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The smoke around me darkened. Thick plumes unfurled into the sky. My magic began to flow out of me. It felt thick and dirty, like mud. I paused. This wasn’t right. I wasn’t supposed to be doing this. My energy didn’t feel the same as what I created when I drained my body of my unused powers. This was a separation. A permanent removal.
My magic scrambled to hold on, dragging its nails against my insides as I released it into the stone. It squeezed my windpipe closed, but I’d stopped breathing the moment Seth lifted Audrey into his arms. It didn’t matter anymore. Soon my magic would be gone, as would my connection to Audrey and every memory I had of her, along with the never-ending pain. Then I would leave. I couldn’t stay in Zodiac Cove after this. Better to cut ties and start over. Try to figure out who the hell I was when I wasn’t in love with Audrey Raynor.
There was a tightening around my waist. Something warm flowed into me, a peaceful, complete feeling. I paused again. As my hand slipped away from the emerald, my magic scrambled back, filling me once more. The stone dulled. I looked down, but didn’t see anything. I raised my hand to touch the emerald once more and the tightening happened again.
This time I heard it. Audrey shouted my name, quietly, as if she was trying to reach me from the end of a long tunnel. It sounded like she was crying. I glanced behind me. The Audrey enveloped in Seth’s arms gave me a look of pure loathing. Even when she was at her maddest, she’d never looked at me like that. She’d never hated me. Not really. She hated how much she couldn’t hate me, and that wasn’t anything close to the same thing.
None of this was real.
The smoke reared back, darkening as it roiled and built strength in preparation to attack my mind once more. It dove for me, but this time I was ready. I shot two bolts of lightning out of my hands, which cut through the fumes like an electric knife. It burst apart and fell to the ground like bits of scattered ash.
I turned to Not-Seth and Not-Audrey. Fear entered their eyes as I pointed my palms toward the ground and let loose two more bolts of lightning. These traveled under the earth, rolling the dirt and dead grass, before launching beneath their feet.
Bright green sparks encased the two of them, melting their skin and stripping them down to bones. Smoke poured out of their skeletal mouths. They flickered between solid and translucent before bursting apart and disappearing into a dark fog. When the black haze evaporated, the real Audrey stood in front of me, putting herself between me and the cave.
“Is that you?” Tears streaked her face as she clutched the front of my shirt, twisting the material in her fingers until they turned white. She searched my eyes, panic gripping her expression. “Are you back?”
“I’m back.” My throat was so dry it hurt to talk. “I’m here.”
“You idiot.” She flung her entire body against mine, knocking us to the ground. She buried her face in my neck, kissing me over and over again. “I tried to reach you, but you were gone.” She sat up and shoved her hands against my chest as she straddled me. “You scared the shit out of me. I told you never to leave me again.”
“Don’t have a lot of control there.”
“Yes, you do.” Fresh tears filled her eyes. “Trust me, believe in us. If you hold on to your doubt, it will always find a way in. Don’t let it.”
I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. She was right. I was an idiot. She may not have said she loved me, but she’d been showing me with her trust, with her forgiveness, with the light that entered her eyes every time she looked at me. That’s why the curse hadn’t been able to pull her under. Because her faith in me hadn’t wavered.
This whole time I’d been fearing the very thing I was guilty of myself. She trusted me, but I hadn’t trusted her. I hadn’t believed in us. The curse might’ve loaded the gun, but I was the one who fed it all the ammunition it needed.
I sat up, resting my forehead against hers. “I’m sorry, baby. I fucked up.”
“Don’t do it again.” She hugged me, fitting her body perfectly against mine. “I’m a hundred percent in. I need you in with me, too.”
How could I have doubted this connection between us for even a second? While we had a history and baggage, none of that could erase what we had together. Audrey was my soulmate. Our magic knew it long before we’d ever been born.
“I’m in.” I kissed the curve of her neck. “A hundred percent.”
She held me tighter. “I love you.”
The words I’d been waiting my whole life to hear drained the last bit of tension from my sore and tired muscles. I gave her a half-grin. “Don’t say it unless you mean it.”
“I mean it.” Her bright eyes softened. “I love you.”
“One more time for me, baby.”
“I love you, Wes Latham.” She held my jaw, rubbing her hands over my two-day-old stubble. “It’s always been you for me, too.”
I plunged my hands into her hair and captured her mouth with mine. She poured every bit of feeling she had for me into her kiss, melting her body against mine. Nothing could break this. She was mine and I was hers, two halves of a whole.
And I’d never doubt her again.
Sparks flared from our palms, circling us in a swirl of green and gold stardust. My eyes widened as our colors began to meld together. Gold encased green and vice versa. It whipped around us, faster and faster, raising our hair, darting between our bodies. My skin hummed with a melody older than time. One that had been born at the beginning of everything, when the stars first joined to form constellations. As our magic flowed back into us, our light changed. Audrey and I held the same green-tinted golden glow.
I turned my palm skyward and called down the rain.
“Oh my God.” Audrey tipped her face up and laughed as water streaked her face. “We have each other’s powers now.”
Audrey sent streaks of lightning dancing across the brown grass. I chased her lightning with my own, and they knotted together, forming an electrical net that gave off enough light to cut through any amount of darkness. That could be useful the next time the smoke tried to rise above our heads. Audrey sent her ice hurtling toward my rain. Our powers tangled against each other and expanded, coating the entire circle in an inch-thick sheet of ice.
