At first, nothing happened.Then a blood-red blight bloomed out from where the bolt had struck.The mushroom began to instantly wither as the blight spread.It was as if the blight was sucking the life out of it, making it decay more and more as the seconds passed.
“Kieran!”Sebastian cried, then pivoted on his heel and sprinted in Kieran’s direction.
Kieran struggled to get back on his feet, shouting, “Sebastian,no!”
Elias fired another magic bolt at Kieran.Time seemed to slow.Kieran locked eyes with the magic flying in his direction.The bolt would be impossible to dodge, even if he tried to roll out of the way.He had no way to block it.
He closed his eyes.Please just make it fast.
But the impact never came.Instead, Kieran heard a pained yelp a few feet in front of him.His eyes flew open just as he saw the light from Elias’s spell fade.
And Sebastian, standing between him and Kieran, collapsed.
“No!”Kieran cried.
Just then, Kieran’s focus was pulled away by a clattering as the chains holding Verbena, whom Briar and Seaweed had managed to free, fell to the ground.The witch’s face was contorted into a mask of rage, her body pulsing with pinkish light.She held up her hands.
Suddenly, all the mushrooms around them lit up with a similar light.The ground shook, and Elias cried out as it collapsed beneath him.Rocks shot up out of the earth, stabbing throughhim and skewering him in place.It seemed that even without the scepter, she alone still had some control over the vein’s magic.Verbena descended on him, firing bolt after bolt of magic at him as he cried out in animal agony.
None of that, though, registered with Kieran in light of the weak wheeze that escaped Sebastian’s lips.
“No, no, no,” Kieran choked as he dropped down to his knees beside Sebastian.He gently cradled the other boy’s head.The bolt had struck Sebastian in the chest, burning away a portion of his shirt.The skin beneath began to discolor as the same reddish blight that had hit the mushroom began to spread from the center of his chest.It turned the skin into the same blood-red blight, which crept across his torso, spreading slowly as the seconds ticked by.Kieran could imagine it reaching deep into Sebastian’s tissue, consuming him from the inside as it spread.
Kieran was helpless to stop it.
When Sebastian spoke, his words came out choked: “I guess we’re even now.”
“Sebastian, I don’t know what to do.”Kieran’s eyes welled with tears as he ran a thumb over Sebastian’s cheek.The blight was spreading up his shoulder, reaching for his neck.“I don’t know any healing magic—”
“It’s okay,” Sebastian said.He offered Kieran a weak smile.“Just…keep holding me.”
“Stop it!You can’t give up,” Kieran said, tears choking him.They dripped down his chin as it wrinkled with a sob.“Just stay with me, okay?”
Behind them, Elias let out a pained roar as Verbena’s attacks on him grew more brutal.Chunks of the moss-covered soil thatmade up his new body rained down as Verbena hit him with concentrated blasts of air that acted like knife cuts, flaying Elias alive.Her expression didn’t change as she cut him to pieces, watching him fall apart into nothing but mud and plant matter.
“You have to find my sisters in Shui City, okay?”Sebastian said.His voice was growing hoarser as the blight climbed from his shoulder to his throat.“Mei and Lisha.Find them and tell them how much I love them.”
“No,”Kieran said firmly.He grabbed Sebastian’s hand, feeling how cold the skin had become, and squeezed it.“You’re not done.You’re not—”
“Kieran,” Sebastian said gently.His dark eyes met Kieran’s own.“Do you remember what I said?Back when we were playing that truth-telling game on the ship?About how I’ve never loved anyone?”
“Seb—”
Sebastian weakly lifted his free hand, pressing it to Kieran’s cheek.
“That’s not true anymore,” he whispered.
Kieran’s heart twisted in his chest.The blight was creeping up Sebastian’s jaw now, the color draining from his skin.Even now, he was so beautiful it made Kieran’s chest hurt.His breath was becoming ragged, and Kieran feared the blight had reached his lungs.
“Please, Sebastian,” Kieran begged, shoulders shaking as he cried.“Don’t do this.”
Across the clearing, Elias let out one final cry as his entire body crumbled into nothing, collapsing, inert, in a heap.
Verbena stared daggers at the creature.She exhaled, then turned away from him, walking in Kieran’s direction.
At the sight of her, Kieran cried, “Verbena!Please, you have to help him—I’ll give you whatever you w—”
“Hold now, child,” she said, cutting him off.She crossed the distance, coming to stand over them.She examined Sebastian as the blight crawled up his cheek, turning the skin red.
