Page 122 of All the Devils are Here

But I couldn’t.

It was too late.

I was no longer mine.

“I love you,” I whispered. “I’ll come back.”

And I was transported into a world of violet light.

It was like the dream, and yet this time I was real. There was no more pain in my body as I stood in this infinite mist before the single flaming nova of power.

I was myself, and not. Another presence lived inside me now. The Island’s magic embodied me, and it felt likeItook a step back.

Relief. That was what I felt, along with the panic from my mates.

I’m alive.I’m here. I pushed the thoughts and love to them, and I felt them calm. Not entirely, but the blind panic slowed. There was a sense of motion and running. Speed and desperation.

Hello, Meghan.A voice sounded in my head. Neither male nor female. It just was.I am not going to hurt you.

You took my body. I thought the words because I wasn’t currently in control of my mouth.

Only because I do not have my own. I will return it to you, but first, I will make things right. I have been waiting a long time to do so. Thank you, for helping me.

If I’d still had control, I would have blinked.I helped you?

You and your mates. And now, I will help you.

The magic moved my body, and we walked toward the brightness. This time when my body moved toward it, we got closer.

Closer.

And closer still until I closed my eyes. My body kept moving.

The clatter of metal brought me back. I was standing in a room in the mountain, Prospero beside Laurent on a table, ready to die. But now he stared at me as I was. Glowing like a spirit and brimming with magic.

When I spoke, my voice was new. A double-timbre that was me and the magic in me. I trusted this voice, because I felt it in my bones. The Island was on my side now. And this man could do nothing to us.

I let the island have full control willingly.

“You will not touch him.”

“Will you stop me?” Prospero asked. “I’m doing this for you. For both of us.”

My body moved faster than I knew it could, crossing the space and grabbing Prospero by the throat. And then we movedthrough the stone.

It was the weirdest fucking thing I’d ever felt, and behind us, I heard the echo of Laurent shouting my name.

We exited into the sunset sky, standing on rocks I hadn’t seen before. Near the mountain—it was behind us. But these rocks had a sheer drop to the water.

Water that barely covered more jagged rocks.

The Island deposited Prospero at the edge none too gently, and he pinwheeled, catching his balance.

“Meg.”

Behind me, Laurent was charging up the rocks in his stone form, breaking the land in order to get to me. And my other mates were right behind him. They stopped when they saw me and Prospero, staring.

“What are you doing?” The magician barked. “You need his heart. Youdemandedit.”

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