Page 120 of Unraveled
“I-I can’t!” I slam it again.
“Mia, you’ve been escaping your room in the castle for weeks. You already know you can unravel spells.Use your gift.”
I lift my eyes and meet his golden ones, and the knot in my throat loosens, even as I reach for the door with shaking hands.
Another shot hisses by, and it lodges itself in the wall in front of me. Rock fragments rain down on us, but Ash’s hand wraps around mine on one of the bars, and I don’t look back.
“Focus, Mia,” Ash urges. So tired. So weak. “You can do this.”
I look at the lock and see the strands of Harper’s old spell, thinly woven over the metal and into the keyhole. A great enchantment meant to deter even those who wield sorcery. But not me. I pull at it, hurrying it to let me in and ignoring the running steps behind.
I swing the door open and step in, over his golden blood dried on the floor. I reach for his manacles?—
“Stop!” Skylar’s deep voice falters into a more feminine sound. He grabs Harper by the throat, yanking her back to his body where he presses the barrel of his gun to her temple. She screams as the metal burns her skin.
Even Ash stills beside me.
The veil gurgles as it continues to fail.
“I’ll kill the librarian unless you step out of the cage, Mia.”
The blood drains from my face as Harper’s expression turns into a silent plea. But even through the layers of her fear, I see the resignation in her slumping shoulders.
She knows I can’t. If I do, they’ll kill Ash—the man I love—and his sister. They’ll killme.
Skylar presses his nose to Harper’s moonlight hair. “Are you going to choose the fae, the creatures who killed your father? You’ll choose them over your friend, who may I add, is here because ofyou?”
“I’m sorry.” I don’t look away from Harper, and my heart tears as I move my hand to Ash’s shackles and snap my fingers. My spell breaks through the lock.
I hear a few shouts of protest just a second before the shot echoes in the room and Harper’s blood splatters over Skylar’s cheeks. He lets her fall to the ground. Lifeless.
The screams that follow match the turmoil inside my body, and my vision blurs with tears as I push the iron away from Ash’s ankles. Only when he’s free, I heave but, by some miracle, manage to not be sick all over the ground.
I doomed an innocent to save the man I love. I’m a monster. The curse devours my insides as despair takes ahold of me. But I won’t let Morla take more from us, and before I fade away, I use my sunderer power to unravel what makes my curse. I steal some of its darkness and blend its magic imprint seamlessly with mine. It hisses as if in pain, and I feel myself grow stronger as its anger becomes my own.
I look across the room, feeling the curse rush to my skin, savoring the possibility of freezing them all in stone. Naheli was right, this curse never wanted to kill me. It likes a host that speaks back. It craves death, but not necessarily mine.
Instead of light, I become darkness. A spell forms in my mind in threads of red and black. Something new that encompasses all the betrayal and sorrow Morla, the strixes, Irene, my father, and Finley caused. The enchantment tastes of a strange mixture of smoke and mint. It wants to cause destruction, to turn their hearts to granite.
I lift my arms, and the spell blasts out of me so fast it pulls me forward. Unlike in the forest, where I had no true control of what I was doing, here, I launch the spell at the five men running at us. The first turns to stone so fast, there isn’t time to scream.
The second gets caught mid-run. The other three jump out of the way of my power, but I catch their legs and throw another swirling spell their way, finishing them off. My energy dwindles, but still, I turn two more to stone.
Ash gets up from the ground, and I don’t need to face him to know he’s regaining his power. I can taste it in the back of my throat before waves of gold grow from behind me and stretch until I can see them from the corners of my eyes. In the corner the shadows morph, and from them, a wolf appears. This is the first time I’ve seen Naheli look mostly like stars. Her eyes glow the same color as Ash’s power.
He presses his hand to my waist and guides me out of the cage, and it’s then that I notice I’m floating at least a foot above the ground. Our powers blend, mine in black and his in gold.
His words caress my ears, the fae tongue clear. “Keep Nera safe, Monster.”
Then he steps around me, just as Naheli jumps to devour those who were foolish enough to stay and fight. Skylar’s face turns so white it looks like he’s made of marble himself. The pyramid cracks, and the veil sputters one last time and then fails entirely.
Many of the scientists run screaming from the room, just as the bells of Penumbra ring loudly outside. The lunargyres—or the fae—made it into the city, probably called by Ash and Naheli. For the first time since the cave downstairs, Skylar’s glamour fails him and his features flicker from his, to Morla, then back into Skylar. The few lackeys that remained by his side falter and step back.
I rush to Nera, narrowly dodging a piece of the pyramid as it crashes to the ground. I undo Harper’s spells, and Nera’s skin regains its color rapidly as I drag her body over the ground and out of the iron.
Once she’s out, I turn to Ash as his golden magic envelops Skylar in a tight cocoon before throwing him into the metal pyramid. His bones crack, a cry escapes his lips, and then his glamour fades completely, leaving Morla pinned to the metal. Pale and staring wide-eyed at the man she supposedly loved. She has no power left, not after cursing Ash with something so vicious it damned his entire kingdom.
Morla lifts a trembling hand and tries to cast something. Nothing happens. Ash strolls toward her, unconcerned.
