could last for quite a while without breathing, and I still needed to get my head straight. I couldn't worry about if the spell were affecting anyone else in the room. I couldn't even worry about how I would break it. I just had to give the Shriek all that I had.
Reaching out with my magic, I concentrated it much like I had with Mad Dog. But this time, instead of trying to heal the Shriek, I plunged into him with one thought on my mind.
Destroy.
I’d been so afraid to have my magic directly interact with the Shriek, considering how it had neutralized my own previously, but I couldn’t hold back, I couldn’t be afraid. And honestly, knowing that he hadn’t summoned some ancient and arcane knowledge to curse me, instead just using a piece of himself, made me so much less afraid of him.
He’d cut himself into pieces, and for what? To curse a baby? Was that the only way he could think of killing the king and queen of Vekas? How incredibly stupid, weak, and overwrought.
“What are you—”
My magic plunged into the Shriek, cutting off whatever he had been about to say. I made my energy spread out, planning on ripping the Shriek apart from the inside. But what I didn’t plan for was the Shriek’s own magic grabbing mine with all it had and yanking.
Without warning, I was pulled into the metaphysical depths of my enemy like he was trying to devour me right back. I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering how he’d chosen to curse me, but it was a feeling completely unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
Thousands upon thousands of writhing, wriggling tentacles clung to my magic, clambering up the tether connecting it to me, like it wanted to consume me whole. It was an up-close exposure to the Shriek’s endless hunger that was chilling to witness.
But I wasn’t going to just let it absorb me without a fight. Scratch that. I wasn’t going to let him do that at all.
I called up that same purifying spell I’d used in Blath, building it up as quickly as I could. Because every second that passed was another second I felt the Shriek bite into me, climbing ever closer to that wellspring of life within and, unlike when Kai shared his energy with me, I didn’t want him to reach that sacred place. It was far too easy to envision the Shriek poisoning all of it, turning me into the shade of a person he was.
Finally, the purification spell had built up enough to send it roiling through every bit of my body. It blazed like the sun, burning through the strange not-quite-flesh of my enemy.
Yet as my magic scourged the Shriek, I felt myself yanked deeper into him—deeper until I was dragged into a swirling vortex within him.
In one aspect, I was aware that my body was still in the middle of the royal chambers we’d broken into, but it also felt like I was swirling somewhere else entirely—somewhere I was never meant to be.
Lights and colors flashed in front of my eyes in rapid succession. At first, I couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it, but after a few beats, it began to clarify into actual imagery.
It was nothing as clear as whole scenes, but like glimpses into a dream I was never meant to see.
A glowing entity above me, resplendent, as words great and terrible tumbled from its many mouths.
Indescribable power radiating up my veins, too hot, too much for my body to contain. and yet my body wasn’t actually my body. It was masculine, far tanner than I was, and layered with corded muscle.
Rejection flooding through me as a woman walked away, her clothes fine but ancient, like something I would have seen in a museum.
Being surrounded by books, searching, searching, searching, always looking for more answers, more hidden knowledge.
The flash of a blade in my hand across a man’s throat, his blood spilling across the altar I’d built to myself. That same power I’d felt before licking the flames inside; a drug I’d been craving for decades.
Standing in the center of a burning town, screams of agony and terror all around me. The flood of adrenaline, of delicious power flooding my veins. I was in ecstasy.
The visions all began to pick up, faster and faster, yet losing no clarity. I saw the faces of victims pulled back in fear. In shock. Begging for their lives. Some resigned to it. I saw the backs of those who tried to run. Saw the failed attacks of those that tried to fight.
Then I saw a large wolf with fur just like mine, snarling as his wife cast spells beside him. They were fighting, holding me back, trying to stall for time as a hooded figure absconded with a wailing baby. I tried to get around the couple, as I knew that child was the closest I would get to a pure bloodline connection, my special curse growing within her, but the wolf latched onto me, its teeth sinking in.
That wasn’t supposed to be possible. Somehow, I knew that, just as I knew it must have been the meddling witch of a queen. I was seeing my parents. Fighting for me. Trying to give me time to get away to someplace the Shriek couldn’t touch.
I saw him kill them.
“No!” I cried, stumbling forward. I could feel my spell slipping as I did. I had never given much thought to my parents before, but I’d never thought that they had sacrificed their lives for me. Somehow, they must have found out about the Shriek’s scheming and spirited me away to Zara to protect me from him. A plan that would work for many years.
No wonder my coven was so upset when I fled, had even searched for me. I’d always wondered why I would feel their scrying spells trying to find me even a year after I left, when they’d always made it clear I was nothing more than a hindrance to them. But now I knew. They had a sworn duty to not only the king and queen of Vekas, but also a responsibility to the rest of the continent. The best way to stop the Shriek was to make sure he never got a hold of me.
