Magda tossed the glove down on top of the sack too. “Do it.”
Eris smiled an alluring cat smile.
Kaelan grabbed her arm. “Magda—”
“You’ll be safer this way,” she told him, still keeping her gaze fixed on the witch.
“You know,” Eris said in a conversational manner, pulling what appeared to be a hen’s egg, slightly bluish in color, from the gown’s folds. “I thought that when you came here, Magdalena, you might be searching for some way to remove those pieces of stray heart you’ve picked up. Messy business that.”
Confusion passed over Kaelan’s face.
“Wait—” Magda started.
Egg tucked in palm, Eris cracked it against Kaelan’s forehead—releasing not yolk, but a blue-tinged mist—and then gripped his head between both hands.
“Oh, it’s too late now,” Eris said. “I know you don’t have anything else of interest. Unless you’d be willing to give over those pieces to me once I extracted them...”
Kaelan’s eyes remained open, but went blank. The mist twined around him, rippling, as though he were submerging under cloudy water.
“Is that possible?” Magda asked as the mist began to tendril around her, making her eyes heavy and her thoughts sluggish.
“But you wouldn’t do that, would you?” Eris said. “No... But maybe... you’ll change your mind. You know where I am if you do.”
Magda struggled to stay focused. “You can take the heart away...?”
Eris began to speak. The arcane words wove drunkenly through Magda’s head, dizzying her, sweeping her away, until she was lost in the mist.
“MAGDA!” DAMION SHOOK HER.“Can you hear me?”
She groaned, blinking through the ghosts of bluish mist haunting her vision and clouding her mind.
Where was she? What had happened—?
She bolted upright. Damion jerked back.
“Kaelan?” she asked.
“Here,” he said from behind her.
She twisted, rising with Damion’s help. Hero perched on Kaelan’s shoulder, munching on a hunk of bread.
They were back on the hillside overlooking Eris’s compound. The burning belly of the sun lolled against the treetops.
Her head continued to swirl, as though she’d had too much to drink. Damion’s grip tightened on her arm, keeping her steady.
“The Prince tells me you gave up everything we had,” Damion grumbled.
“I carried you up here,” Kaelan said to her. “You fell unconscious.”
She touched her head, trying to stop the spinning. “And?”
“And you’re a fool,” Damion said. “We have nothing. And for what? He looks just the same.”
“Do you?” she asked Kaelan.
He closed his eyes. After a moment, his body rippled, as if he were a reflection cast on crystal clear water. When the undulation ceased, he had changed.
Her heart tightened and, though she meant to step back, she stepped sideways into Damion, who caught her supportively.
