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There’s nothing here big enough to hold it… but I can make one. Closing my eyes, I focus my energy, building a box, piece by piece, until the glass forms into a small coffin. It looks exactly like the one his mother is in, but smaller. Lifting the lid, I place the heart inside and seal it shut. Without skipping a beat, I open my third eye, glimpsing the spiderweb thin strands of magic whisking around the box. The spell is still attached… It’s still at play.
“How do you know if it worked?” Asmo asks from behind me, coming closer to get a better look.
“You can see magic, just as I can. I duplicated the coffin your mother was in, and judging by the threads, it should contain the same spellwork. The heart should be suspended in time and unless that spell breaks, the king will never rise.”
Glass shatters from somewhere outside and my head jerks toward the far wall of windows. Just as I’m about to go see what’s happening outside, claws scratch across the glass, and a beast comes into view with piercing eyes and sharp teeth. The same beast I saw in the dungeon. It climbs higher until the rest of its body comes into view and my mouth drops open. Finn is clinging to its neck for dear life, with his mouth open in a silent scream.
“I told you I didn’t kill him, though we are over fifteen stories up…” Asmo doesn’t need to finish the sentence for me to get the picture. If he falls, he’s a goner.
Eva’s beast swats at a glass panel, shattering it and making diamond-like glass rain into the corner of the observatory, and Finn’s screams hit my ears. Turns out he wasn’t silently screaming at all. The room must be spelled to ward off sounds from outside, since the moment his head crosses into the room, his unrelenting squeal makes me cringe.
Eva lands on the floor, rattling the ground beneath our feet and Finn scrambles off of her to lay on the floor.
“Never again!” he yells, lifting up to a sitting position. “Ever.”
“It was your idea to go around,” Eva says, now shifted into her human form. “My beast thought it was a great idea. It was better than fighting the horde of men downstairs.”
“I said let’s go around. Like go through other hallways or something. Not crawl along theoutside of the fucking castle.”He lays back with athunk, his arm slung across his face.
“But did you die?”
“No. Luckily, no.”
“Is that my father?” Eva turns to me, pointing at the body on the balcony.
“Um yes…. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Don’t be. I don’t think any of his children would oppose letting him be picked apart by buzzards. He was a wicked man, and we would’ve done it ourselves if we weren’t hexed to be incapable of doing so.” She falls to her knees, bowing her head. “I’m forever in your debit.”
“I am actually in yours. Somehow, you managed to keep this fool alive long enough for me to rescue him.” I point a thumb at Finn, who sits up like an exorcized demon and scowls at me.
“Don’t forget who taught you these things.” His eyes land on the king’s body and he convulses, his cheeks blowing full as he crawls away. “Oh no.” Finn lunged from the broken hole in the window while I pop clothes into existence for Eva, starkly aware of her nakedness.
I’m no stranger to how shifters do things, especially not to how they are overly comfortable in their bare skin. My uncle Noah, the man who raised me, is a wolf shifter and his pack was around often when I was growing up. Still, there’s no need for her to stay naked unless she wishes to be.
“Ugh,” he wipes his mouth on his sleeve. “I need a drink.”
“Actually,” Asmo skip-jogs to one of the shelves, pulling off a bottle of blue liquid. “This might fix your hand situation. It’s not permanent, but it will help for a bit.”
“What is it?” Finn takes it, casting a side glance at me.
“The king was fascinated about your mustache spell facade. So, he replicated it and made some small tweaks. It allows you to shapeshift into anything, including a two-handed version of yourself.”
My throat goes dry as I let what he’s said sink in. Was this too easy? My hand presses to the glass box. It’s not possible that the king has shapeshifted into… Asmo meets my gaze and doubtakes. “No! I didn’t mean it like that. The king told me about it when he invited me here.” Asmo comes closer, but I match his paces backward and he stops, deflating his shoulders.
“Prove it,” I command, hoping I didn’t just kill Asmo in the king’s stead. Though I’m not truly sure why I’d care.
“Okay. I rescued you from trolls after you went into the ravine and died.”
I shake my head no. He would’ve told the king he saw me regenerate and come back. It would’ve mattered to him that I was immortal.
“Fine,” he stutters, rubbing his jaw. “I know the other night when you tried to summon objects, we discovered you created them instead.”
He takes another step forward. “The king would know that, because you were planning to turn me in for your freedom. You would’ve told him anything about my abilities to sweeten the pot.”
“You tried to shove your tongue down my throat in the forest,” he arches an eyebrow. “Happy? Surely, I wouldn’t dare tell the king that, seeing as he wished to impregnate you. At least, not if I valued my life and it happens to be the only one I value these days.”
“Fair enough,” I scowl, still unsure. I might’ve left my jacket near the hill, but I can likely imagine a fertility stone. The high king might be able to impersonate him, but he can’t mimic Asmo’s demon side. I’m not sure how Eva or Finn would react to it, though. I’ll wait until we’re alone to test it and be sure.
