Aurora faced her uncle, a smile stretching her lips. “What am I still doing here? I came to find you.”
His brow furrowed in confusion, and Auroraunleashed Gia’s power. Waving her arms, she sent magic barreling into Stan’s advisors, sending them flying.
Stan staggered, horror breaking over his face. “What?”
Aurora didn’t hesitate. She sent a stunning spell straight for his chest.
He got his shit together in time to block it, his beady eyes narrowing. “How?” he snarled.
Aurora wrapped a silencing spell around his throat. She’d heard more than enough from him.
Eyes bulging, Stan struck, hitting Aurora in the shoulder. She cried out at the pain and struck back, taking her uncle out at the knees.
Hands tangled in Aurora’s hair from behind, and she lurched backward, stumbling into her mother’s clutches. Stan got to his feet, his face red with fury.
Virginia muttered a counter-spell, freeing Stan’s voice.
“Kill her,” he rasped, clutching his throat.
Aurora felt her mother stiffen behind her. Was she hesitating? Even after leaving Aurora for dead underground?
The hands gripping Aurora’s hair went slack, and her mother toppled to the side. Aurora managed to pull away and turned to see Gia rising from the ground, power glowing at her fingertips.
It wasn’t hesitation or a change of heart. Virginia had been stunned.
Aurora and Gia’s eyes locked, and the power flowing between them flared. Aurora faced her uncle, his advisors flanking him once more. She stunned the one on the left as blood bloomed across the chest of the one on the right. He screamed, clawing at his shirt in confusion.
That must have been Gia’s doing.
Stan roared, striking Aurora with a blast of power. She was knocked on her ass, but all she did was laugh, hysteria bubblinginside her. She wasn’t the real threat here, and Stan could do nothing to keep her incapacitated for long.
Not with Gia by her side.
Blood bloomed on Stan’s chest, and he screamed. More cuts speared across his cheeks and arms, blood soaking his clothes. Howling, he dropped to his knees.
Gia held out a hand to help Aurora up. “How much of his blood do you need?”
“Not much.” Aurora heaved to her feet.
Gia curled her fingers, and Stan was dragged forward by an invisible force until he slumped, whimpering at her feet. Aurora grabbed his bloody cheeks and covered her palms in his blood.
“That’ll be enough,” she told Gia, stunning Stan and tossing him aside. “Cover me?”
Gia nodded, moving in close, and Aurora knelt on the ground, digging her fingers into the grass. She searched for the binding linking the Thornfield Coven to this cursed earth, and when she found it, she sent Gia’s considerable power into it, burning the blood binding from the inside out, picking apart each thread of the spell. The enforced hierarchy. The leader’s control. The restriction on magic. The intricate knots keeping them prisoner.
Grass crisped beneath her fingers as she worked, checking for every possible link in the magic. The soil beneath Aurora grew hot. Heat radiated around her, fiercer than the summer sun. Her palms burned, and she had to fight to keep her hands in place, but she wouldn’t let up until the binding was broken.
There was no stopping now.
Aurora bit her lip, vaguely aware of Gia blasting someone away. The dirt burned even hotter beneath her fingers, but she didn’t let go. With a strangled cry, she sent one last jolt of Gia’s power into the earth. Into the blood binding.
The blood coating her hands—her uncle’s blood—turned toflame, and fire shot from Aurora’s palms out along the grass, flames roaring in the four cardinal directions as something seemed to snap deep within her.
Aurora jolted away from the flames. She cradled her hands, surprised to see them unharmed, clean of her uncle’s blood, and free of burns.
Gia gripped her shoulder, hauling her upright. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” She gripped Aurora’s elbow for support. “You?”
