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Thirty
Baine
I was going to kill her.
Tear her to pieces.
Kelia held a magical lasso around my neck, and even in wolf form, I couldn’t move. The only thing I cared about in this forsaken world was dying in front of me and I was helpless to stop it.
I’d been tricked. How could I think the magi would agree to any bargain? What I couldn’t understand was what was the purpose of this ritual? Farrow’s Gate wasn’t just another land, it bred wild magic, and no one knew what that wild magic would do if left uncontrolled. We were fools to think the magi would honor anything.
Rage consumed my body, heating me to the point that the burning noose around my neck did little to slow me down. I put one paw forward, inching closer toward the human I’d fallen for.
“No.” Kelia yanked on the noose, treating me like a domesticated beast.
Fine. I’ll bite you instead.
Without hesitation, I turned and leaped at Kelia, taking her off guard. She stumbled back but was quick enough to throw her free hand up and create a barrier that I slammed into.
The knock didn’t faze me, and I shook the hit off, stalking forward, growling, and letting her know she wouldn’t survive this encounter. There was no fear in her eyes, no regret, nothing but the cold hard determination of a stubborn human with a mission.
“Keep your paws off me or I will portal you into a mud pit in the vile south.”
Her threat did nothing. What did I care of being sent somewhere where decay and acrid rotting vegetation covered everything, when my heart was being destroyed in front of me?
“She will live. They both will.” Kelia swirled her hand in a circle, creating a swirling mass of blue light. “Now, sit.”
With a flick of her wrist, she hurled the glowing sphere at my face, knocking me backward and off my feet. The side of my face stung, and my muscles spasmed. I lay on the stone, my body convulsing.
The circle where Rosalie and Calvin sat was a cone of flame. I couldn’t see anything but their silhouettes. Rosalie had stopped screaming and lay slumped over her brother.
My heart ached.
No, not ached,broke.
Burned hair filled the air and my eyes watered at the smoke lifting from the center of that cone. The cyclone of fire shot up into the sky, blasting through the clouds. A beam of blue light coursed from the circle on the ground, pulsing, shimmering magic up into the sky. The colors swirled high above the clouds and spread out as far as I could see, until all at once, everything stopped.
With the fire gone, I could finally see Rosalie and Calvin. They still held hands, but slumped over each other, eyes closed, clothes smoking. At least the robes Lord Demious used for this ritual seemed magical.
Kelia released the noose around my neck. “They will need rest.”
Shaking out the dazed feeling in my body, I rolled to a sitting position until the numbing sensation dissipated, and I could shift back into my fae form. “What happened?”
I moved to Rosalie’s side, but she burned, and this time she was too hot to touch.
“It will get easier for them. They must perform this at the same time, every third cycle of the moon. They’ll be fine in a few minutes.” Kelia took out a rod and waved it in the air.
“You’re leaving?”
“There’s nothing more for me to do here. The magi are not your enemy. It would do you well to remember that.” The portal opened and she stepped through, disappearing, and leaving me with many questions.
“Baine!” Marco ran toward me, out of breath. “What was that? I was out by the eastern gate when I saw something shoot into the sky. Whoa, are they?”
“They’re alive.” I reached out to touch Rosalie’s face. The heat had lessened, making her skin warm but not scolding. “I don’t understand what happened. Lord Demious did nothing like this.”
Marco kneeled beside me. “Different powers. I don’t know. Should we move them?”
Slipping Rosalie into my arms, I stood. “Take him inside to his room and have the servants tend to him.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the lake.”
