Page 124 of All the Devils are Here

The hand not circled by glowing power reached out, and I felt a shock. Like a silent wave of pressure billowing outward. And in my soul, I felt what it was. My mates did, too.

“To be whole. It is the desire of every living thing. No matter how deep you must search to find it. But you never asked again.” She turned once more on Prospero. “Not once. You spoke to me. Forced reactions from me. Used me and twisted me to do what you wished, preying on my weakness. And none of it was real.

“What I needed was completeness, and all you did was destroy. No more.”

My body snapped its fingers, and three beams of light slammed into my mate’s chests, returning their long-stolen hearts.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

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ARIEL

Fire hit me so hard I nearly fell backwards down the rocks. Pain, and then the deepest shudder as my body came together in a way it had not been…

Since I was created.

My heart.

I hadn’t felt the beat of it in my chest in centuries. It was loud. Pounding. The feeling brought me to my knees.

Meg stood bathed in power in front of us. I’d thought more than once that she looked like a goddess. Now? She was one.

I could feel her in the center of my chest. Whole and alive within the magic that should have killed her. I didn’t pretend to understand why she wasn’t gone, but I didn’t care. Love spun through me with every heartbeat.

Everything was different. I felt stronger and freer.

Because I was.

The ties on me were gone. The magic Prospero had bound me with for centuries had evaporated the second my heart slammed back into my chest. Our hearts weren’t in the center of a power he controlled anymore.

My smile grew.

“I would have accepted your sacrifice,” the island said to Prospero. “After so much time, I forced myself to want the hearts with such fierce passion, if only to be rid of you. Though it could have been so much simpler, if you’d asked.”

He stood taller. “I can still give you everything,” he said. “The last heart. And once my magic returns, I’ll give you whatever else you need.”

Meg tilted her head to the side, and it was eerie watching her body make a movement that was so distinctly unlike her. Through our bond, I felt her reach out and touch me—sensed she was doing it to the others as well. She was there. She was with the Island. She supported every step.

“Did you think the request was only for you?”

Prospero’s eyes went wide.

“The piece of magic in this woman’s body that belongs to you is small, compared to all that I am. And I will never be able to take it back from you.” She nodded to Prospero, like she was offering him some kind of grace. “It was freely given. I cannot deny that.”

Light sprang from Meg’s chest, rushing out of her and back into the magician. It was like watching time rewind. He stood taller, got younger, suddenly looked like he had for all the years I’d known him.

Meg’s body was still steeped in the power of the island, like she’d truly been transformed.

“Thank you,” he breathed. “Thank you.”

“Why?”

He bent over with his hands on his knees, catching his breath. Like the process exhausted him. “You gave me back my life.”

“Is that what I did?”

He looked up, and I saw the confusion. Meg was confused too. I felt it.

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