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Magic surged, vibrant bolts dancing at her fingertips. Above, black clouds gathered and thunder clapped, raging with her.
Behind her, a twig snapped, and she whirled around, eyes wide.
Wilder Hawthorne emerged from the jagged rocks. His gaze locked on her, locked on the power radiating from her.
‘I’ve asked you this before and I’ll ask once more,’ he said, his deep voice adding further charge to her magic as he took a step towards her.
‘Who are you?’
EPILOGUE
WILDER HAWTHORNE
‘Who are you?’ Wilder demanded, staring at the woman whose name, whose voice, whose touch had set his body alight and nearly destroyed him. Even now, as a black tempest gathered around her and waves crashed violently below, he felt utterly anchored in the moment, toher.
Thea whirled around, shock rippling off her, lightning dancing at her fingertips. He could feel her power thrumming in his chest, could feel its untapped potential tangled in her confusion, her rage.
He took a step towards her —
‘Don’t!’ she shouted, her eyes wide. ‘I… I don’t know how to control it,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know…’
How is that possible?He had seen her summon that power and spear the reaper with it. He stared at her, taking in every little detail – the lack of the fate stone at her breast, her torn, blood-soaked clothes and the utter terror lacing her words.
She was vulnerable in an entirely different way to how she had been in the broom closet. There, she had feared the pain of losing him and losing her future, here… Here she feared herself and what she might unleash upon the world.
A daughter of darkness.The words echoed in his chest.
‘It’s alright,’ he told her.
More lightning split the sky over the thrashing seas, the bolts at her fingertips growing brighter as if in answer. Her magic was immense, chaotic and beautiful, just like her.
She stared at it in wonder, in horror. ‘How can this be?’
In this moment, his harsh words were forgotten and he watched as she blinked several times, as though hoping that upon opening her eyes again, the evidence would be gone and she could convince herself it had never been there.
Wilder took another step towards her, to do what, he didn’t know. He just needed to be closer to her.
‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ she said.
‘You won’t,’ he told her, meeting her gaze, trying to offer some semblance of reassurance.
‘How did this happen?’ she asked, voice trembling.
He stood beside her now, careful not to touch her. ‘Why don’t you tell me that, Alchemist?’
At the title, Thea’s whole body shuddered, her magic crackling around them. ‘Wren…’ she croaked. ‘She lied to me. She… did something to my fate stone.’
Ah. So the sister is involved in this. Of course… The master alchemist.
‘We’ll figure it out.’ He didn’t take his eyes off the lightning dancing between her fingertips. It glowed an other-wordly blue, a jagged network of forks flickering at her command.
‘We?’ she asked weakly.
‘Yes,we,’ Wilder replied firmly. ‘You’re my apprentice, after all.’
Thea’s shoulders sagged, and with a final flash, the lightning vanished. Overhead, the black clouds retreated, rolling out to sea with a thunderous roar.
Body tense, Wilder closed his hands around hers, finding a soft energy that hummed there.
