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Except it remained stagnant, existing with no link to anyone else. I hissed in frustration and pushed harder. Blood trickled from my nose, but I ignored it, squeezing Amelia’s hands as she directed her power towards me. The magic was addictive, feeding me with warmth, shielding me from the cold.
Until it didn’t.
“Foolish ones, it’s time to stop,” an unfamiliar woman’s voice said. “This was never meant to be.”
A loud crack sounded in the air. Amelia’s hands slipped out of mine, and the power flooding through me was lost, leaving me cold and bereft. An icy blade shot through my chest, and my head rocked back. The chill swept around me, but the darkness was stronger, and it swallowed up everything.
I thought I heard voices, but no matter how hard I tried to hold on, my consciousness slipped away.
My last thought was that I had failed. Again.
“How could you?” a male voice demanded. “Don’t you know what you’ve done, you fool?”
“This isn’t my fault!” Amelia sounded hurt. I was hurting more. Every inch of me was in pain, a piercing cold that cut me from the inside out.
“You knew what you were doing,” he said, harsher now. “You could have killed her, a child, and ruined the pack.”
“She’s seventeen!”
“Seventeen is a child. When will you understand that?” Silence for a few beats, then, “What were you thinking?”
“I had to try something! We had to save Perdita’s baby. What else was I supposed to do? Nothing?”
“That girl would have sensed something if the baby was dying! Have you not thought of that?”
She fell silent, giving me time to remember what happened and realise the truth of his words. Why had we assumed so quickly that my power had completely failed? Why hadn’t I stood up for myself, had more confidence in myself? I really was a fool. A chuckle sounded in my head, so out of place that I immediately sat up.
“Margo!” Amelia helped me steady myself.
I winced, blinking until I could see straight. Even light hurt. I tried to speak but couldn’t. Ryan forced me to take a sip of water. I looked at him, terrified. “The baby?”
“Alive and never in danger,” he said. “Perdita’s fine, too. Her placenta is too low. This happens sometimes. They’ll be in the hospital overnight at least, but for now, they’re all okay.”
Relieved, I relaxed against Amelia.
“How do you feel?” Ryan asked me.
“Sore,” I said. “Dizzy, too.” I looked at Amelia. “What happened? Was somebody else there?”
She set me back down against the couch then looked away, refusing to meet my gaze. “I don’t know.”
“You should have thought about all you don’t know before you pushed Margo into this,” Ryan snapped. “You’re so irresponsible.”
“I’m okay,” I said, worried another fight was brewing.
“You’re not,” he insisted. “You should look in a mirror.”
Amelia’s shoulders drooped. “Take a minute then you should go get cleaned up.”
“I’ll take you home when you’re ready,” Ryan said. “Take it slow.”
They were already arguing before I made it to the bathroom. In front of the mirror, I flinched, startled at my appearance. My hair was frizzy, sticking out in every direction, my skin much paler than usual. Streaks of blood covered my face. I washed it away then took another look. My lips were about as white as my skin, and my mother was definitely going to flip when she saw me. I bit my lips and pinched my cheeks but they remained relentlessly colourless. I looked like a corpse. The thought made my hands tremble all the more.
Rubbing my bloodshot eyes, I tried to remember what had happened. In the moment, I’d felt like another person, desperate for power, for the warmth of Amelia’s magic, ready to swallow up as much as I could. And that strange voice… It had felt as though Amelia and I had been physically shoved apart right as I had been about to reach for that power and make it mine. And all the while, Amelia’s power had run through me like an electric current, firing up emotions and sensations I didn't know I had. I doubted I would ever feel anything like it again.
I groaned to myself, thinking of how people would react. Maybe Amelia wouldn’t tell the whole story. I knew I couldn’t. I wasn’t even sure what had happened, only what it had felt like. And it had felt like I wasn’t supposed to be doing what we did. I really was a freak, an unnatural cursed thing. Looking at myself in the mirror, I wasn’t human at all. I wanted to cry, but my eyes remained dry.
Working up the courage to face the others again, I left the bathroom and headed back into the living room. Ryan still looked furious, but by then, Amelia did, too. Ryan reached for my arm then flinched. “She’s ice-cold.”
