If there was a chance to save Samryn…I didn’t think there were any lengths I wouldn’t go to, even to corrupt my own morals. My own promises.
I couldmakeher do it. That was the ugly truth.
“Let’s begin,” I said, my voice gruff from my thoughts. “Ready?”
She nodded with hesitation. “As I’ll ever be.”
Chapter 15
AMAIA
The curse—whatever wretched curse this was—felt like a tangle of disease. Like a decaying forest, vines hanging, grasping for any form of life to consume. I felt like I was walking through it, and yet every step was like treading through thick sludge. The vines got tangled in my hair, one wrapping around my limbs and then my throat, until it was difficult to breathe.
But just as panic set in, I felt a surge from Alaryk’s magic, as if he could feel when I needed him most.
I gasped.
His magic felt like a warm current in a nearly frozen river, giving me some semblance of life as I felt the threads of it intertwine with my own. I imagined it splitting the darkness of the forest, a glowing river winding through, and I raced toward it.
I sank into it, desperate.
It was a lifeline he was throwing to me, pulling me through the muck until I could feel blood rush to my limbs again. From a river to a rope…I tied his magic to me so I could let it guide me home. He took the pain, so much of it that I could actually try to make sense of what was hurting Samryn.
I could see it all. An intricate woven mess…and I just had to untangle it. And quickly. It was a vast undertaking. And the more time I wasted, the more the curse would bind, weaving itself through Samryn’s veins and sinew. Even now, I could feel it moving. Crawling like a worm through him. And to reach its center, I had to heal everything that shrouded it from my view.
I didn’t know how long I lasted this time. It felt like I’d been lost in that dark place for weeks, counting each moment by my labored breath, wishing it could be over and fearing the possibility that it could be endless. I’d never felt a curse before. But for the first time, I wondered if it could ensnare me too. If I meddled and poked too much.
“Let me in, Amaia,” I heard Alaryk’s gritted command. “You’re resisting.”
Fear and panic swelled. He sounded so far away, and I felt his magic going slippery. The tighter I tried to hold on to it, the more it evaporated in my grasp like a mist.
“I…can’t,” I breathed. The mutated forest in my imaginings seemed to amplify in its power, looming over me until it was just a black wall of endless decay.Growing. Growing.
It would crush me. It would swallow me whole?—
I was ripped from the curse, and it felt like a tearing of my very soul. And then I remembered nothing at all.
When I woke, I was flying. The wind was whipping my hair, but I pressed my cheek into the heat at my front.
A hand was supporting my back. I was cradled in Alaryk’s arms, on the back of Samryn. My eyelids felt so heavy, my body numb. I could taste the acrid bitterness of the curse on my tongue. It was inside me. But I could heal myself. I had to trust that.
My tongue felt heavy when I said, “The hatchery.”
Alaryk’s hand tightened on my back.
“I felt you,” I whispered. “I felt you there. Thank you.Kakkira vor.”
“Rest, Amaia,” he commanded, his voice gentle. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he sounded worried.
“Kakkira vor.”
I succumbed to the relief of sleep again.
For a moment, I didn’t know where I was. For a moment, I thought maybe I was home. I had been dreaming of my family, I thought, could very nearly smell my mother’swrissanstew bubbling in the hearth.
For a moment, I wasrelieved, all my worries gone. Ryak, my brother, Samryn’s curse, the pain…Alaryk.
But it was only my dream crossing into reality for a brief second. I blinked my blurry gaze, salted tears having crusted around the corners of my eyes, and I knew I was in my room at the hatchery.
