AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 27
Holding my middle, I pushed past the darkness spreading through me. I scrambled across the snowy lawn behind the castle, my eyes focused on the bowls with rose petals. The moon sat right above us, and I had expected a buildup, a warning, but the curse had hit like a storm. Ready to smiteus.
“Ash!” I cried out. “It’s happeningnow.”
His footfalls grew heavy and sluggish behind me, his breaths wheezing. I fumbled with the rose petals in a bowl and pressed it into hishand.
“Put them into the water.” My wordsraced.
His eyes glazed over, and his body shimmered with the telltale signs of the onset of hischange.
I clenched his coat in my fists and dragged him closer, kissing him, hoping to buy us a few moments so I could gather the rest of the princes. Our lips merged, soft against me, starved… but nothing. Not a spark. I foundemptiness.
We broke apart and panic crawled across his gaze. “It’s notworking.”
Coldness tightened my throat. My thoughts flew to the woods when I’d kissed Raze with blood in his mouth, how quick we’d healed. I pulled the knife from my belt and without a single thread of hesitation, I slashed the meaty part of my palm, the blade biting into flesh. I gritted my teeth through the sting and stuck on the wound. The distinct coppery taste inundated mysenses.
“Try again,” Iyelled.
Ash gripped my shoulders and our lips locked. He took my tongue into his mouth, devouring me, and I trembled from hisassertiveness.
But there was still nothing, and I pulled away, my stomach churning. “Goddess!” Tears stabbed myeyes.
“Why isn’t it working?” He grabbed the knife out of my grasp and cut his hand. He pulled me to him once again, but even before we kissed, a sickening sensation flooded me as Lilita grew stronger in myhead.
“Fuck!” Ash broke away, growling and swaying on hisfeet.
“Get in the water. Add the petals,” I hissed, but my knees buckled out from under me. My head sang with Lilita’shumming.
Ash, still holding on to the bowl of rose petals, grabbed my arm and hauled me up the steps toward thebath.
In that moment, the three princes careened out from the edge of the castle. They ran along the stone veranda and down thesteps.
They were shouting something, their bodies flinching and convulsing. Each step had them stumbling. A paralyzing fear owned me as my mind emptied on what to do next. The corners of my eyes blurred, and at once, an invisible force ripped me backward and away fromAsh.
I tumbled to theground.
Ash tethered sideways and tripped into the water. The bowl in his arm tossed upward. Red petals flew everywhere. Half of them landed into the bath, the rest on thesnow.
Fear shook me, but I couldn’t lose everything. Not after Mom. Scrambling to my feet, I collected as many petals as I could find, then threw them into the water. Ash, still shaking, stumbled up and over the edge, falling onto his side and groaning. He got to his hands and knees and reached for the rest of thepetals.
I wobbled on my feet, my headspinning.
Mom had always controlled her emotions during a spell, insisting they interfered with the enchantment’s intention. But I couldn’t stop the terror leaching to my insides. Nearby lay the bowl of crushed-up roses. I ran my fingers through the cold sludge and smeared the mixture over mypalms.
Lilita drummed in my skull, but I sank back on my heels and called forward my own powers. “Goddess, I call upon your guidance. Yourstrength.”
In the face of no reaction, I raised my voice and summoned the force lying deep in my chest. The pure white light that always engulfed me kept me safe and fueled myability.
A faint trickle washed over my fingertips, but it sizzled with black lines that bounced over myfingers.
Terror rattled me at thecore.
Lilita rammedforward.
But so much hung in the balance. Dad’s face floated in my thoughts, followed by the princes’. I bit down on my lip until I tasted blood. “With the purity of the snow rose, I cleanse you, Lilita,” I repeated thewords.
A violent shiver tangled through me, shakingme.
