“People love you, Damir. Haven’t you realized?”
“W-what?”
“All your life, even the top casters liked you. You move through the world with doors swinging open for you. Smiles follow you around. People want to fucking be around you not because of what they can get from you, but because of YOU! You know how to speak to anyone. How to fit in no matter the circumstances. People accept you because they like you.”
“That isn’t magic. It’s just who I am.”
“So blissfully ignorant,” Kellan said. “What do you think determines what type of curse you’d be best suited for? Why do you think your feral little beast is an animal specialist and your social butterfly self is in interpersonal? Why the fuck would you ever think any of it is random or accidental?”
“I—”
“You got cause and effect in the wrong order,” Kellan said. “Your personality isn’t a product of your magic, it’s the other way around.”
“You can’t take that from someone, Kellan,” Teddy said desperately.
“Can’t you?”
He shoved himself off of Teddy and walked to a small medical fridge, drawing out a vial and a syringe.
Teddy began to struggle again.
“You know, that bird your lover likes so much was my first success,” Kellan said.
Teddy stilled. “You cursed Blu?”
“It has wonderful mimicking abilities, doesn’t it?”
He flicked the needle and tested it, liquid spraying out of the end. Teddy swallowed as Kellan walked closer.
“You can’t do this.”
“Who says I can’t?”
“Kellan—”
“Be good and hold still. It won’t hurt…much.”
“Kellan, please, don’t,” he said, straining away as the needle drew closer to his neck.
“Don’t worry. You’ll live on, in a way. You’ll always be with me. We just need to do some tests first. It won’t hurt a bit.”
The needle pierced skin and Teddy screamed.
Chapter 21
Wren
“T…Ted…” Wren coughed against the cotton stuffed inside his mouth. He tried swallowing but ended up making it even worse. It felt like his throat was completely closed and dry, making him heave.
He sputtered, struggling to take a breath as his eyes fought the darkness he was swimming in.
He felt things slithering up and down his arms. Felt a cool sensation on his skin and something restricting his legs. There was beeping. Whirring.
And there was a familiar hum of magic in the air all around him. The kind that felt suffocating. The kind that made it impossible to focus on anything else because it could drown you.
He had only ever been in one place that felt like that. Like he wanted to scratch out of his skin and run away. Like he had to escape.
He felt along his arm and brushed against something plastic, cold and bendy, ending at the crease of his elbow and clearly pumping something into his system he was sure he didn’t want.
