Page 60 of Secrets & Curses of Crimson

“Della?” I hurried over to her, but there was some type of shield around her, so I couldn’t touch her. “Della!” I called out to her, worried she was dying or something, but then suddenly she blinked, and her normal eyes were in place.

“Fuck,” she muttered like she hadn’t just been possessed.

“What the hell is happening?” I demanded.

“Brim needs to see us.” She looked at me frantically. Brim? Della didn’t give me a chance to ask any questions. Her starlight mist shot around us, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I fell to the forest floor on my hands and knees when her mist left.

“Sorry,” she grunted as she tried to help me up. I threw up, and she let go of me.

“For fuck’s sake,” I moaned in agony.

“I forget that moving at the speed of light makes others nauseous, but we don’t have time to waste. Get your ass up.”

My eyes snapped up to her with a glare. She was being bossy as fuck. But my glare disappeared when she looked terrified.

“Brim wouldn’t call upon us unless it was bad news.”

I stood on shaky legs and glanced around. We were still in Cerithia. The castle was behind me a short distance. When I looked ahead, a shambled shack that was rotting away was in front of us. Della immediately walked into the shed, and I followed without questioning anything because her face terrified me.

As soon as we were both over the threshold, the rotting wood faded into pretty walls covered in art and shelves of trinkets. Something about the space was familiar and calming. The stone fireplace was oversized for the space,but the fire burning in it caught my attention. I turned to Della but looked back to the fireplace when I heard a male voice.

“Thea, you look far better than the last time I saw you.” His eyes were friendly as he stared at me from a rocking chair that had been empty a moment ago. "Sit,” he gestured to the other chairs across from him. Della and I sat down quickly.

“You came quickly.” He looked at Della.

“You said it wasn’t good,” her voice trembled. Her eyes met mine, and she must have seen how confused I was. “This is Brim; he’s a seer. He was a friend of your mother, and he was the one who told your prophecy.”

I nodded and glanced back at him. His unkempt hair was long and crazy-looking, but he seemed just as friendly as he did the first time.

“I remember you from my vision.” I nodded.

“Vision?” Della looked from me to Brim. “You had a vision.”

“Yes.”

Brim gave me a sad look before looking away. Della was looking confused and pissed off.

“You’ve made a decision about your curse,” he said confidently. How did he know? “I had the vision this time.You’ve learned who the man with golden eyes was, and it set into motion our visions.”

His eyes darted away from me, and it made my insides burn with anxiety. Brim seemed to be trying to find the words he needed to tell me.

“For fuck’s sake, just spit it out,” I snapped. “Sorry,” I sighed when it came out harsher than I meant it to. Did he have the same vision I did?

“Cassius is still going to die because he knows you are breaking your curse.” He looked me in the eyes as he said the words. Della and I didn’t move as his words soaked into us. Cassius was still going to die.Die. Die. Die.

I had tried to not think about this fucking image of him kneeling in the dirt before dying. If I thought about it, I couldn’t function.Die. Die. Die.

The word wouldn’t stop ricocheting around my mind. Flashes of Cassius hurting and lying dead in front of me played in my mind, but I couldn’t move. If I did, I might explode.

Della stood up quickly. “No, I will not allow it.” Della’s power pulsed around us as my mind froze. As Brim’s words sank into me, my chest felt like it was going to cave in. My magic swarmed from me in a colorful storm. Darkness, shadows, light, fire, and other magic I didn’trecognize swarmed around us in a frenzy as my eyes turned red.

Della and Brim didn’t move as they watched my magic create an angry cloud above us on the ceiling, cracking and popping with power. It was fucking furious, which was odd because I felt like I might be dying. My breathing was shallow, and my heart physically ached to the point of pain. My limbs were numb, and my throat closed in on itself. But this anguish in my chest seized my lungs as tears fell from my eyes silently.

“Thea?” Brim called to me, but it felt like he was much farther away than he actually was. My vision tunneled as I watched the flames moving in slow motion in the fireplace. There was a hole in my chest, and the more I thought of Cassius dying, the bigger the hole was getting, threatening to swallow me entirely.

I would never allow that to happen. He would not die.

“No,” I finally spoke after what felt like an hour but was less than a minute. My voice sounded foreign—nothing like me at all. I still couldn’t physically move. “I can stop it.”

---