Page 154 of The Bonds of Indigo

“An item? Simple enough.”

“I believe… it belongs to your mother.”

That’s unexpected. “Okay. What is it?”

“Verraketh.”

My eyes narrow into slits. “What could you possibly want with that thing?”

“Something is coming, and I require it to stop the person who’s going to cause a great deal of suffering.”

Her heart pounds, betraying her otherwise calm demeanor. Not because she’s lying, but because something new rolls off her. An emotion I haven’t felt from her yet. Fear, maybe.

“Verraketh, and I’ll grant you passage, Lucifer.”

I don’t hesitate. “Done.”

My father wants me to go, which means my mother will ensure it happens. A mirror she has hanging in her room won’t be what stops me from entering the Vayl.

“Zuhara.” I call for my Familiar, and in an instant, she materializes in a billow of black smoke. Amarah’s attention snaps to the oversized cat, and she smiles.

“Master?” Zuhara bows her head.

“Retrieve Verraketh from my mother, please.”

Zuhara doesn’t waste a second—though she lingers just long enough to look at the Witch—before slipping back into the Phantasm.

“Beautiful Familiar,” Amarah murmurs. “I’ve never met one.”

“She’s a pain in my ass, but thank you. She’d appreciate that.”

When our eyes meet again, I’m tempted to reach out and tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. Or drag her dress slightly over her shoulder so I can see those collarbones more thoroughly. But the moment the courage comes to me to do it, her guardian creature growls.

Amarah steps back from me seconds after, creating more distance. She turns away, giving me her back as she looks up at the night sky.

“I’ll open the passage to the Valley,” she says softly. “Furthest from the Vayl’s stairway. You shouldn’t run into any warriors.”

Her hands stretch wide, palms facing the ground. Static electricity bursts from the soil and races up into them. Magic is an extraordinary power, one most beings can’t channel anymore—many die from touching it directly—but it wraps around her fingers and crawls across her skin like she was born with it braided into her veins.

Static cracks through the clearing, and Zuhara leaps back into this world.

“Your mother says she wishes it returned in the future.”

Our futures span eternity, so I nod. Once the girl dies, I’ll retrieve it and bring it back.

Zuhara approaches and drops the hand mirror into my palm. Immediately, the tree creature stomps over and thrusts its massive hand toward me.

“Alright, alright.”

I place the mirror into its wooden palm and shake my head. When I look back at Amarah, she’s smiling at me—soft, sweet, almost blinding.

“Thanks,” she says.

I nod, and give her a wink. “No, thank you.”

As she looks away from me, I turn my attention to Zuhara. Only now do I notice she’s scanning the world around us. It wasn’t just me who lost Kayn that day. She did too. Being here isn’t what either of us wants; it drags up the memory of what we were forced to lose.

What I was forced to give up…