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Pain ripped me in two, so much worse than removing the anchors, but the agony was cauterizing.
I overflowed with magic, every cell of my body drinking the energy down like I was a plant and power was rain in a desert.
This wasn’t going to end well.
Not for Bjorn. Not for me. Probably not for Colby.
As the Hunk began to radiate heat, begging me to call on it, I found it was easier to block out its siren song of endless power. Dad had torn out the deepest, worst, most festering anchors binding me to it. His spell, which had suffocated the spark out of me in order to save my life—my sanity—had eroded to nothing.
“You’re a snotty bastard,” I growled, “and you’re going to die for this.”
Bjorn, who had been bragging about how easily he contained me, recoiled from what he read on my face. He didn’t take a step back. He didn’t show fear lightly. But the slight shift of hisweight was enough for me to grin as I broke his icy hold and punched out, gripping his throat in my hand.
“Where is he?” I channeled power down my arm, zapping him until his teeth rattled. “Where. Is. He?”
I didn’t have to name him. There was only one person Bjorn would protect above his own life.
“I’ll die before I betray him,” Bjorn gasped, and his spittle pelted my hand like hail.
“I was hoping you would say that.” I placed my other hand over his heart, reached down deep within myself, and threw every ounce of magic I possessed into that shriveled placeholder of an organ. “I’m not making the same mistake twice.”
Thrashing and spasming, the frost giant seized under my hand, but I showed him no mercy. He frothed at the mouth, his eyes rolling back, and then he hit his knees. But I was there, following him down. I kept my hold on him until I hurt, until I ached, until Iburned. Then I kept on until his ice cube heart fell silent.
His body slumped sideways, hitting the ground, but I didn’t let go. I summoned the spell I had used a million times to immolate bodies and reduced him to ash I mixed with dirt to make sure he was dead and gone and never coming back for us again.
Slowly, I crawled toward Marita and Derry, until I knelt between them.
They were dying.
Both of them.
They were my friends.
Both of them.
I couldn’t save only one. The other would never forgive me.
Kneeling between them, I fisted the icicles in each of their chests and melted them. With the obstruction gone, bloodgushed from the wounds as I planted a palm over each of their hearts and prayed for the power to heal them.
A whiff of rot tickled my nose, a subtle reminder I had all the power I needed if I would just let it in.
No.I aimed the rebuke inward, at the Hunk.You’re the reason I’m in this situation.
The dark artifact didn’t have to respond for me to sense its amusement. I knew as well as it did we were in this together. Our greed formore, more, morehad forged it. I had let it seduce me the first time, told myself I had no other choice, but there was no going back if I used it as a crutch again. It would own me. Right down to my soul.
The temptation to embrace its power was worse than the craving for hearts had been. I was an addict in every sense of the word. I kept bouncing from addiction to addiction to addiction. Maybe that was my luck. Or maybe it was time I stopped letting life happen to me and started happening to it.
I could do this, maybe not alone, but with help from Colby. Not the book. Never again from the book.
Faint sparkles shimmered under my skin, a glittering warmth that brought tears to my eyes. This was the essence of Colby. Goodness. Love. Kindness. Her magic swirled with it, and as it washed through me, the ironclad grip of the Hunk loosened another degree. As her concentration increased, a brilliant light burst from my pores, funneling through me and down into the wargs’ chests.
Derry and Marita began glowing. Brighter and brighter. Until it hurt to look straight at them.
Their wounds sealed, leaving tender pink skin, but their chests didn’t rise. Their hearts didn’t beat. Neither of them moved.
“Wake up, wake up, wake up.” I sank deeper within myself. “I’m not quitting on you guys.”
It would be so easy to save them, a conniving voice whispered in my head.Let me help you.
