Page 25 of Fated In Forever
“I don’t know…what? What do you see?”
“These look like….but it can’t be.” Blake shook his head, closing his eyes like he was trying to block something out. “I’m sure it’s the lighting in here, it’s so dark…”
I pulled away, fear tightening my body, reflected in his face. “Just tell me,” I said, reaching for my throat, dragging my fingers over the spot enough times he snared my wrist, his eyes going wide.
Not as wide as mine, when I saw what spooked him.
Faint black veins on the top of my hand, trailing out from beneath my sleeve, a poor imitation of Romulus’s, but very definitely there. “Is this The Darkening? Is my blood somehow corrupted?” I breathed, biting the rest of my words off.
Was this Ravok’s spell?
Am I going to turn into an eight-foot monster, too?
What the fuck?
“Let’s not panic,” Blake muttered, far too late, because I was most definitely panicking.
“Panic about what?’ Riordan closed the door behind him, his eyes bouncing between us. “Or should I hazard a guess?” When neither of us answered, he crossed the room in two strides, “What’s happened, Evangeline? Does this have to do with Malachi?”
“I’m…” I shook my head and pulled my sleeve back, showed him my arm.Worse. Even worse than I imagined, and it definitely wasn’t the lighting in here. The veins spread all the way up my arm, almost invisible to the naked eye, but reaching to my shoulder, and I resisted the sudden urge to rip my clothes off and see if I was covered in them.
“This could be anything.” Blake said quickly. “You were in that room a long time, you were in that water, near the portal, and all that magic leaking from the ley line…chances are, there’s a simple explanation. We’ll ask Fiona,” he decided. “See what she makes of this.”
“Or Brendan,” I said under my breath. “He seems like the resident expert on spells gone wrong.”
Like me, Riordan was trying to get his bearings. “This can’t be the Darkening. It can’t.” He pulled me against him and I went. Willingly. Gladly. Grateful to be held up by strong arms and an even stronger body, even if he did smell like brimstone.
Even if I was still damp, my clothes filthy.
“Do you feel different, Evie?” Blake had his feet braced apart, hands clenched, typical I’m-about-to-go-to-war stance, except there was nothing for him to fight. “Has anything changed? give me a rundown.”
My heart pounded. I could have said no and gone about the next few hours—or days—agonizing internally over everything thathadchanged, but…I decided to take a leap of faith instead. I’d made a slew of pretty promises to them about trust, and here was my first real test.
Sharing something that scared me to my bones.
“Yes. Something is different,” my throat closed up, my heart pounding faster. “I thought it was just…stress, but there is something between Malachi and I now. I…uhm…” I took a breath, then another. “Ravok had Malachi suspended over the pool, using Aria’s magic. Then he cut my arm, and when my blood touched the water, the pool came alive. Then it…uhm…enveloped him. Like a living cocoon.”
Neither of them reacted, but the shadows grew deeper, the air a little colder. Out in the hallway, footsteps hurried past, along with the hum of hushed conversation.
“Ravok was gloating about how he’d rule the world, how he would use the two of us as his slaves and I had to dosomething. So I jumped. Over the pool, and into the middle of the spell, I guess. The water enveloped me, too, and the next thing I knew, I was laying on my back in the pool and Malachi was transforming into…well, what he is now.”
Pinching my lips together, I fought the sudden urge to cry. “That’s what the ritual was about, wasn’t it? Not to restore Malachi, but to break this…connection between us?” From the way Blake shifted his feet and Riordan wouldn’t meet my eyes, I was right.
And I hated that I was right.
I couldn’t explain why I had this wild urge to race out of this room and find Malachi and touch him, make sure he was okay. Why would breaking some bond between us send me into a full-on anxiety attack?
But before I could yell at them for lying, or caved into my fear, or any of the thousand deflective ways I’d usually deal with the fact I had literal black veins crawling beneath my skin, the door opened and Aisling popped her head through the crack.
“There you are.” She said brightly, her smile fading when she took in our faces. “How would you like some clean clothes? And a hot bath, since it looks like you’re not a bit hungry?”
“I would love a bath.” I traded a long look with Blake, slipping out of Riordan’s arms.
“And clean clothes…” I picked at my disgusting outfit. “Even better.”
11
EVANGELINE
