She wrinkled her nose. “We’re already damned perfect. I can’t see how we can get any better.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “So, that’s the only downside to cooperating with us today, Jen.”
The sea witch tapped her chin again, thinking for a moment. “I can’t just give you the spark stone, you know. I’ve been looking forward to fighting someone over it for centuries.”
“The Devourer will still come for it,” I reassured her. “From what I understand, he is obsessed with power, and he’ll try to eat all the spark stones. We’ll keep this between us, and hopefully he’ll still come to fight you.”
She nodded with relish. “Good.”
“And I don’t need to take it away from you. I just need to close it, so he can’t absorb the magic if he does try and eat it. Is that right, Donovan?” When he didn’t answer, I glanced back at him.
Oh, God, he was doing the same thing as Cress—he was frozen, eyes blazing, daggers bared, every line in his body tensed and ready to attack.
I turned back to the sea witch. “So, how about it, Jen? Let me close the spark stone, and you can just relax, kick back, and wait for the Devourer to show up, and you’ll get a good fight out of it. You won’t be risking anything, because if he does by some miracle manage to eat your spark stone, it will be closed, and you won’t lose your magic.”
She furrowed her brow, scowling deeply. “That’s actually a good point. I can’t imagine not having my magic. An eternity of not being able to curse bratty merkids will get boring quickly. Hmmm.” I waited patiently for a whole minute. “Okay, fine,” she said. “Wait here.”
She swiveled around and shot back into the hole, her tentacles trailing behind her. “I’d invite you inside,” her voice echoed out from the darkness of her cave. “But the kitchen is a bit of a mess. I was making lunch when you banged on my door.” A low moan drifted out of the hole. “Quiet, you,” she admonished. “Give me five minutes, I’ll be right back.”
I glanced back at Donovan and gave him a reassuring smile, but he was still tense, his eyes glued to the hole.
The tentacles erupted again, spilling out the doorway and fanning around the rocky seawall. Good grief, she really was a terrifying nightmare. If this was real, I’d be absolutely pooping my pants. “Sorry it took so long,” she puffed, finally emerging. “I had it glued to my dining room table. I learned the hard way that when I let my dinner wander around the cave, they can’t help themselves and keep picking it up. Sticky fingered little bastards.” She whipped her hand out from behind her back. “Ta dah!”
I gasped.
“Pretty, isn’t it?”
My eyes bulged. “It’s glorious!” The mer spark stone was the size of a cantaloupe, perfectly round, with ahundred natural facets that caught the dim light in the trench, setting it to a heavenly, otherworldly glow—a shimmering deep aqua color, sparkling with silver flecks.
“Go ahead,” she said, holding it out. “Close it.”
“Er…”
She sniggered. “You don’t know how, do you?”
“Not exactly, no.” I cast another glance back at Donovan, but he and Cress were still in attack-mode, eyes darting left and right, waiting to make a move. “I must admit I’m new to all this, Jen. Could you give me some pointers?”
She sighed dramatically. “Fine. All you have to do is draw your power up within yourself and focus it on what you want. In this case, you want to ask the atoms of the stone to move, to condense, if you will, so that they harden on the surface, creating an impenetrable shell. That way, the stone will still vibrate on the inside, but the shell will stop the magic from emanating out of it.”
“That sounds simple enough,” I said, nodding. “So… er… how do I draw up my power?”
She stared at me. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
I sighed. “Please be kind, Jen. It’s been a long day, and like I said, I’m new at all this.”
“Kindness is not in my wheelhouse, sweetheart,” she said.
“Then we’re both trying something new today, aren’t we? Please,” I begged. “Give me some pointers.”
She huffed out another exasperated sigh. “Well, what does it feel like in your body just before you work your magic?”
“I… uh… I don’t think I’ve ever worked any magic.”
She snorted. “Of course you have. You are the Chosen. You can manipulate matter. You can’t contain that kind ofraw power, girlfriend. If you don’t focus on it, it can erupt out of you whenever you’re scared or angry. You could quite literally tear down mountains.”
“I’m quite good at regulating my emotions,” I told her. But a tingle ran down my spine as the memory hit me. The heat within me, it was overwhelming, I couldn’t contain it, and it erupted out of my belly, pouring through my limbs and electrifying every part of me. Walls shaking, plaster cracking. Bricks falling inwards, hitting the bed, bouncing on the mattress. Screams.
Loud screams. I’ll never forget the screams.
