Page 48 of Hex and Scales

His laugh scraped against her nerves like talons on glass. “Still playing innocent, Shiara?”

The name hit her like a physical blow. Images flashed through her mind - silk robes instead of jeans, magic that tasted of starlight rather than ice, a different life entirely. Her birthmark burned.

“That’s not my name.” But even as she said it, more memories surfaced. A grand castle carved from living stone. Dragon fire lighting the night sky. Ren’s eyes, younger but still holding that same intensity when he looked at her.

“No?” Darkness flooded the room, killing her carefully tended potted plants. The herbs she’d planted with Clover withered and died. The crystalline succulents she’d accidentally created while thinking of Ren shattered into black dust. “Then why do you reach for him even now? Why does your magic sing to his across centuries?”

“You’re insane.” But her heart raced as more memories crashed through her mind. Dancing under the stars at their mating ceremony. Flying together for the first time, his wings sheltering her from the wind. The way his eyes crinkled when he smiled - a sight so rare and precious she’d memorized each one.

“I watched you at that fountain.” Shadows writhed around Linus like serpents, his voice dripping bitterness. “Making that wish. Calling out for your mate. I gave you a second chance in this life, and still you chose him.”

The memories came faster now. Turning away from a younger Linus, his handsome face twisting with hurt before hardening into hatred. The first time she met Ren, their souls recognizing each other instantly. Linus watching from the shadows, his obsession growing darker with each passing day.

“You could have chosen me.” He advanced, darkness rippling off him in waves. The shadows around him took shape - poisoned daggers that made her birthmark throb withremembered pain. “I would have given you everything. Power. Immortality. My devotion. But you threw it away for that arrogant dragon.”

Her locket pulsed more strongly, magic pushing against its silver confines. Something powerful lay dormant inside - not just her father’s protection spells, but older magic. Ancient magic.

“Eight centuries.” Sabine’s voice shook, but not with fear. Anger rose in her chest as the full weight of his obsession hit her. “You spent eight hundred years plotting revenge because I didn’t want you? There are millions of women in the world, and you couldn’t move on from one rejection?”

His face contorted with rage. A massive dark barrier sprang up around the shop, cutting off any escape. Outside, she glimpsed Clover and Romi running toward her, magic already gathering. But the barrier blocked everything - light, sound, help.

“You were meant to be mine!” Linus - no, George - raised the poisoned dagger. Green energy crawled along its blade like toxic veins. The same blade that had ended her last life. “He couldn’t protect you then. He can’t protect you now.”

More memories surfaced: the final confrontation in her past life, George’s jealousy finally snapping as she once again chose Ren over him. The burning pain of poisoned steel sliding between her ribs. Ren’s anguished roar as he arrived too late.

She remembered removing her necklace with trembling fingers - not a locket then, but an amulet she and Ren had crafted together. “Keep it safe for me,” she’d whispered as the poison spread. “Until we meet again.”

The locket grew almost painfully hot against her skin as the memories aligned. She wasn’t just Sabine with some echoes of a past life. She was Shiara reborn, her soul finding its way back to her mate across centuries. Even without her memories, she’drecognized Ren’s soul the moment he walked into her shop. Her magic had always known him.

“Do you remember now?” George’s voice turned silky as shadows writhed around him. “How it ended last time? The look on his face as you died in his arms? I’ve waited centuries to see that pain again.”

Sabine gathered her power - not just ice magic now, but the full spectrum of her abilities awakening. Her tigress essence rippled beneath her skin while dragon magic stirred in her blood, recognizing its former vessel.

“You’re pathetic.” She spat, years of martial arts training with Rook guiding her into a defensive stance. “Eight centuries, and you still can’t handle rejection? What did you think would happen? That I’d magically fall in love with my murderer?”

His expression darkened to something truly murderous. Toxic green light pulsed around the dagger. “Let’s recreate that special moment, shall we?”

Poison-laced shadow magic exploded toward her. Sabine recognized the sickly green tinge - the same poison that had killed her before. She dodged, but George had perfected this attack over centuries. The magic followed her movements, herding her into a corner.

Her locket blazed with heat, the combined magic of three lifetimes - Shiara’s witch power, her father’s protection spells, and the lingering trace of Ren’s dragon fire - resonating with her own. But before she could harness that power, George struck.

The poisoned blade slid between her ribs, finding the exact spot marked by her birthmark. Pain blazed through her veins like liquid fire. As she fell, she caught a glimpse through the barrier - Ren’s dragon form throwing himself against the dark magic, his golden eyes wide with the same anguish she remembered from centuries ago.

Her locket shattered.

Magic exploded outward in a blinding surge of power. Protection spells woven with a father’s love merged with dragon magic preserved over centuries. The amulet hidden within the locket released its stored power - her magic twined with Ren’s from that final moment, preserved across lifetimes. The poison in her blood crystallized and shattered as all three magical sources merged with her current abilities.

Ice magic enhanced by shifter strength and awakened dragon power coursed through her veins. The combination felt right - as if she’d finally become whole, all aspects of herself aligning perfectly.

“Impossible!” George staggered back, face contorting with disbelief. “I killed you!”

FORTY-TWO

Sabine rose, magic swirling around her in ribbons of frost and light. Ice crackled across her skin like armor while her tiger essence rippled beneath. Dragon magic sang in her blood, remembering spells from centuries past.

“You really should have moved on.” Power blazed from her hands stronger than ever been in either life. “Eight hundred years is a long time to stay bitter about being told no.”

Her first strike caught George unprepared. The magic tore through his defenses like tissue paper. He threw everything he had at her - darkness, poison, centuries of hate - but Sabine’s combined powers proved stronger. Every spell she cast resonated with three lifetimes of magic and love.

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