I had to prevent that from happening.
“Sebastian,” Mom rose to her feet, clutching her scythe with a determined slant crossing her beautiful features. “We have to destroy the vortex… It’s already affecting your dad, it will be us that follows if…”
Materializing my cloak, I whipped it around my back, placing the hood on my head. “I’m going inside and getting her. Once I have her, then we can destroy it.”
Mom grabbed my shoulder. “She’s mortal, there’s no way she’s still alive in that thing.” I hated the sheer possibility of Mom’s words being true. “I don’t even know if stopping it will prevent anything now. It might not even save us.”
“I don’t want part of a world without the woman I love.” And with those words, I shook off her hands and stepped away.
“Give me five minutes, if I’m not out with her by then destroy it,” I told her.
“I can’t do that with you in it!” Mom cried.
“Let him go,” Dad told her through a raspy voice. “He’s my son, I expect nothing less than for him to protect the one he loves.”
“Go!” Maureen hissed at me, closing her eyes. “If there’s a chance, then go for it.”
I nodded and turned toward the magical maelstrom that was tied to fate as well as doom.
“Fucking love,” August muttered on his knees like the others. “Go on, Sloth, let’s see how far it takes you.”
With his words behind me, I ran into the malevolent barrier that kept me from my witch.
Thirty-One
Sebastian
The vortex pounded my flesh like bullets the moment I entered, tearing an agonizing scream from my throat as the power and strength of magically imbued winds assaulted me. I couldn’t move, let alone breathe for a second as I tried to think through the agony. I couldn’t even feel my curse; the pain was so intense.
I scrambled inside my brain for a reason to move or think.
Isabella.
I took a step, then another. My body burned and tore apart. I glanced down at myself and saw my skin breaking away patches at a time. My clothes couldn’t withstand the intensity of the storm, let alone my body. Soon, I was left in my skeletal form as I fought the urge to fall to my knees every step of the way.
I had no destination. No clue where she’d be, but I kept moving straight in hopes that I’d find her in the middle. It felt like a lifetime dealing with the pain slamming through me inside this place, but I knew each step I took was agonizingly slow and I had no time for that.
The only thing that hadn’t been torn to shreds was the cloak I wore. Whatever elements it was made of, it could withstand the force, unlike my flesh that didn’t last thirty seconds.
Then a new battle rose inside me. Like it did every time it happened, I felt my curse swallow me up from the inside and the exhaustion rested on my shoulders. The storm, somehow, pulled and made the fatigue stronger.
I staggered.
I feel like I need you, Sebastian. I can’t explain it, but the darkness likes you just as much as it likes Harvest.
It was the memory of her sweet voice and all of its honesty that had me remembering what was at stake. Through the sleep-fog, I searched for her.
Thank you, Sebastian.
For showing me what it feels like to feel protected. Even if we are practically strangers.
Those words sent an unnerving amount of desperation through me as I recalled the things she said to me. The surrounding lights ebbed, and the darkness grew in my line of sight.
I want to be like you.
Isabella, you were so much more than me. You fought against your fate,ourfate. There was no way I was letting you go.
In the distance, she finally came into view. In a protected bubble, she floated with her arms out and her head dangling in front of her chest. My skeletal arm and hand reached out, but I still hadn’t closed the distance between us yet.
