Page 100 of All the Devils are Here

In my chest, Ariel’s terror and anger surged through me. But for the first time I understood how they were separate from me. I was scared and angry too, but it was good to know my own emotions wouldn’t be overrun by my mates.

I couldn’t tell him where I was. It didn’t matter. He knew. He would be coming. But I tried to send the feeling that I was all right. I wasn’t immediately in danger. Prospero looked like he could barely stand, let alone attack me.

“It should have killed you by now,” he said again. “Why hasn’t it?”

“I don’t know,” I told him. “But if you weren’t sure, you shouldn’t have done it in the first place. It’s your own fault for trying to fucking kill me.”

He staggered away from the wall toward me. “You have no idea what I’ve been through.”

“Actually, I have a pretty good idea. I’ve heard plenty.”

“All lies.”

I backed away from him, circling the giant crystal, which was pulsing with power. Whatever was inside it was calling to me like it was one and the same. It didn’t feel hostile, but neither did it feel friendly. A curious neutral, much like it had been in the dream.

“Forgive me for believing the people who both rescued me and didn’t kill seventy people in order to capture me. Or torture me. Or send the island’s magic to once again… what was that?Kill me.”

“Come back to me on the wrong side of a millennium and complain. I’m not dying on this fucking island. I’m going to need that power back.”

No. The island’s magic might kill me, but giving it back to him meant he would kill me anyway. And my mates. That wasn’t going to happen. “No.”

“You think I’m going to give you an option?”

I kept moving, circling the crystal as he followed me, steps heavy and labored. “I know you can’t take it back by force, and I think you’re struggling to stay standing.”

“I brought you here, didn’t I? Maybe I am weak.” Prospero smiled, and when he did, it was like watching a corpse grin. “Or maybe that’s what I want you to think.”

He lunged faster than I thought possible, not bothering to grab anywhere, just slamming himself into me and taking me back into the crystal. Pain cracked through my spine, and I didn’t see the blade until it was almost too late. “I warned him,” Prospero said. “I told him if he wouldn’t give me back his heart, and the magic used to make him, I would take yours. Just because I can’t take the magic back doesn’t mean I can’t kill you.”

I wasn’t weak—you couldn’t be a ballerina and be weak. The blade was pointing straight at Ariel’s mark, visible above the sheet, and I was holding him back. He’d taken me by surprise, but hewasweaker than he wanted me to believe. There was no way to hold him forever, but I had a chance, and that was all that mattered.

The bond between Ariel and me wassingingwith death and rage. The instinct to protect me was turning him feral.

“What is that?”

I looked at him, and his eyes were fastened on the mark. Recognition and pure malice entered his eyes. “So that’s why you’re alive. I never should have given you a chance. But you’ll break them even more now.”

The power of the island pulsed behind me and within me. No words, but… something. I threw myself to the side, out of the way of the knife, and released him. I nearly tripped on the sheet, but it didn’t matter. Prospero fell forward, the tip of the blade catching the crystal, and the magic struck back.

He went flying against the wall, the crunch of his body sickening. But he groaned. “See?” The word wasn’t addressed to me. “I told you. She wants to see you hurt, or she wouldn’t have jumped out of the way. Once I have the power back, I’ll protect you.”

I was pulled toward the crystal. Toward the place where the knife struck. All I had was instinct. The magic tingled through me, but this time not from pain. It just felt like…power.

Reaching, I placed my hand over that spot. Magic surged into me and away from me. It didn’t hurt—not like when he’d forced it into me. What felt like an apology echoed through me, but also anger that I still held on to so much power.

I don’t want it.

Take it.

It didn’t.

Glittering magic surged into my body, my skin glowing where it was painted purple. I had to close my eyes against the matching rise in brightness, and even through my eyelids, the source was almost clear. Another surge and more brightness.

This time I was thrown, a sound like thunder and fracturing glass roaring through me and the room. The world was an explosion, and I was at the center. Streaks of fire painted my arms and face, all the air gone from my lungs. Everything felt dark.

Had the explosion made me go blind?

No. I could open my eyes and see the dim shape of a rocky ceiling. There was no more light. My head pounded and my body ached.

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