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Chapter 12
Static buzzed across my skin, and the telltale signs of dark magic licked the length of my spine. I held myself strong, ignoring the shivers, the doubts, the dread coiling in my head. We had to do this now, and that meant showing no fear, controlling my emotions, and working fast without a distraction. When Mom used to practice using her power, she’d became a different person with a blankexpression.
I called out, “The negative energy sent to you shall be revoked. Returned to the individual who cast it, threefold.” I spoke directly to Talin, who sat in a chair in the middle of the hallway near the staircase. The herb and blood concoction smeared his cheeks and brow, giving him a tribal look. He wasn’t shaking or flinching but held a look of determination. His mouth was thin and tight, while a cord of muscle in his neck pulsed. My earlier admiration of Talin just went up a notch as he sat there, brave, ready. No running away or poking fun atmagic.
Around us, his brothers fanned out. Far enough and positioned to avoid a reflection in the mirror, but close enough should Talin goferal.
Please, Goddess, fill me with your strength. Give me the power to eradicate thisspell.
I turned to the bowl of water placed on a chair behind me and lowered my palm over the surface. At once, a charge skipped across the surface and crackled up my arm, as if a dozen spiders sank their fangs into my flesh at once. I winced but bit down on my lower lip until I tasted the metallic taste ofblood.
Show no weakness. No hesitation.My gutclenched.
I collected the consecrated mirror out of the water by the handle. A sharp ache swept up and over my shoulder from the mirror. A dull hum played in my ears like mosquitoes, and I squirmed inside. Except this wasn’t the time foremotions.
Hexes were nasty things that always fought back. So I had to stay strong and called to my power. It trickled over myskin.
Thrusting the mirror toward Talin, the reflection facing him, I bellowed, “I repel this curse. Return to yourowner.”
At first, nothing happened. Then a thread of black energy coiled out of the mirror, swinging left and right as a blind worm might do whenunsoiled.
I trembled, my breath caught in my chest, and fought to find my voice. “Re…Retract your curse. You do not belong here. You have the wrongperson.”
The mirror in my hand trembled, and I tightened my grip. “I revoke you. Return tosender.”
Power surged into my palm. At once, golden shards of energy shot out of my hand and engulfed the mirror in a flamingball.
The object shook harder, pulled in the opposite direction as if someone else held on to the top. I grasped the handle with both hands, keeping it facing Talin. My muscles ached, screaming forrelease.
Bastard!Curses didn’t usually fight this hard, and the dread trickled into my mind that I’d made a mistake. That the spell could spin against me, and I’d harm someone. My teeth locked tight. I couldn’t stop or reverse time because I didn’t know the full extent of the curse. Who’d placed it? What ingredients had they used? Had a sacrifice beenmade?
I forced everything I had into the mirror. “Curse, begone!”
On the last word, an explosion of black tentacles burst out of the mirror, throwing me backward. My feet tangled on the steps, and I fell onto my butt, my breath racing. I gripped the mirror tightly, rage boiling deep inside me. “Fucking son of abitch.”
I pushed myself up, noting all the men were on the ground, groaning, except Talin. Right then, invisible hands seized the front of my top and pants and hurled me forward. The screaming came involuntarily as I slammed into Talin, the chair beneath him smashing and both of us crashing to theground.
My heart raced, and he had me to my feet in moments, his hands over mine to control the freakin’ mirror in mygrasp.
“I got you.” His panicked voice didn’t help my ownemotions.
“It shouldn’t be doing this,” I yelled back. Something was wrong, terriblywrong.
More tentacles shot outward straight for the three brothers, each one colliding into their chests so fast, they slid back down, convulsing. Paintings fell off their hooks. Howls echoed aroundus.
“No!” I scrambled forward on trembling legs, Talin by my side. “Goddess. I ask for your divine intervention. Vanquish this curse from thisfamily.”
Nothing. Not a single jolt of energy across myskin.
But when a black viper from the mirror curled around and rushed toward me, the tip splitting into a gaping mouth, Iscreamed.
Talin flew backward from an invisibleforce.
“Stop! I command you to halt!” I jutted out a hand, driving every inch of strength I possessed toward the oncomingslaughter.
The tentacle smacked into my chest, winding me, pushing me off my feet. And my world blacked so fast, I couldn’t evenbreathe.
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