The door opened, and the others returned.
Grimsworn entered with a gleeful grin. “Your soul is whole,” he announced, magic popping like fireworks off his fingertips. “Let’s break that curse, shall we?”
“Enough with the theatrics.” Dad rolled his eyes. “Break the curse on my daughter.”
“Very well.” Grimsworn stepped forward, his hands outstretched as if commanding an orchestra. Raw magic sparked to life and danced around him in an array of colors, twisting like ribbons. A guttural incantation spilled from his lips. It was a language ancient and unknown to me, but it was almost mesmerizing. Each syllable sounded like the striking of a hammer on stone.
“Oh, shit,” Bram muttered from beside me.
From the ground beneath Grimsworn’s feet, runes burned into existence, fiery and ethereal, spreading in a perfect circle around him.
Somehow I knew Grimsworn was definitely favored by the Fates for being blessed with the amount of power he was.
“No kidding,” Dex uttered.
The air shimmered, and the temperature plunged. Frost spread in jagged veins across the stone floor.
“Ice magic?” Reed gaped at the wizard.
“I thought only ice fae could wield that…” Skel trailed off.
“He is the strongest wizard in Kalista for a reason,” Hunter stated.
Grimsworn bellowed incantations toward me, his voice reverberating as though spoken by a hundred voices at once.
The curse sank deeper, clinging to me like tar like it was afraid of him, and it should’ve been.
White-hot agony ripped through me as Grimsworn’s magic settled over me. His power surged, slipping underneath the curse and tearing it from my bones piece by piece.
My mouth split in a silent scream, my body arching as the last traces of the curse seized me.
The room pulsed with magic, the air thick with power so potent it was suffocating.
With a violent motion, Grimsworn clawed at the air, and arcs of black tar exploded outward from the pores of my skin, splattering the walls and ceiling, carving deep gouges into the stone.
“Is that dark magic?” Jenni asked, fear lacing her tone.
“It’s dead,” Nebula answered. “It’s remnants of the dark magic curse. It can’t survive after being torn away from Pandora.”
Hunter relayed that message to everyone else, but I could barely hear his voice.
Grimsworn raised both arms high, his fingers curling into fists. A tornado of light erupted above him, swirling faster and faster until it became a pulsating orb of raw, unbridled magic.
Tendrils of bright light illuminated the room with flashes of brilliance as it stripped away the curse from my mind, body, and soul.
“Fates,” Reed gasped out, clutching his chest.
“Shit.” Skel rubbed his sternum.
“Fuck,” Dex cursed, gritting his teeth.
“Sorry, starlight,” Hunter croaked.
Bram’s entire body shook with pain, but he bit his lip to not vocalize it.
I could feel it, though. Through the matebonds. All five of my mates were feeling the backlash of this.
My soul ached—bruised, all from the dark magic being physically ripped away from it.
