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“I’ll also depart your company here,” Maelle said. “It will take me at least ten minutes to construct the invisibility net, and probably another five to get through his barriers.” Her gaze came to mine, her eyes flat. Lifeless. “Can you last that long?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
She opened the door and disappeared into the scrub lining the side of the road. I undid my seat belt and leaned across to close the door. As I did, tiny moonlit threads encircled my wrist, pulsing with life, strength, and awareness.
Katie.
You are not alone, she said. We are with you.
“Which is the last thing I need—he’s already warned me against using the wild magic.”
I shoved the SUV back into gear and lightly pressed the accelerator, all but crawling forward. The longer I took to get up to the farmhouse, the less time I’d have to survive him.
He may sense a major wave of wild magic, but he will not sense this link.
“And how will that help?” Up ahead, lights glowed, a welcoming warmth that belied the darkness waiting within.
If you allow it, Gabe can come through and share his magical knowledge.
“Come through? As in, his spirit will leave the clearing and start sharing my body space?”
A mix of doubt and trepidation filled my voice. Allowing spirits to share body space generally didn’t work out that well for those who weren’t strong spirit talkers. Gabe wouldn’t intentionally harm me—and he certainly wouldn’t attempt to oust my spirit and claim my body as his own—but there were certainly many other dangers. I didn’t have my link with Belle to fall back on, and such a merger took a serious toll on the body’s strength—a dangerous thing when mine was already way down.
>
It’s only a partial merger—he can never fully leave the clearing. He is irrevocably bound to the wellspring.
Meaning what he intended was something along the lines of what I did with Belle when I needed her to see through my eyes. “Even with Gabe’s knowledge, I’m not sure it’ll help counter Clayton’s power—”
You have more magical strength than you know, came Gabe’s comment. It may not have lived up to your parents’ expectations, but do you really think someone such as Clayton would have wanted the marriage if you were truly underpowered?
“If that’s true, why didn’t it show up when I was tested?”
I crawled around a corner and brought the SUV to a brief stop. The trees on either side of the road had fallen away, and the house on the hill was fully visible. It was a long ranch house style brick building with wraparound verandas and not a skerrick of shrubbery or trees around it to hinder a view that probably went for kilometers on a clear day. Even at night, it was the perfect spot for such a confrontation.
I suspect the presence of the wild magic in your DNA may have stymied your natural magic, Gabe said, but with puberty, those restraints began to fade. It would also explain why the spell that saved you from Clayton was infused with wild magic.
It made as much sense as any theory I’d come up with.
You only need to use your magic and Gabe’s knowledge to block whatever Clayton intends for however long it takes Maelle to rescue Belle came Katie’s comment. After that, you can deploy the wild magic.
But not to kill—and not just because that would have Maelle’s need for revenge twist onto me. A death-based act of revenge would irrevocably stain the wild magic.
“Fine,” I said. “What do I do?”
Nothing more than what you do when you wish to share sensory awareness with Belle. Gabe can see and react through you, but it will be your magic rather than his or the wild magic.
I hoped she wasn’t overestimating my magic. This could all go to hell in a handbasket very quickly if she was.
After a deep breath that did little to calm the inner churning, I reached psychically through the wild magic’s connection for Gabe’s spirit. His energy flowed down the link and then fused with mine—not so deeply that his spirit shared body space, but deep enough that he could use his skill and direct my magic while seeing through my eyes.
It felt weird. Felt like I was present in my body and yet standing apart.
You’re in control, Gabe said, his words echoing loudly through my brain, I will only intervene as necessary.
I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary, but that was a futile hope, and we all knew it. Things would get nasty, especially once Belle was freed, and it was very possible none of us was going to be magically strong enough. Maybe I should have asked Aiden for a goddamn gun… My gaze went to my backpack and, after a slight hesitation, I drew out my silver knife and tucked it into the back of my jeans. A last resort if all else failed.
