"Focus, everyone." Sebastian's voice cuts through the rising song of stones. "Anchor to the circle, follow Poppy’s connection to the ensnared spirits, and push your intentions out to Emberwood. Step one: release the ghosts from the tethers holding them."
Wylder's earth magic spreads like roots, weaving through the ground beneath us, connecting each of us to the closest stone. I feel the moment it latches onto me—solid, immovable, steadying the chaotic rush of spirit energy buzzing through me.
Rowan's shadows pour from her hands, twisting into the air like living smoke. They spiral upward, weaving between the stones, disappearing into the darkness beyond.
“Okay, Izzy, start us off,” Sebastian says.
Izzy’s affinity is animal magic, and is therefore a gifted healer, but she also has a true love of spellcraft. She came up with what we hope is a spell powerful enough to affect everyone marked within Tharuzel’s hold. "By bone and blood, by name and deed?—"
We all join her, our voices uniting in purpose. "We sever what binds, we break what feeds."
Orion's shift ripples across his skin—not a transformation, but enough to let his predator instincts bleed through. His eyesflash silver, his claws extending from his fingertips as he raises his hands. "By claw and fang, by frost and flame?—"
"We free the dead, and end your claim."
The eight of us speak as one now, our voices harmonizing behind our words. The connection Sebastian and I possess with the spirit realm guides the ebbing waves of Izzy’s spell.
Magic crashes against my ribs from the inside.
Spirit energy coils through my veins, white-hot and volatile. I reach for those greasy ropes tethering the spirits of the dead to citizens scattered all across Emberwood.
I feel them like pinpricks of infection in my mind. Dozens of them. Each one seething in agony as their tether binds them to an innocent person to feed Tharuzel's hunger.
The air tastes like copper and ash.
I fight not to gag and press forward. The stones surge with amplified power, and I brace myself to stabilize it. Energy rushes through me, and I direct it outward—a sweeping wave meant to shatter every cursed mark at once.
"By will and word, by light and right?—"
In my mind's eye, I envision how the tethers broke when I freed Mr. Peterson and then Margaret across the road.
"We cast you out, we end this blight!"
The magicstrikes.
I feel it slam into the ropes tethering the ghosts and how the spirits recoil, shrieking soundlessly as their bindings snap.
It doesn’t happen one at a time. It’s all of them at once, our combined power ripping through Tharuzel's network like wildfire. I feel the spirits scream as they're torn free, followed right after by the silence left behind when they’re gone.
Hope flares in my chest.
"It's working. The ghosts are?—"
Something changes in an instant, and pain explodes in my skull, white-hot and vicious. My knees buckle, and I hit theground hard enough for me to lose track of what’s happening. My hands grip the dirt as the magic of the stones turns on itself.
The ley line energy doesn't stop—itreverses—sucking back through me like a riptide.
"Poppy!" Asher's shout is distant, muffled.
I can't answer. Can't breathe.
The taste of char floods my mouth, thick and choking. Tharuzel's presence slams into my consciousness. He'sthere, on the other side of my connection to the sigils, and he's pulling.You’ve been a naughty girl, Poppy Hallowind.
His voice scrapes across my mind like claws on glass.
If you wanted my attention, you needed only to call.
"No—" I try to sever the connection, but it's too late. My mental jewelry box has been flung wide open, and he’s in my mind, vast and powerful.
