I felt it before I heard him again. Power reached through me. It was strong, coiling around my center until I couldn’t breathe. My broken body could not contain it. I’d made a mistake. My lips trembled, my hands shook, and my legs weakened. I fell to my knees, my hands seeping through the blood. Then, a headache came with stars that filled my vision. I squeezed my eyes shut in response. Pain ripped with each breath, any movement crippling me.
It felt like every cell in my body was alight with fire. I couldn’t move and was certain I was about to die. What would become of me? A murderer. The afterlife did not accept such monsters. I’d be banished to the place of nothing, where souls ambled for an eternity, looking for shreds of their old lives, finding no happiness, stuck between worlds.
“NO!” I screamed, because I didn’t want to die. Tears trickled down my face, patterning my cheeks with trails left behind.
“It is done.”
The torment slowed, pulling me into a slumber I did not want but couldn’t deny. I needed to move the body before anyone found us. It was almost six. Servants would be down soon. Before I could protest, my eyes shut, and I was in another place.
Shock erased all feeling. It was dark inside the lair of the beast. He snarled and grappled for the scraps of my humanity that were slipping away. I could sense every part of him, even the most vulnerable. If he gave into his humanity, then a thousand years of guilt and torment, beyond the realm any sorcerer or fae could comprehend, would descend upon him.
He howled into the night, and snakes hissed at the sound. Small animals thumped to the beat of his aching heart.
I cleared my throat. “Master.” I had expected a strong figure, not this. “What is wrong?”
He stood straight, then tilted his chin, forcing away all agony in my presence.
“Now that you have your power, we can meet face-to-face.” His voice echoed around us, bouncing off stone and jagged edges of gray. He emerged from the shadows. His eyes locked onto mine, sending shivers through my soul.
“I must awaken. Where am I?”
“You are asleep. Your body is in the kitchens, but your soul is here—for a time. Few have done what you have. Most are unwilling to sacrifice, but you are not weak like them.”
I narrowed my eyes. Something didn’t feel right. “You’re hurting,” I stated, my voice trembling. “I can sense it in every rattling breath. What is it that scares a necromancer who does not even fear death?”
He spat on the ground, and ink-black spots smattered the grainy floor. “Those who fear death fear freedom. Death is a release. It is peace. You young ones, so fickle.” He ran one of his long talons over drawings on the stone wall. “Immortality is a curse, a life without anyone to share it with.”
I could hear a woman’s voice catching in the breeze, whispers that dissolved as quickly as they had come. “What is this place?”
“My home.”
I swallowed hard. “That’s it? You said a life without anyone to share it with… You must mean love. The voice, is that her, the person you wanted to share your life with?”
“You are observant.”
“That’s what happens when one is forced to live in the shadows.”
He squinted. “A fate I understand all too well.”
“What happened?” I asked. “We share power. I have proven myself to you. Please, tell me.”
He inhaled deeply, then blew out a lonely breath. “She suffers a fate worse than death.”
“What could be worse?”
“Her soul is shattered.” His words were hollowed, as if he had repeated them thousands of times. “Pieces of it remain like dust particles, lost in all corners of this world. I can tap into parts of her, but only for a moment before she fades away.”
“That’s what you use your power for? To get a glimpse of her?”
“I cannot die because I will not leave her alone, without peace.”
The hairs on the back of my arms stood erect, and tears pricked my eyes. It was the most tragic love story I’d ever heard. While he was a monster, I felt compassion for the man hidden behind layers of evil, created only to protect his heart and savor his love. “I’m sure she would have wanted you to be happy.”
His expression faltered for a micro-second. I would have missed it had I not been staring at his blue, thin lips. We stood in silence with dripping from somewhere behind us as the only sound. Lost in thought, I looked up at the crystals that shone from their homes among the crevices and holes. Gem blue and emerald green sparkled even in the dimmest light.
“I grant you great power,” he said facing the wall, so I couldn’t make out his face. “Go back to your body and show no mercy to those who hurt you, but take care.” He paused, then turned to look back at me. There was an invasiveness to his stare that I wished to escape. “You are cursed. I sense it attached to every cell in your body. It stole your beauty from you at a young age.”
My lips parted. I ran my fingertips along my skin, feeling the craters beneath my touch. “I was told, yes, but why am I cursed? How did this happen?” Looking down at my talons for nails, I sighed. Someone was responsible. As a baby, I was adored—beautiful, so I was told—then around the age of three, I changed. It wouldn’t have pained me if it hadn’t pushed everyone away from me and lost me my crown. “Tell me what I need to do!”
He flexed his fingers, forcing me to my knees with nothing more than a look. Agony ripped through me and tugged at my nerves, dropping me to the ground. I opened my mouth to scream, but no one could hear me there.
“Do not mistake my bringing you here and giving you power for vulnerability. I gave you magic, and I can take it away.”
He clicked his fingers, and I breathed relief. I forced myself to my feet and looked at the monster once more. “I will not forsake you.”
“You will remember your promise, for I am not known for being forgiving.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, then gathered my skirts, lifting them off the ground, and high-tailed it out toward the sheltered sunlight. As I did, I awoke to the sound of chatter growing outside of the room. I was too late to move the body. Before anyone entered, I ran through a connecting door, through another kitchen, almost tripping over a box, and out another door until I reached the edge of the gardens. My legs ached, and the skin on my hands were cracked. Blood stained my dress. I had to get back to my room, unnoticed, but how?
The castle had come to life with the rising sun, and guards were stationed at every entrance. I felt my newfound magic prickle in my fingertips. I closed my eyes, and the flowers around me wilted, then died. It moved through me like natural magic did in the fae, except mine was wicked.
It was unlike the Berovian’s who channeled the elements, or the sorcerers in Magaelor who used
ancestral magic, channeling it through their staffs and soil. Ritualistic and sacrificial magic was the only one with no bounds, but unlike natural magic, I could harm another with it. I was unbound by the laws of magic held by both kingdoms and the islands between.
Even the fae who live on both islands couldn’t match my power. I raised my head, feeling more powerful than ever. I glanced in the direction of the trees. I needed a distraction. I closed my eyes, then willed it. Fire erupted, its flames licking their way over dry bark and dead leaves.