CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Astaroth
Screams ebbed from the center of the labyrinth and ricocheted off the walls before I felt her return. I opened a portal but dropped to my knees atop the wall before I could step inside. Excruciating pain, the likes I’d never felt, engulfed every inch of my body inside and out. I struggled to shield our link so I could get to her, but her pull on my life source instantly weakened me. I couldn’t control my magic. The portal dissipated. My ability to do anything but cower and shake was gone. I gripped the stone to keep from falling into the water below, tapped into the realm’s magic, and greedily sucked it down, leaving it wide open for Calista to pull from.
“Be still. Let the realm heal you.”
When I could stand, I portaled straight to her screams. Once again, I was outside the garden. Only it wasn’t raining here. Theclouds circled the city, leaving it untouched while it rampaged through the corridors. Her cries drew my brethren from their beds. Shouts could be heard from within the city as they rushed to the castle. I entered the tunnel before they arrived, unencumbered by the bloodsuckles demanding their tithe, and ran toward the garden. How did she get here? Magic couldn’t be used in the garden. Were the vines turning on her? Was that the cause of her dwindling pain?
I exited the tunnel and paused in disbelief. The vines stretched as far as they could go, almost ripping to gain more ground. A brilliant blue portal hovered in front of the tree. Pixies flickered wildly in the branches like the energy shooting through the clouds in rhythm with the realm’s song. Magic continued to pour through me to Calista as she limped through the field. It had never allowed it before. The realm was turning inside out, and I didn’t know what to make of it.
I could feel the crippling agony with every breath that gasped from her lungs, in every step as she cried in pain. And with each one, she grew stronger and more upright as her wounds healed. She was a force to be reckoned with. What would my reckoning be for pushing her to this extreme?
My queen.
She faced me with a whimper. Blisters filled the gaps between patches of raw skin where her clothing hadn’t melted to her body. Wounds I caused that healed before my eyes. Even I had never healed this quickly before.
You’ll never make it through that portal, love.
“Leave me alone!” She limped faster trying to run until her legs finally started working.
You’ll bounce off and further injure yourself.
Calista glanced over her shoulder and nearly tripped. I gained ground.
I’ll never let you go, Cali. You promised me!
“Words of child!”
Words of a woman.
“A manipulated woman.”
I love you.
“You love yourself!”
I can’t exist without you anymore.
Her feet faltered, but she kept moving.
I can feel you, Cali! I know you love me, too.
A wall slammed between us with such force it knocked me off my feet.
“Calista!” I jumped up and sprinted as fast as I could, pulling the magic to me to blip in front of her, but it fizzled every time. So, the realm would allow me to give it to Calista within the sacred garden, but not myself?
“Get out of my life,” she panted.
“Too late. We share one.”
A whisper drifted through the garden. The ground shook, and a pulse of energy expanded outward, causing the grasses to sway. Pixies shot out of the tree in my direction. They swarmed me, and that high-pitched whine began. I gripped the sides of my head as a ward popped up around me and threw myself against it, breaking its hold. They flew off to join Calista as I stumbled toward her, but I didn’t make it in time. The portal rippled as they slipped inside.
I approached it with uncertainty. For the first time, not only could I feel the realm, but I could also hear the song for what it truly was. Crystalline and sharp, the mesmeric resonance trilled through me and strummed my life source. Gone was the emptiness and disconnectedness. I was one with… everything.
Faery was here, and I wanted all of it.
Calista
