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RHYS
Igrit my teeth and focus back on my hands and the magic pouring out of them. This is fucked up. This whole situation is a nightmare. I don’t have a God damn clue what I’m doing. Any magic that I know is because Zara’s taught me about it, and here I am trying to fumble my way through the dark to help her with this. And yet, there is an instinctual component to it. I can feel the magic in that fucking brand on her back.
It makes my skin crawl to think that Zara’s had to walk around with this vile fucking tattoo on her body all these years. If I ever meet the Duke, I’m going to piss on his shoes and beat his face to a bloody pulp.
“Rhys, buddy.” Archer leaves Lena’s side and stands next to me, but I don’t want to be distracted. “There are shadows curling off that mark.”
Another drop of sweat drips down my face. I should remove my hands. We can reevaluate this plan and figure something out, but my instinct is rearing its head again. Something tells me that I shouldn’t let go. As if Zara senses the direction of my thoughts, she says, “Don’t let go.”
“Shadows?” I hiss out, feeling winded and exhausted.
“Yes. Could they have put them in the tattoo?”
“Yes,” is all Zara has to say.
“Does anyone have a fucking clue what to do here?” Ruby asks with a deceptively calm voice, but I know her too well; she’s this close to yelling at someone.
“Archer and I could help. I can try to heal her, and he can try to manipulate the shadows.”
Archer jerks his gaze toward Lena. “Luna, do you think it’s a good idea for me to be experimenting on a living being?”
“You’ve been working on your magic and manipulating the shadows for weeks now. You can do it.” Lena nods at him, so much trust and encouragement in her eyes. I want to give them shit for it, but now is not the time.
“Maybe Zara should have the final say.” I point out through gritted teeth.
“Yes. Just please, hurry.” Her breathing is rapid, and she sounds as fucking worn out as I am. I notice how hard her body is trembling and how pale her face is. We are a bunch of fucking amateurs playing around like we have any idea what we’re doing.
“Um, we’ll need to touch you Zara.”
“Fine, just do it,” she snaps out, her limbs trembling as she holds onto the back of the chair.
Archer raises his brows at me, but I ignore him, trying to keep a hold on the magic burning into my fingers. It’s this strange two-way street. I can feel the dark magic attached to Zara’s mark, but I can also feel my magic as I push against the darkness I feel. Ezra must have unlocked something when he started to tattoo her, because I never sensed any of this before now. Not that I would have known what to look for.
Lena and Archer move to the other side of Zara so that I’m facing them both. Lena links hands with Archer and then they place their free hands on Zara’s back. Lena’s breath stutters and her eyes flutter closed. Archer’s eyes narrow in on the mark, his face a mask of concentration as he stares at the shadows that are now more apparent than ever. They’re rising off Zara’s back, inky mist swirling up from the mark.
I keep my focus on my own magic, despite not knowing what the fuck we’re all doing. At the same time, I can feel the separate strands of magic coming from the other three. It’s as if they all have their own flavor. Archer’s is surprisingly warm, like sunshine.
There's no way I’m telling him that or he will literally give me shit about it for the rest of my life. Kind of like that time I got drunk and fell asleep next to a dumpster. He called me OTG, otherwise known as Oscar the Grouch forever. Up until I punched him for sneaking around with my sister, actually.
Lena’s magic is cooler, a healing chill to it. And I can feel that’s what she’s doing, pushing her healing energy into Zara as Archer attempts to pull out the shadows. All while I hold whatever fucking hex the Duke has on this mark at bay.
The most surprising magic is Zara’s. It’s a breeze on a warm day, the feel of sunlight breaking through leaves on a tree and dappling the ground with spots of light. Fuck. I think I might be a little lightheaded.
“Shit,” Archer grunts, leaning in a little more against Zara. That fucking mark is fighting us. He and Lena are both sweating now. We’re a damn mess.
“Keep going,” I grunt out, focusing on pushing more of my energy into Zara. She’s not making any noise, but her fingers are white where she’s clutching the edges of the chair. She’s starting to squirm as if the pain is so intense all she can do is shift to try to relieve some of it.
“No one stops. No matter what,” I bark out, afraid Archer might rip Lena away out of preservation, but we’re too deep into this magic now. I know if we stop, the outcome will be really fucking bad.
“Rhys.” Ruby says my name, but I ignore her.
My fingers are starting to go numb, the feeling of a million biting ants crawling up the skin of my hands burning so badly that I almost can’t feel it anymore. But it’s working. What we’re doing. It’s making an impact. I just don’t know how much longer we can keep this up.
“Rhys,” Ruby snarls at me, loud enough that I look away from Zara for a beat.
“What?” I snap back and a low growl comes from Ezra beside Ruby. We’ve all lost our fucking minds.
“She’s too pale.”
