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And it was—yet again—very, very angry.
“Fucking hell,” Belle whispered. “It really is aware.”
“Yeah.” I flexed my fingers, trying to ease not only tension but also the odd and unexpected tingle heating their tips. It was almost as if the wild forces were already gathering around them. “The question is, is that sentience coming from the wild magic itself, or from whatever Gabe has done to it?”
She hesitated. “There’s definitely some sort of outside force woven into its fibers, but I’m not sensing it’s specifically male. And surely we would, given wild magic is inherently ascribed as a feminine force.”
“Except that what we’re dealing with here is a rather large and well-developed wellspring,” I said. “So if Gabe did weave some sort of spell into or around it, its presence will be muted by the sheer force that surrounds it.”
“Maybe.” She frowned. “Let’s just hope that whatever the reason, it doesn’t interfere with our plans.”
And if it did…. I firmly thrust the rest of that thought away. I really didn’t want to think of the possible consequences in any way, shape, or form right now.
The darkness grew heavier as the trees closed in on the road, their arching branches inhibiting the moon’s light but not its power. Like the wild magic, it sang through my veins, but it was a power that wouldn’t help us when it came to our confrontation with Waverley. Given he was a witch as much as a vampire, he’d be feeling the moon’s strength as keenly as either of us.
We followed the road for another half a mile or so before instinct stirred and I slowed, looking for the path I’d taken the last two times I’d journeyed up to that clearing. After a few seconds, I spotted it, and headed in. As the shadows deepened to ink, I once again stopped.
The time had come.
I pulled off my footwear, shoved my socks into my boots, and then tied them to my backpack. After digging my toes into the soft soil to both ground myself and to provide a deeper connection with the force I was about to call up, I took a deep breath and simply said, Come to me.
For several seconds, nothing happened. My fingertips continued to burn, but the sentient force that had been trailing us since we’d entered this place neither responded nor retreated.
I flung my arms out and repeated the plea.
It came.
And with such force that I staggered back several steps. All I felt, all I could see, was the energy that poured into me. It stretched the very fibers of my being to the point of unviability, until it seemed inevitable that I would shatter into a thousand different pieces, becoming just a soul locked within the force I had called.
But just as the point of no return loomed, the magic snapped away and I returned to myself. My entire body trembled with physical weakness, but there was nothing weak about the force now residing within me. The sheer weight of it—the sheer power of it—was frightening. It was the fiercest storm ever created, a volcano on the verge of eruption, the heat of the ground under my feet and strength of the forest around us. No human was ever meant to contain this sort of power. No human was ever meant to control it.
And it was in me.
A part of me.
And as angry as all fuck.
At Waverly. At what he had done. At what he was now doing.
I had control, but I had to wonder for how long. The wild magic—or whatever was causing the cognizance we were sensing within it—wanted to erase his presence from not just this reservation, but from the world itself.
But the wellspring could be irrevocably stained by such an action—and that was the one thing we desperately needed to avoid.
I took a deep breath that did little to ease the growing fear and trepidation, and glanced around at Belle.
Her face was pale and her expression filled with a mix of awe and fear. “Your eyes… they’re glowing silver.”
“It shouldn’t be a problem, given I’ve the coloring of a blueblood and he hasn’t seen me. I’m only surprised the rest of me isn’t glowing.” The words came out scratchy—harsh. My throat was raw and burned, and I had a very bad feeling the rest of me would soon be in a similar state if I didn’t quickly release the wild magic. “We’d better go.”
She
nodded. I turned and led the way. Despite the utter darkness, I could see as clearly as if it were day. Our progress was faster than any other time I’d come through here, simply because no trees or shrubs snagged at us—the branches simply drew back as we approached, giving us an unhindered path to follow.
The wild magic was ensuring we reached the clearing as quickly as possible.
The ground once again began to slope upwards and up ahead, flickering through the trees, was a warm, golden light. The teasing hint of smoke on the air told me it was from a fire rather than from a wisp or even magic. That suggested he was concentrating all his endeavors on containment and whatever other spells he might have waiting for us.
Ready? I asked silently.
