Page 62 of Light Magic

I wobbled with the sudden burst of energy inside of me.

“No! Stay back!”

I looked at the voice and saw Lacey pointing her finger at Levi, who was halfway from the pillars to the pentagram, his eyes on me.

“I’m fine,” I said, my voice rough. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was feeling yet. Was I fine? I seemed to be.

“We’re not done yet,” Evelyn said. She kept her eyes closed and I knew she was going for the dragons. She groaned and the dragons squirmed beside me.

“What are you doing?” Trolin asked, his voice high.

“I’m not hurting them, I promise,” Evelyn said. “It’s just … I can feel the magic, but it’s hidden.” She groaned more and the little dragons let out faint cries. One flapped his wings, almost knocking me out of the pentagram.

“Hang on,” Kaz told them. “Just a little longer.”

“There!” Evelyn said. “Found it.” In my mind, I imagined Evelyn’s magic wrapped around the foreign magic like a hand grabbing a piece of fruit, and then pulling it out of the bag.

The dragons squawked again, jumped, flapped their wings. The dark blue one let out a small cloud of smoke from his nostrils, and the dark green one sent a thin jet of fire toward Evelyn. Lacey put it out before it reached them.

“Almost there,” Evelyn said with a groan.

The black one let out a cry and jumped at me. I took a small step back, careful not to leave the circle and raised my hands. He closed his mouth on my lower arm and twisted.

I cried and fell to my knees, and the dragon let go of me.

A darkfire bolt zoomed where the dragon’s head had been. I snapped my head at Levi, who was standing a few steps behind the witches and ready to send another bolt if the dragon tried anything.

“Don’t,” I told him, my gaze firm.

By then, Kaz had reached him, and the two of them started arguing about it.

I tuned them out, then finally, the dragons stopped and the invisible snake once more wrapped around my legs, torso, arms … this time, it was stronger, tighter, and I felt like I was sinking into the depths of a dark ocean.

The magic pushed inside me, found the other pieces, and when they came together, my chest seized in an implosion and I fell back at the pain. My vision went black and my breath hitched.

“Ariella!”

I didn’t know who had screamed, but suddenly, everyone hovered over me.

Levi was the closest. Knelt beside me, he pressed a hand to my forehead. “Can you hear me? Sweetheart?”

I tried nodding, but that only made my head hurt.

“What’s going on?” Lacey asked.

“I think,” Evelyn started, “that after months divided, her magic had some sort of burst when they joined again.”

Abbie nodded. “That’s possible.” She held the pink crystal and it pulsed with supercharged magic. She put it inside a bag and slung it over her shoulder. She patted it, as if making sure it was still there.

I inhaled deeply and felt my magic stirring inside of me, a little lost, a little rebellious, and a little afraid. But it was my damn magic, I knew it, I could feel it, and it made me happy.

I held on to Levi’s arms. He understood what I wanted and helped me sit up. I looked at my hands and saw a faint glow to them. My chest squeezed with relief, but then soreness spread through me. The glow disappeared.

That was when I saw the bite mark on my lower arm and the blood staining my sweater. It stung, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it had been.

“Lacey,” Levi said.

“On it.” She knelt on my other side, gently got my arm in her hands, and healed the bite. The sting was gone, but the soreness continued.

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