Page 43 of Magic Hunted
“Follow my magic and copy what I do, child,” Shanyirra said.
I had to try. I couldn’t mess this up. There was no coming back for them if I failed. My mates would not die because of me. They would not!
Shanyirra placed her hand on my chest. My skin warmed and I sensed a hand of white magic dipping inside of me. It cut through the sludgy mess that filled the center of my chest, deeper still past the river of glowing gold that was the grimoire’s magic and into a thread of shimmery bright green.
That was my soul-light! That vibrant green was my essence. She knew exactly where to find it. She wasn’t going to help me. She was going to pull the thread and bond us. I followed Shanyirra’s hand of magic, diving after the trail of her magic to stop her.
The white expanded, glowing brightly as it closed around the thread. I had to get it off her before it was too late. I gripped the thread and an electric buzz passed through me. That…wasn’t my soul-light. It was my essence, a part of me, but also something other. I’d tasted the same energy when it had flown from me. It flittered through me with effervescent bubbles filled with energy and life andpower.
Magic. My magic.
It shot up from its hiding place, flying to the studs and encasing them with brilliant green. My magic glowed brightly, bright enough to eat away the ball of oily darkness. Titan’s blue magic splintered into a million tiny fragments, blasted away from the studs. The agony disappeared. My chest loosened. I sucked in a deep breath and then another. I clenched a fist over my racing heart and blinked away the blur from my vision. My fingers trailed over the studs like braille. “They don’t hurt anymore.” Instead, they pulsed with warmth, each stud tingling with bright green sparkly bubbles.
My gaze found Shanyirra’s milky white eyes. “You could have taken the grimoire.” She’d gone past it, deeper to a hidden place I never knew existed.
She sat back on her haunches as Dias helped me to sit. “We do need the grimoire, but not in the way you think. We’re not going to steal it, or force bond you for it, simply because it’s not ours to take.”
Her magic was inside me. I’d been laid open and completely vulnerable. She could have forced the bond and she hadn’t.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, but that was all she would get out of me. She still didn’t offer to remove the bond and she was powerful.
“Your eyes are glowing,” Dias said.
“That’s because she’s more Fae than she realizes. She’s powerful. She’s a shifter,anda mage. A powerful enough mage to use the natural magic bred into her. Powerful enough to save our worlds,” Shanyirra said.
Her words resounded in my head. Powerful enough to…break my own bond. I had magic I could bend to my will. I knew where it resided in me. I didn’t need her. My magic was as strong as hers, if not more powerful. If I could learn how to use it, I could set everyone free.
I rubbed my palm over the ache blooming in my chest.
I wouldn’t need the alphas and they wouldn’t need me…
“Haera, whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it.” Ashir looked stricken. His skin was tight across his features, his eyes flaring wide.
Dias was straight-out pale and Savvas had bruises under his eyes. Titan had done this to them because they were tied to me. Through the bond.
And I had powerful magic.
I dove inside me along the same path Shanyirra had gone. There was my thread of magic. Right there for the taking. I raked it up with all my might. Brilliant light shone on the backs of my eyelids. Power raged through me, gleaming and writhing to bend to my will. I brought it to the bond-barrier, watching the green light shimmer over the web of cracks. Beyond that, red, yellow and orange pulsed.
“Get back,” I whispered.
Savvas cried out, the pain in his voice slicing through the ache. “Don’t!”
There was no choice. They had to see that. I thrust my magic at the barrier. A flash of light exploded around me. A shockwave thumped into me and threw me into a long, dark tunnel. Ice ran through my veins, bleeding into every cell of my body.
My mates shouted. Voices blurred.It will be fine. I will be okay. I’ll be better off.I wanted to say all those words, but my tongue was too thick and I began to drift in a frozen cloud.
This was for the best.
For the best.
Someone shouted. Shanyirra’s hand on my chest heated. I gaped at the burn as white light surged inside me. I pushed back with my magic. I would break the bond. She would see. They would all see.
Golden light poked through my green as the grimoire sparked to life. White and green magic disappeared behind a wall of solid gold and when it cleared, I hovered near the ceiling in a foreign room.
Sweet air drifted in through an open window. Light blue sky and rolling green hills beyond were framed in billowing curtains. A vine crept over the sill dotted with tiny purple flowers. Their fragrance filled the air. The aroma was thick and honeyed on my tongue.
Shelves filled to the brim with organized jars and golden-hued metallic containers, ran the length of one wall. A fireplace containing a crackling fire was mounted along another wall, over which a cauldron bubbled away. Three stuffed armchairs were scattered around the fireplace as though they didn’t really have a spot and moved regularly. A blackened rug lined the stone floor in front of the fireplace, pock-marked with holes, no doubt from escaped embers.
