Page 96 of Cursed

I forced myself to meet her gaze, determined to stand my ground. “I want the truth! You owe me that much!”

“Truth?” she hissed. “There is notruthfor the likes of you. There is only the dark fate that awaits those who dare challenge the powerful. And you—you will never escape the shadow of your father’s treachery.”

“Shut up!” I shouted. My voice cracked as the weight of her disdain choked me. I could feel the magic within me waver, and I pulled my focus back to the bands of light that trapped her.

If I couldn’t hold her, I would lose everything—not just the answers, but the very essence of who I was becoming.

“Tell me!” I pleaded. “What did Lucian do? What really happened to you?”

“Lucian?” she sneered and her eyes flashed with a cruel delight. “He played the fool for your father’s sake, just as he plays you for his own amusement. He saw Dario’s lust for power and his foolish belief that the grimoire could be bent to his will. Lucian let the grimoire take him—”

I wasn’t going to get any answers from her—she was trapped in the past; and darkness had twisted every memory. “That’s a lie!”

I knew better than to trust the words of this venomous shade, but they echoed eerily with my own fears.

“Oh?” The shade’s laugh sent a shudder through me and its mirthless resonance burrowed into my marrow. “You believe that you’re special? That you’re different from your father?” Her gaze flicked over me scornfully. “I can smell them on you—tainting you.Whore.”

“No!” I protested as I summoned up every ounce of defiance I had left. “I can control the magic. I’m stronger than my father ever was! Stronger thanyou.”

“Stolen power,” the shade hissed. “See what good it does you—”

And then it happened. In the blink of an eye, the very essence of my magic wavered and faltered. I felt it—the moment when she found a weak spot in my spell. Her form surged forward and broke free from the ethereal restraints I had placed upon her.

Shadows coiled and twisted around her, dark tendrils that reached for me, hungry for revenge.

“NO!” I gasped as panic surged through my veins, electrifying and paralyzing all at once.

I was losing control.

“You were never meant to wield this power, child,” she taunted me. “It belongs to those who embrace the darkness!”

Desperation clawed at my insides, and my mind raced for a solution. I needed to reclaim my magic and banish her before she unleashed her fury upon me.

I had to act.

My fingers trembled as I steadied my breath and gathered the remnants of my magic.

I was stronger.

I was stronger.

“Youobeyme!” My shout was answered by the shade’s enraged shriek as it rose from the bathtub. Dark liquid poured from her nose, mouth, and eyes, and streamed down her body, and painted her smooth, luminous skin with inky blackness.

“By iron and salt, by shadow and flame, I bind your fury. I seal your name!”

I called upon the words that danced at the edge of my consciousness, an incantation I barely understood. The room seemed to shudder as I uttered them.

The water in the bathtub roiled and boiled over with furious energy. It hissed as it splashed onto the cold tiles and I recoiled as the scalding droplets singed my skin, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off the shade.

She twisted and writhed as dark smoke curled around her body like hungry vines, and her scream pierced my eardrums—filled with pain and wrath that rattled my bones.

The sound echoed and swelled in the opulent bathroom until it wrapped around me like a choking fog.

“Leave this realm! I banish you!” The finality in my tone surprised even me, and I staggered under the pressure of the command.

With one last surge of will, I unleashed the spell. Magic coalesced and brightened the dim space as it illuminated every corner until the steam turned into a swirling violet tempest. I felt the rush of raw energy coursing through me before it spiraled outward and sought the shade like a beast released from its cage.

“NO!” it screamed in agony as tendrils of darkness were ripped away from its form.

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