Page 25 of Cursed Wolf

“We go in there,” I whisper, opening myself up to my magic. I do my best to focus on not drawing power from within me and putting the baby in danger.

“Let me go first,” Stone murmurs back, the blue glow of his runes piercing through his shirt.

My breath hitches as he pushes open the door. A dim light greets us from somewhere in the basement. Of course, that’s where Lyra would be.

Shivers dance up my arm, but I push the fear aside. Following Stone, we creep down the stairs. My hands buzz with the call of magic, despite not calling on it, and I feel it tingling along my fingers. Breathing deeply, I concentrate on only drawing energy from around me and more specifically, Lyra. If it knocks her out, we can tie her up long enough to stop her from attacking us.

We reach the base of the stairs, and while Stone goes right where the light shines brighter, something calls me from the left. The sensation of pin pricks runs up my left hand, and I turn in that direction. Barely a few steps in, I freeze on the spot, my breaths hitching.

In front of me, Lyra, still in my sister’s body, is hunched over my dead mother’s body, her mouth gaping open, a glowing yellow light racing from my mother’s body and flooding into her mouth.

Terror shudders through me. All I can think is she’s going to kill Kaira, that my sister will never be the same again.

Anger flares in a heartbeat, and the cruel heat consumes me, leaving me burning up. With it, desperation pummels me. Without pause, I unleash the floodgates of my magic.

Yellow light radiates across Lyra’s back and zips toward me. It floods me, filling every pore, feeling as if someone’s scraping thorns over my body. I steal her magic, her darkness, everything she has.

Suddenly, she jerks up and twists in my direction.

Startled, I stumble backward, and a rush of breath, hard and fast, speeds past my lips, and the acid taste of magic fills my nostrils.

“You’ve come to die,” she growls, sounding more like an animal.

Fury pummels me, and I picture my sister, terrified and trapped.

With that single thought, power tears out of me, covering me with the feel of static running over my skin. It spears outward from my hands just as Stone calls my name from behind me. Blue beams of light strike Lyra so hard and fast, I couldn’t stop if I tried.

Shaking, I fall to my knees.

The High Priestess bellows, and her yellow magic bursts from her hands, but unlike mine, it goes outward in every direction, engulfing everything in sight.

Panic tears through me that she’s going to kill us all, that we’d made a mistake coming in here.

For those few seconds, I am convinced this is the end.

This is where I’ll die.

9

NARAH

Startled awake, I look at a white ceiling drenched in sunlight. For those few seconds, I’m convinced I’m back in my coma dream—the small cottage with my two husbands, enjoying the perfect little life without a worry in the world. With it comes a selfish relief that in that cozy home, I’m safe, but I’ve left others I love behind.

With a groan, I roll onto my side, glancing out the open window that brings in a cool breeze. Outside, the trees sway, and I still have no idea where I am.

A sudden tightness in my stomach stabs across my side. Right, I’m still pregnant. All my thoughts rush through my mind—the witch possessing Kaira, me finding her in the basement with my dead mother, and me attacking her with my magic. Someone must have carried me upstairs after I passed out.

A spark of terror envelops me, and I can’t raise my hands to my face quick enough. There’s not a trace of black on my fingers, and I exhale loudly with relief that I hadn’t drained energy from myself and harmed the baby.

It’s strange how worried I am when a day ago, I wasn’t pregnant or even thinking about having children. There’s something so different about suddenly sharing your body with a gorgeous little angel, but the memories of my time living in the cottage offer a fake sensation of being pregnant for the full term.

Pushing up in an awkward move of arms and legs, feeling like a turtle on its back, I stumble out of bed. Glancing down at myself, I’m wearing a long shirt and nothing else. Someone changed me after I blacked out.

“What are you doing up?” Jae shrieks from behind me.

Twisting around, I find her in the doorway, hands gripping her hips with a stern expression, and I laugh. “Get over here, you,” I say, ecstatic and over the moon that she’s safe. Considering she’s not panicking yet, I hope that means good news after last night’s events, where I evidently blacked out.

She runs across the room, closing the distance, and is at my side, hugging me around my belly.

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