“Please, Mellie,” said the little girl crouched beside her. She couldn’t have been more than eight. “I want to go home.”
“We can’t go home!” she shouted back. “There is no home.”
When she looked back at me, the hurt had disappeared, and all that was left was anger. Tears formed in my own eyes. It was like looking into a mirror. There was nothing Shreesa could’ve said to change my mind when I was hiding under that chair. There was nothing Bastien could’ve said to convince me that he wasn’t evil.
It was in his actions. And Tansy’s. And Devlinn’s. Day by day. It was seeing kindness from people I’d been told were evil.
There was only one thing I could do to show her that we weren’t bad. And that was to ignore everyone who was trying to tell me to move and show her that I wasn’t afraid.
She pointed her wand at the center of my chest, and the pressure dropped again.
A warm, radiant light sparked in my chest that felt different from the insistent scratching of dark magick. It expanded until it touched the girl. Her eyes widened, as if she were being reminded of all the beautiful hopes and dreams she held. I pushed that light harder, expanding it out, knowing I could change her. I could make her see if she’d only reconnect with hope instead of despair, just like I’d done.
But the harder I pushed, the more she pushed back, until the light rebounded and I stumbled backward. All the hope and light disappeared, leaving me with the empty sense that nothing I could do would save her. At least, not until she was ready.
The moment before she firedthe spell stretched on and on and on. I braced for death in the same way I waited for the back of Mama’s hand, wondering if everything would become quiet.
Chapter 22
Le Cri
CLAIRE
My name was shouted, echoing off the walls of the cavern. Then suddenly I was tackled to the ground, and the wind was knocked out of me.
When I finally caught my breath and processed what was going on, I realized I was in Bastien’s arms. My face hidden in the hollow of his throat. He opened our bond, and the all-consuming nature of being inside of it allowed me to take my first full breath since he left my side.
“Stop torturing me,”he whispered through it.“I almost lost you again.”
I buried my head in his shoulder. Wanting to cry but unable to make myself do it. My thoughts turned to that warm field of light and the way I could see the girl’s hopes and dreams. I didn’t have words for what it was, only emotions. They leaked from me, straight through our bond, until I was sure Bastien could see what I had seen. That he had felt what I had felt.
From outside our bond, I heard someone screaming, and it tugged my attention back to the world around us.
“What’s happening?”I asked, trying to move, but he just kept me caged in his arms. I asked again, louder this time. “What’s happening?”
“You don’t want to know.”
Then I heard Tansy sobbing uncontrollably, and I demanded to be let go. He released me, and I clambered to my feet. Breathless. Only to find Tansy clutching Devlinn’s body as black smoke smoldered from a wound in his chest. The spell had burned through his thick fur cloak, finding flesh and bone. He was struggling to breathe.
I remembered the graveyard. I remembered the wolf who took the curse for me. The one who had saved my life. He’d died so that I could live. And now, now, it was happening all over again. Except it wasn’t just a wolf, it was a man. One that I’d called a friend. One who had sacrificed his dreams of sitting on an island, sipping cocktails with the love of his life, to be here helping me fight for a belief.
My white wolf pushed her snout against my leg and whimpered. The brown wolf howled. Something in me broke open. I tipped my head back and screamed with a grief so sudden and complete that it tore from my chest and ripped through my throat.
When I was done, I realized I wasn’t giving up on him. Not without a fight. I crossed the chamber toward the girl, who shook in Tyson’s grip like a trapped bird. “Tell me the counter-curse!”
She shook her head, red hair clinging to her wet cheeks. “That spell rots men from the inside out,” she whispered. “There is no counter-curse.”
I whirled around. “There’s about to be.” I turned to Bastien, blood darkening his sleeve where a claw had torn him. Without asking, I dragged the horn across his wound and offered the demon what it wanted.
I could almost feel the horn purring with delight.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Fixing this.”
I raced over to where Devlinn lay on the ground and fell to my knees beside Tansy, whose hands were coated in a putrid black rot. It looked exactly like the oily liquid that came out of my mouth when I tried to commune with the demon whose power I had received.
With shaking hands, I pressed the horn into the center of the wound. Devlinn sucked in a choked breath.
