Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
“No,” she said on a sigh. “I just… I thought…”
She trailed off, unsure where she was even going with it. She hadn’t been convinced that the cauldron could give her magic or make her wholly Fae before. She didn’t know what it could do. Even seeing Gen’s increased magic and the potion it had made for Nate, she was still a skeptic. Despite all she’d seen.
“Trust me,” Gen said.
And in the end, Gen’s soothing voice was all she needed. She placed the cauldron in Kierse’s hands, and all the noise fell away, all the what ifs filtered out of her head, and in its place was silence.
Kierse closed her eyes, and she felt a presence. As if something was evaluating her. She didn’t even have time to ask anything of the cauldron. To figure out what it was that she wanted from it. The cauldron seemed to figure out what the answer to her problem was before it was even requested.
This was done to you, a voice said in her mind.
She shivered at the sound. So like the spear, and yet…nothing like it at all. This was feminine, almost gentle, and somehow more ferocious than the spear had ever been. A duality she could hardly grasp.
And you want it gone. I can see that.
She did. She wanted the bond gone desperately.
It was done correctly. It is part of you.
No. This wasn’t part of her. She didn’t want it to be a part of her. She wanted it gone. It didn’t matter to her if it had been done correctly. Surely there should be a way to unravel it when it had been done under those horrid circumstances.
There is another way.
Kierse held her breath. Hope still beating in her chest. She would do it. Anything to make it stop.
Anything? Are you sure?
Was she? Yes. Anything to make it stop.
Except.
Except… the voice prodded.
Her humanity. The part of her that was connected to her father. She couldn’t give that up. She didn’t want to be fully Fae. It was the first time that she had known. She was part wisp, part human. It was who she was. And it was who she wanted to remain.
It’s agreed, then.
Agreed?
This might hurt.
Kierse only had a moment before a rush of energy hit her like a freight train. She screamed as it filled her from top to bottom. Her hands remained glued to the cauldron. She couldn’t have let go if she tried. Her body convulsed, and she thought that she was going to be broken in two at the force of the working.
This wasn’t healing. This was breaking. Deconstructing. Reshaping. This was tearing her down to her bones and rebuilding her from scraps.
Desolation.
Anguish.
Ruin.
She was going to die from the contact. There was no other way around it. Her body could not hold up to whatever was happening. Her insides were scooped out with a spoon. Her body raw and tender and reeling from the onslaught. Like she might at any moment unravel into thread on the floor. Except it wouldn’t let her. It wouldn’t let her go.
She couldn’t hear her friends. She didn’t know if they were trying to stop what was happening or trying to pry her hands free. If Graves was regretting his decision. If all of them were terrified for her.
All she could do was scream until she thought her vocal cords would shatter and hope for survival. Hope to come out on the other side. Hope against hope.
Then it was over. Just as quickly as it had started.
She dropped the cauldron, and it rattled noisily on the floor. Kierse sank to her knees against the plush Persian rug. Her hands dug into the carpet as she trembled uncontrollably.
“Kierse,” Gen gasped, falling before her with Ethan immediately at her side. “Are you okay?”
Graves was there, pulling her into him, cradling her against his firm body. “Wren?”
She clung to Graves like he was a lifeline. Like he might pull her back from the abyss, past the point of being broken. It took several long minutes before her body solidified into a semblance of a person. Her parts all fit together again. Only her nerves tingled like she’d been electrocuted.
“What happened?” Graves asked.
She tumbled out of his arms and rose unsteadily to her feet. “I don’t know.”
“Did the cauldron break the binding?” Ethan asked hopefully.
Her hand went to her chest. It was still there. Humming. Lorcan just over the bridge.
“No,” she said regretfully.
“Oh, Kierse, I’m sorry,” Gen said.
Ethan looked confused. “What did it do instead?”
She held her hand out. She didn’t feel different. Except that she had been scooped out like ice cream, beat to within an inch of her life, and then set on a cone for consumption.
“Magic,” Graves said.
She frowned at that statement—and then it rushed her fingertips. The scent of Irish wildflowers. The gold-blue glow all around her. The touch of magic that lingered in her veins. She reached down deep and found her empty well was now…full again. The same as it had always been.