Page 97 of When Wishes Bleed

He glanced toward my trunks. “Did you bring your wishbones?”

“I would never leave them behind.”

“Would you read mine again?”

A sliver of fear coiled in my middle. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not? What could possibly be worse than my first reading?”

“Don’t tempt fate, Prince. Things can always be worse.”

He walked toward my trunks. “May I?”

I nodded and waited as he gingerly lifted the silver bowl of bones from the trunk. Settling on the bed, he approached from the other side and placed the bowl between us. “Are you ready?”

Resigned to his wish, I sat down on the bed. “I am. Choose a wishbone.”

The corners of his lips turned downward as his hand hovered over the bowl. He plucked one out and waited until my eyes locked on his.

“Break it,” I guided.

He snapped the wishbone.

It did not bleed. It burst into flame.

PART THREE

When Wishes Burn

22

Tauren dropped both ends of the wishbone into the silver dish amongst the other bones. I expected the pieces to flicker out and die down. Instead, they burned hot and bright, quickly igniting the entire dish.

I raised my hand and called on water. A puddle floated out of a nearby vase of red roses and doused the flame before it could spread to my bed clothes.

Smoke filled my bedroom, mouth, and nose. Tauren’s haunted stare focused on the charred pile of bones.

“What does this mean?” he dared ask.

I opened my mouth, but no answer left it. My mind raced to make sense of what just happened.

Fate whispered to me. This is not only his fate, daughter. This is yours.

How can that be? I thought. No one’s fate could transfer to another.

Your fates are one, he answered.

One prince.

One witch.

One fate.

I closed my eyes, but all I could see were flames. Walls of them. One right after another. They weren’t concentric like those painted on a target, these flames swirled… igniting far away and gathering power as they twisted in on themselves.

My eyes snapped open.

They begin in Thirteen and end at the palace.

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