I grinned. “Sounds like a deal.”
A storm of emotion built on his face as his stare traced over my form, like he was memorizing every inch of me.
“I love you,” he said quietly.
When he followed that with a smile, all the darkness was pushed from my heart. There was no room left for anything but the soft radiance ofhope. I grinned back, tender and tremulous. “I love you, too.”
Reluctantly, Jon pulled away, standing clear of the rune.
Delilah remained the closest, clutching her notes. “You’ll have to repeat each verse exactly, no matter what. You need to push through. Understand?”
With my final, affirming nod, we began.
I did as Delilah told me. Although I had read through the verses several times beforehand, the words still felt foreign on my tongue. Transformation magic. Untouched by most fairies for generations and generations. The rumble of the gemstone caused even more distraction, flooding my senses as it poured out at my will. My pulse quickened, matching the one within the ruby. But I forced myself to listen to Delilah’s voice, forced myself to repeat as clearly as I could.
It started off as an ache that raced through my entire body as though I had been running at full tilt. Then it blossomed into heat, brightening into a sting that made my words falter.
This is nothing. I can handle this. I can.
Oh stars, but the final words of the next verse choked off into a cry that I couldn’t contain. The sting was quickly morphing into a seizing fire. My blood was molten lava in my veins, burning me from within as a pulverizing pain throbbed through my bones. I twisted and gasped.
I was being torn apart.
Mother cried out in the distance. The floor tremored, and Father’s voice seemed to come in crashing waves, an insistence that this was too much. That I was in too much pain.
To stop, stop,stop.
“Get out if you can’t stand watching,” Delilah snapped before the next verse. “It’ll be much, much worse if we stop now. Donotinterrupt if you know what’s good for her!” A pause and a sigh. “Sylvia, sweetheart. Keep at it.”
I was vaguely aware of the tears on my face. They seemed to burn as much as my blood, hot enough to carve new marks on my cheeks. But I forced myself to focus on Delilah’s next verse.
This agony was not of this world. Iron couldn’t hold a candle to it. The draining of the Ancients was child’s play by comparison.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I thought about what the other side of this looked like. A world where I could be free, out in the open, experiencing life the way I was meant to.
AndJon. Our hands entwined. The two of us tangled together, feeling each other—reallyfeeling.
Another sob wracked through me, this one lit with fury. I had been through hell and back already. Now this damn pain was the only thing standing between me and everything I wanted. I was stuck, trying to form the next verse, but only succeeding in another pathetic cry of pain.
I tempered my breathing when I heard Hazel whimper.
“I’m…alright,” I gritted out.
And I forced myself to continue because the only way was forward. I refused to have gone through this much pain for nothing.
It can’t get worse.
It can’t.
But it did.
The pain took me to a faraway place where I couldn’t be sure if the words were reaching my lips or if they were only in my head. I couldn’t quite tell if my eyes were open, either. The brilliant, blinding agony wrapped me in a colorless haze.
For a moment, there was almost relief, until I realized that the pain wasn’t leaving. It was traveling, gathering in one spot. Before I could make sense of it, my back arched sharply, and I let loose a terrible scream.
Mywings.
They were coming undone, unraveling in a manner that insisted I feel every bit shredding apart.
