Page 73 of Spelling Disaster

The coven beats against the barrier and casts spells of their own, to blast through, to find chinks in my defense. I grit my teeth against the exhaustion and the effort needed to maintain the protective circle.

“Yes, strong,” the Horned God murmurs behind me. “As I knew you would be.”

“My mother made sure I was more than prepared for my ascension,” I tell him. A muscle ticks in my jaw.

“Please, do show me more of what you can do,” he pushes. “I’d love to see more of your action in motion, to get a better feel for what I’ll soon have for my own.”

I ignore him, focusing on my sister. “Remi! Now!”

She nods through her panic and a slight glimmer of sweat has her face shining and pale.

She knows what I’m talking about. She always does. She can read my mind better than anyone else I know.

“Do it now!”

She doesn’t waste another moment. Her one hand is free, thanks to the Horned God’s posturing, and she reaches into the pocket of her button up shirt and drags out her favorite lighter. The one she always keeps hidden on her to keep Mom from knowing Remi smokes on occasion.

She lights the Horned God on fire.

Part of him, at least, the lichen hanging from his horns that are closest to her. As the lichen go up in flames, he releases her, dropping her to the ground.

With Remi free, I toss her out of the circle with a thought. Magic sends her careening past the golden and glowing protective wall toward the open romance novel where she’s sucked inside.

She’s safe. Finally, she’s safe. And with her gone—

“You focus on me,” I tell the Horned God. “This is between us.”

His eyes narrow as he stares at me, their depths bottomless and expansive, so dark they threaten to pull me into them, where I’d never escape again.

“What do you think you’re going to do? Just because you’ve thrown your toys away doesn’t mean this ends well for you, Yasmine. Your magic will be mine.”

My magic. The part of me I’ve always loved the most.

“I’m told that in order to contain you, I’ll have to sacrifice that which I love the most,” I tell him. “It’s not even a question.”

With everyone else safe, that only leaves one more thing…

I toss back my head and the scream that rips from inside of me is tortured. Because to save the people I love permanently, I have to sacrifice my magic. The pool of it inside of me, the always bubbling cauldron of power simmering at any given time, for me to use, is there when I reach for it.

Focusing on it now, I push everything I have toward the Horned God to create a barrier around him. Tick, tock. The protective circle keeping the coven at bay starts to fall, diminishing as the full brunt of my magic slams into the Horned God.

He’s yelling, but I barely hear him above the roar in my ears. The draining sensation coming from inside of me and the voice in my head begging me to stop. It’s not as loud as the voice telling me to push for more. To give him everything I’ve got.

A sacrifice.

It was never a choice.

Never something I had to think about.

The barrier around the Horned God holds even as he lifts claw-tipped hands to pound against it. Not for a second do I consider failure. With the barrier growing, the coven pushing toward me, the Horned God grows smaller and smaller. The power of the circle radiates outward and the smaller he becomes, the less his spell over the others holds.

It breaks, shatters, and they slow with their fingertips only inches away from grabbing me.

Sweat breaks out along my forehead, down my back, on my stomach and under my arms. The effort of taking every bit of fantastical power inside of me and forcing it to become energy in 3D takes its toll.

“You want it?” I manage. “Here it is.”

All of it.

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