Page 53 of The Secret Keeper's Daughter

“Eira, are you okay?”

Shaking my head, I lean against a tree. Breathe deeply. Now it feels the foreign magic inside me is fighting against each other. It’s cold and jostling my organs. I manage to focus on my friend. “I need another weapon. Using the mist balls is…”

My voice trails off as my stomach lurches heavily. I’m not going to be able to keep my food down.

Have to try.

“Eira?”

“I’m sorry.” I turn away from him just in time to expunge all the food he so generously shared with me.

Chapter

Nineteen

The new magicfeels like it’s fighting the magic from the first two. If I had any food left in my stomach, I’d surely vomit that up too.

“Eira?” Harek calls.

I’d run from him after throwing up, not only embarrassed but wanting privacy as all the new magic had its way with me. Instead of feeling better, it’s worse. Doesn’t show any signs of relenting and isn’t mixing well at all with the other stuff.

There has to be a way to get rid of all this. Other fae who kill must have figured something out by now. They can’t all run around feeling like this—not unless it gets better with time. It doesn’t seem likely. There has to be an answer somewhere.

Harek must know.

I step out from behind the tree I’ve been leaning against and face him. “Sorry about the food. I know it couldn’t have been easy for you to get that.”

“Are you okay?” He rushes over with nothing but concern in his eyes.

“I don’t know.”

“What happened?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

He frowns. “I mean, aside from the fact that you had to kill another fae. That’s a lot to take in, I know.”

“I can’t deal with this magic!”

“Magic?”

“The black swirly mist. I assumed it was their magic, but maybe I’m wrong. What was that?”

Harek just stares at me.

“You don’t know what it is either?”

“What black mist?”

It’s my turn to stare at him. “The swirling stuff that came out of that werewolf’s body and flew into mine.”

“I didn’t see anything like that.”

“You didn’tseethat? How is that possible? Were you looking the other way?”

He shakes his head. “I was looking right at you. You reacted like something was going on, but I couldn’t see a thing.”

“Let me get this straight. You didn’t see the black mist at all?”

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