Page 635 of Shadowblood Souls
My breath catches in my throat. I haven’t gotten to bask in this especially potent sensation very often. It’s filling in every bit of empty space inside me.
I can repay her for that.
I reach across the fence to pat her arm. “You love him. And you know he loves you. That’s bigger than anything you’re afraid of.”
Humans are strange beings. They’re the ones feeling the feelings, but so often they need to be told what’s inside them before they can recognize it.
A brilliant smile crosses the bride’s lips as a flood of relief courses off her. “You’re right. The worries seem so silly when I think clearly. Thank you.”
She turns and hurries back into the church, nothing but elation radiating off her now.
I sent her on that path. A surge of my own joy swells inside me.
Too quickly, too vast.
Panic jolts through me amid the rushing whirlwind. I only have an instant to push myself away from the fence before the hurricane of happiness bursts out of not just my hair but all of me in an explosion of light.
I crumple in on myself, hugging my knees, willing the blinding glow back under my skin. But it’s blazing too wildly for me to catch hold.
Frantic voices yell. Tires screech. Sparks of other people’s panic nip at me.
A metallic crunch reverberates through the air. The impact of the people hurt by my power stabs right down the center of my body: an acidic spurt of agony, a searing flare of anguish.
A crackling of pain before a life snuffs out.
A sob hitches out of me. I dig my fingers into the grass.
The light starts to contract back into me, and I dive into the first sliver of shadow I can reach.
I shouldn’t have come over to the church at all. I should have known it’d be too risky.
Why didn’t I walk away when I saw the bride?
But she looked so lost…
Now I have more injuries to make up for. More hurt to balance out.
I’ll find a way. There has to be a way. For now?—
A sudden force blasts straight through the shadows to slam into me.
I reel through the patches of darkness. Before I can get my bearings, another blast of the unexpected energy smacks me.
This time it digs in, like fingers clutching around my mind. The force wriggles through my thoughts.
I have the sense of a presence at the other end of that grasp, as if I’m a fish hooked on a lure.
The lure yanks at me. It’s so snagged in my head I can’t do anything except follow.
I stumble through the shadows, a silent wail building inside me. No, no, no.
It’s been years since I felt this sensation, but I know it too well. It’s one of them, one of the mortals with magic.
A sorcerer is reeling me in.
Not just me. As I’m dragged forward with increasing speed, my essence brushes against other beings in the shadows alongside me. We’ve all been caught up in this vast net of sorcerous compulsion.
An impression of words hum through my essence.Come. Come to me.
