Page 69 of Body of Echoes

Rage simmered. “This was the only way you knew how to fix it? Selling more of your life?”

He didn’t answer.

I set my jaw and narrowed my eyes to slits. “If you can fix things without me. Then so can I.”

That comment broke his composed demeanor. His brows pulled down and one foot took a step toward me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

His temper enticed mine. The edges of my vision darkened with whispers of wicked ideas. And it clicked something open inside of me that wanted to come out and play. My split.

“It means that maybe myhusbandisbetter suited for me.” They fled my lips without warning, but I didn’t correct them. I tried, but I couldn’t. A part of me enjoyed it too much. Instead, I just stared at him, unsure how they landed. But a second after I saw Fletcher’s expression change, that darkness inchedcloser to the center of my vision, filtering my perception in twisted ways.

He didn’t respond, and I suddenly didn’t care. I watched as his brows furrowed and his lips parted like he had realized something.

Then, the filter deepened as I recognized my split magic flaring in me like a black star exploding in a freeing sweep. My magic and Fletcher’s were where they belonged. Tiny. Useless. Nothing. They burrowed into the depths of me, taken hostage.

The dark sapphire hues sped down my arms after I let out an amused laugh. The wind came and snatched me, sending me to the mountains behind Elizy.

A perfect place to hunt.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

Snow whipped around my head as my black sneakers sank into the soft snow. The cold came in rolls of vicious gusts, dampening my bare skin around my arms. The white powder gathered in mounds around me.

I stood on a mountaintop, looking down upon the vast expanse of the Ölden Lands. The Dead Woods of Elizy lay barren in the distance, the hills rising and falling like waves in a stormy sea. The crystal fields shimmered with an ethereal beauty, reflecting thesilver hue of the moonlight. Beyond that was Ellion City that rose up like a beacon of hope in the midst of heavily forested cliffs and flatlands. The Onyx River snaked its way through the landscape, a ribbon of sinister black against the liveliness that surrounded it.

Where? Where? Where?

No time to waste. The Elizians were depending on me to free them from the Cidris. Accessing my overbearing split like it was the only thing filling my body could be their saving grace.

Darkness swelled within me, bursting from my core and seeking freedom. It poured out of my fingertips in inky ropes as I threw my hands forward. The lovely split obeyed, moving with intent and purpose as it slithered down the mountain in a bulk of black smoke until it reached its destination. For the first time,Iwas in control of my magic. It moved when I willed it to, and it breathed when I allowed it to. I could wield it expertly. And it was delicious and dangerous and intoxicating.

A smile tugged at my lips as a cacophony of cawing erupted. I watched hundreds of rayko birds take flight from their slender trees, their iridescent feathers shimmering in the pale light.

Graff’s bulky figure appeared beside me. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Go away,” I ordered, reeling in some of my split to throw at Graff if need be.

“Come back home with me, Ripley,” he reached out, fingertips grazing my hand. “You’re clearly not well.”

I took a step back. “You touch me and I’ll have your head rolling down this mountain.” At the thought, my split embraced me, encouraging me to fall deeper into its cocoon.

His hand came down on mine anyway. “I’m ordering you to return home with me.”

My magic blazed, darkness spiraling to the front of my mind as my arm burst into an obsidian and sapphire twisted flame.

Graff yelped, and as soon as his hand released me, I did what Fletcher had done. Around Graff’s wrists, shackles without a seam. “Ripley!” he wailed.

With a devious smile tugging at my lips, I let my eyes roam the forests one more time. The warm depth of the split reached out, touching every bit of the Ölden Lands like vines of abstruse shadows that no secret could escape from.

Then, my darker magic found what I was looking for. A lone Cidris wondering the forests near Ellion City.

I fragmented, riding the branches of my magic down to the Ellion Forests. The wind changed to a warmer temperature as my speed increased. A sharp gust snapped the rose vine Fletcher had secured my hair with as the many yards unraveled behind me. The vines of shadows flexed and throbbed. I remained steadfast atop it, steering with determination and dropping myself off in front of the young man with ginger hair and freckles. He startled and stumbled back onto his bottom with a cry.

I cocked my head, smiled sweetly, and enunciated, “Hello.”

Before he could reach for his belt to grapple with the shackles, I sent black lightning into his chest, a buzz humming so angelically. I giggled at the melody of the man’s screams. The electricity sank into my heart, allowing more of the split to uproot and thrive.

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