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My eyes widened and I yelped, dropping the book as I finished chanting the spell.
Cassius froze where he stood, gaping up at me. “Y-You—”
I threw up one hand. “Stay away! I hate you!”
Firepouredfrom my palm in heavy, orange-white torrents toward Cassius. It lit books on fire. The rugs. Desks. Everything on its way to Cassius and all items around him.
Cassius leapt at the last minute off the balcony, landing on the first floor with a look of utter shock on his face. “Lazarus will see your end.”
He wasafraidof me. Why? Because of a little magic?
I froze as a silky, smooth voice whispered in my ear.“He fears what’s come to answer your call, Aisling.”
“What?” I whispered. “Who are you?
Seeking tendrils slid up my ankles. I yelped again, shuffling away from where I stood and looking down. Nothing was there. Not a single tendril oranything. But I could have sworn something had been grabbing me!
“Only you can sense me,”the voice intoned.“I am within you. I’m answering your call.”
“Whatcall?” I spat.
“Lazarus!” Cassius yelled out of the broken library door.
I stumbled back a few more steps, but it felt like I’d run into someone. I spun around—no one was there. “What is happening?”
“That book,”the voice said.“You summoned me to aid you. I heard your call for freedom. For safety, Aisling.”
My eyes went wide. “Mywhat?” I’d just read a spell. An ancient one that looked like it was just going to turn me into a shadow or something, and then I could hide forever. Be free. Escape. Besafe.
I gulped as I realized it. The voice was right. But… “Are you the shadow in the image?”
“Yes, Aisling.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I know everything about you.”
My gaze darted between the now-burned book I’d been reading and Cassius, who had begun storming up the stairs to me again now that the flames had gone away. Blood dripped from my neck onto my fingertips. Crimson. The only currency in a place like this.
Therehadto be more to life than blood and vampires.
“I don’t know what I did,” I started as Cassius approached once more. “But I accept your help. If you can get me out of this fucking hell, I’ll owe you for life.”
A soft chuckle reached my ears—darker than I should have been excited about.“As you wish, Aisling. I help you, you help me. For life.”
Fire burst from my hands again. An instinct took over, one telling me I knew how to control this magic, like it’d always been mine.
The shadow’s magic. It had to have been its magic.
But now it was atmyfingertips.
I threw my palms forward and a wave of fire shot toward Cassius again. A current of power that coursed through me unlike anything before. I craved that power. The sense of control it gave me, no matter its mysterious source.
“There you go, love,”the voice said.“We’ll be free from here in no time. My name is Mrak. And you are mine.”
I should have read the fine print.
The fire poured over Cassius, but I scooped up the ancient book and kept walking. Past him, past the flames, and out of the library with the bag of gems hanging from my wrist and the book in my hands, one singular page burnt. It was my body moving, my feet contacting the stone floor with every step, but it was like something else was inside me, forcing me to move forward despite the fear and desperation clawing at my chest.
