Page 68 of Cursed

The Sages at the Academy had always told me that it wasintentionthat mattered…“Even if you can’t find every ingredient, your intention is what calls the spell forward.”

I hoped they were right.

The personal item—

What did I have of hers?

Nothing— she had left me nothing.

The whispers in my mind intensified, and all at once I remembered there was something that had been hers.

Lucian’s engagement ring.

I groaned as I pushed myself to my feet and rushed back into my bedroom.

Lucian’s ring—where was it?

I pawed through drawers and boxes until I remembered…

I flung myself down on the floor beside my bed and reached underneath.

A whimper escaped my lips as I reached farther, fingers scrabbling until finally I felt the edge of the dark velvet box.

With a triumphant cry, my fingers closed over it and I drew my arm back. I opened the box, but only just enough to peek inside to see the glint of the dark gems embedded in the ring.

I rushed back into the bathroom and leaned over the tub to dump the contents of the box into the water.

The ring dropped to the bottom with a metallicclunk,and I dropped the box and fell to the floor beside the grimoire.

Words.

I closed my eyes and concentrated all of my energy on the ring at the bottom of the tub.

My power stirred, weak and first, and then it grew stronger as the whispers in my mind intensified.

“By my blood, I call you forth. With my will, I bridge the chasm of death.”

The words echoed in the bathroom and I waited, heart pounding, for a rush of wind or a murmur of my mother’s voice… but nothing happened.

I opened my eyes slowly, but the bathroom was unchanged. The blood on the floor gleamed in the soft lighting, and the surface of the water was unchanged and still.

With a frustrated groan, I pushed myself to my feet again and lurched toward the tub. I leaned over the still water and held my bloodied hand over the surface.

Three fat drops trailed down my fingers and fell into the water.

But instead of dissipating, they floated on the surface, and then spread out, coating the water in red.

I backed away as the lights flickered, and the whispers in my mind buzzed like angry hornets.

My hands clenched into fists at my sides and pain throbbed up my arm.

Did I use the wrong words? Or said them in the wrong order?

No— the intention was the key.

Focus.

“By my blood, I call you forth,” I repeated firmly. “With my will, I bridge the chasm of death.”

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