Page 81 of In the Dark

CHAPTER 20

Karsia came to with a howl, jolting up on cold stone with sweat beading her brow and her lungs pumping like a blacksmith’s bellows. She felt her body to make sure all the pieces were still there.

“How dare you!” she roared at the man sitting next to her. “How dare you take me under without my permission! You have no right!” She scrambled up and stared at him, with retribution bubbling beneath the surface. “I will slaughter you.”

Her fingertips slashed across the open air and left tracers of flame in their wake. Fire and sparks and seething white light that buzzed and groaned. Too bright to look at directly. Her eyes glowed with acrimonious triumph.

Morgan took his time rising, the limbs of his mortal form stiff and aching from the lack of movement. His right arm was numb. For a moment he felt a shiver of dread as though fingers had latched around his throat and were bearing down. In spite of the feeling, he grinned. “I won’t apologize. It gave us the time we needed.”

Karsia scoffed. “The time for what?”

“To get the components of the spell in order.”

Her head jerked around to where her sisters stood. Astix’s smirk stretched from ear to ear and she held her hands straight out in front of her, purple light emanating from her fingertips. A wall of limestone formed from nothing. Protection for the ancient book.

“What? No!”

“We’ve got you cornered,” Astix called out. “Aisanna, now!”

Aisanna clasped her hand, and the two sisters gathered together to join their magic. Impossible trees burst from the ground, stretching toward the cavern ceiling. Thick trunks of frankincense and myrrh erupted through the stone in a ring around Karsia. Knotted branches sprouted to life at right angles, with sharp spines protruding from each. The scent of lilacs filled the air from dozens of fragrant bushes pushing their way up through the cavern floor and bursting into unnatural bloom.

Karsia swatted at the branches, screaming when thorns tore at her skin and tangled in her hair. She gestured, and power swelled. A wave of searing heat disintegrated the plants seconds before new ones grew in their place.

“I refuse to bow to you!” she screeched. Wild magic sparked in an uncontrollable halo around her body.

But Astix and Aisanna weren’t done yet. Splinters of black onyx and bloodstone rose in the empty spaces between trees, each glowing from within. Strong vines covered tree and stone alike to form an impenetrable cage around Karsia as the sisters drew on their combined wealth of magic. Their heritage.

Karsia began to shake with rage, her magic trying desperately to break free of the enclosure. Cracks formed in the cavern walls and jagged stone shards began to fall. Astix slowed their progress, tossing them away before anyone was hurt.

Then suddenly Karsia stilled. Tried to move and found her body unresponsive, as if turned to stone. Frozen in place. “What is this?” She struggled to break free from invisible bonds and found it impossible. Her face twisted in an ugly snarl. “What the hell is this?”

That, Morgan thought with a flash of hope, was the real Karsia fighting back. “That’s my girl!”

“You better let go of me before I splinter your soul into a million pieces, little lady,” the monster snarled, eyes rolling back as if speaking to someone else inside the same body.

Way to go, Karsia! Hold on! “Hurry!” Morgan called to the sisters.

Together, with their voices raised as one, Astix and Aisanna wove their spell. “Bound within and in this hour. Ancient evil held with power. Set aside, seek to merge. Listen close. Yet to purge. Yield now, flesh and bone and breath. Dark to light, lest faced with death. Bound with air and earth and fire, water and spirit, never expire. Bound above and so below. Bound for love and not for woe. Threads of life that stole from night, magic bright shall give to light. Gods above, please hear this plea. As it is willed, so must it be.”

Karsia’s body howled wordlessly the moment they released the spell, a clap of thunder shaking the cavern and threatening to bury them under a mound of rubble. Electric sparks of silver and gold burst to life midair around her and shot arrow-straight toward her chest.

Despite the precautions, the stones and trees meant for binding evil, she fought back. Power crackled and shot in a circle to dissolve the magically produced cage before the spell could reach her.

She looked at the empty air holding the hint of electrically charged magic, then down at her palms. A laugh bubbled up and grew in volume until the cavern rang with the maniacal sound. “Is that the best you’ve got?” She asked the question rhetorically. A snap of her fingers broke whatever last shreds of energy were holding her. Shaking out her shoulders, she started toward them.

“Karsia, no!” Morgan begged.

She reached out and grabbed Morgan, squeezing hard until she felt the small bones of his wrist grind together. “Stay out of this. You’ve no business being here.”

“Please,” he whispered. Trying his best to sound calm. To soothe her. “Sweetheart, you need to let go. You’re hurting me.”

But she couldn’t let go. She’d given in to the darkness, and nothing Morgan said, nothing her sisters said or did—none of it mattered. The squirming mass inside of her was like a feral animal, needing someone to hurt.

A second flash of magic, and Morgan jettisoned backwards. She held him in the air, gripped in the clutches of an iron-strong spell. Then she slammed him against the cavern wall so hard his head bounced against the stone. Pain, intense and swirling blackly, coursed through him.

Karsia stalked toward her sisters. Her fingers snapped and their magic toppled. The protective limestone wall crumbled to dust. Tree trunks weakened and decayed, withered back into the stone floor. “You think you can take me on with a piddling little spell? You think you can test your mettle against the keeper of balance? I am the darkness of this world! Do you not know me? Do you not see me?”

Her amplified voice echoed eerily off the walls of the cave. Defeating their magic had been surprisingly easy. She heaved a sigh of relief and smiled as a swell of heat rose from the place in her chest where the gemstones, the last tenuous line of defense, fought to do their job and failed. Dark fury lent a cruelty to her features, a reddish glint in her eyes.

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