Page 56 of The Endless One

“Do you really believe that?” Jessamine whispered. “Because I spoke with Elric and it didn’t seem… Well, I don’t think it was all that good. There’s something going on in his mind, and I don’t know what it is.”

“The Deathless One has his reasons.”

“The Deathless One doesn’t tell me everything, and neither do you.” The comfort of the bed clung to her. She wanted to stay a few more moments curled up in a ball, then she would feel better. Surely all she had to do was linger underneath the covers, and the rest of the world would fix itself. “Sybil. I just… He couldn’t even tell me everything would be all right.”

The dark witch hesitated as well, and that was when Jessamine knew without a doubt that they both knew something she didn’t.

But unlike the dark god, who sometimes hid everything he could until the very last moment, Sybil had never been a liar. She was a friend first, and a coven witch second.

So Sybil sat down on the edge of the bed and sighed. “No one can promise you everything is going to be fine, because none of us know that it will. A spell like this has never been done before. We have a way to get magic from Elric. Siphoning it through you is something we’ve never even tried, so we don’t have any idea what it will do to either of you.”

“So, should we do it?”

Jessamine held Sybil’s gaze, waiting for the reassurance that this was the right thing. That yes, they should go through with this. It was the only choice they could make, after all. They were ensuring that there was enough power siphoning into the coven. They had their kingdom back. Inverholm might be sleeping, but all they had to do was destroy Ajax and get the souls of all those who had been stuffed into their homes back.

They could make this work. It would be hard, but they could do it.

Except… none of those reassurances came. Instead, Sybil just reached out and patted her hip. “I think we need to get you out of bed, fed, and ready to face the day. That’s what I think.”

Tears burned in her eyes, but she’d already had her breakdown this morning. Sybil was right. Jessamine needed to be the queen they all expected her to be.

This coven needed a leader. She’d made her choice.

But as she planted her hand against the bed to sit up, she found she couldn’t. There was no leverage to push herself upright, and that… that was concerning.

“Sybil?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from showing the panic that suddenly rocked through her. “Can you help me sit up?”

“You need help?”

“Yes, please.”

Sybil reached for her waist and helped her sit up, and then the two of them stared at the mess of Jessamine’s hands.

There was just darkness from her wrists down. The more she looked at them, the more the shadows looked like Elric’s magic. But it was leaking out of her body. Dripping where there should have been fingers but where it was now just an inky mess. Like her body was starting to disintegrate.

Jessamine lifted a hand, watching as a drop of that liquid beaded up at the tip of her pointer finger and then dripped off. Beneath the dark magic, for the barest hint of a second, all she could see were her bones.

“What is happening to me?” she whispered, her voice shaking in fear.

“I don’t know,” Sybil replied, but her eyes didn’t linger on the exposed skeletal frame. Almost as though she couldn’t stand to look at what was happening.

“I was… I was in Elric’s realm just a few moments ago. He had me absorb his magic so that both of us were as glutted as we could be for the ceremony that would follow. I didn’t think… I didn’t think it would do this.” She stammered through the words, trying to find some semblance of reasoning for what was happening.

But there was no reasoning. Her hands were gone. All that remained were delicate, fine bones.

“My eyes,” Jessamine asked. “Is it coming out of my eyes as well?”

“No, princess. It is not.”

“Sybil, what the fuck is happening to me?”

The witch stood abruptly, staggering across the room to the window that she flung open, and shoved her head out. There was the faintest sound of gagging before Sybil finally pulled herself together. “Magic has a cost, I suppose? It could be that. It could be that you’re not supposed to house so much magic, and it’s eating away at your form.”

“I’ve had magic before. This isn’t the same as that. I feel fine.” She lifted her hands, watching some of the liquidy magic slide down and reveal the tips of her skeletal fingers. “But it’s never done this before.”

Sybil gagged again and looked back out the window. “I need you to not do that.”

“It’s my body. Don’t you think I’d be the most horrified one in this room?”