Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“Everything smells fresh and new. As if anything could be possible. That’s what you smell like.”
This . . . this was what she reminded him of.
Hope.
And home.
Then the image burst like a soap bubble and she was back in the library fighting for her life. She used that moment of distraction to dig deeper and push another spark out of her. It found its way into Graves, and then another.
“What’s happening?” Ethan asked.
“Tell us what’s going on,” Gen demanded.
“She’s doing it,” Lorcan said in awe. “She’s transferring the magic.”
And she was . . . barely. A single tendril at a time. She needed to do more, to fight more. But it hurt so much. It hurt more than she could ever comprehend.
Worse, she was fighting against an all-encompassing blackout. At any moment, she could feel it pressing against her. She was strong, but was she strong enough to defeat this?
“I can’t,” she managed to get out.
Her legs gave out from the pain, and she fell to her knees. Graves went with her, groaning as he caught himself on his injured arm.
“You can,” Graves said, pulling her toward him. “It’s mine. Give it to me, Wren. Let me end this.”
She tried again, but the last ember winked out. She gasped and saw black at the edges of her vision. This was it. This was the end.
“Fucking help her,” Graves yelled at Lorcan. “Do a ritual, use your spells, heal her.”
“That was all of my magic,” Lorcan shouted back, frantic and in pain. “The time for spells is past.”
“She’s fading,” Graves said in horror. “Kierse, Kierse, you can do this.”
The sound of her name on his tongue roused her. She met his gaze, a ghost of a smile appearing. But there was nothing left to fight. Not as the god magic consumed her.
“Neither of you can save her?” Gen screamed at them. “Save her!”
“Please!” Ethan yelled. “She’s dying.”
And then Gen was at her side. Her smooth hands touched Kierse’s face as her vision tunneled. Ethan next, burying his face into her hair. She could hear soft sobs as he cried against her.
She wanted to tell them that it would be okay. That they would be safe now. But the words wouldn’t come. No words would.
“Say your goodbyes,” Lorcan said.
“No,” Gen said, her voice like ice. “No. Maybe you two don’t have the power to save her. Maybe none of us do. But I will not stop trying.”
Gen held her hand out for Ethan.
“But I cannot do it alone.”
“What can we do?” Ethan said.
“Together? Anything.”
Ethan nodded and then placed his hand into Gen’s. They placed them over Kierse’s heart. At that moment, a flare of light rose up in Gen. The little bit of magic that Kierse had first felt that time they connected when Ethan had been drugged by the wish powder. Her magic reached out for Ethan, and at the same moment, to his shock, it snapped into place with Ethan’s own shoot of magic, a little sapling just like the ones he’d cultivated all these years.
Once they connected, there was only a second before the triangle was complete, latching on to Kierse’s torrent of energy. But she was too far gone. Her vision went black. Her breathing went shallow, barely rising and falling. And her heart . . . stuttered and paused and then stopped.
Then a new light flared as their trio, their knot forged anew.
Gen and Ethan gasped as it took on a life of its own. Gen’s healing, Ethan’s growth, and Kierse’s energy all flowed freely between them. It rose and rose and rose until all three of them were pulled wholly off the ground. The force of their joining an all-new magic.
And out of that, the Oak King magic released upward in a torrent—a blinding white light that ripped through the roof of the Holly Library, tearing a hole to the full moon.
Everything hovered, suspended in midair as the last of the energy passed from their bodies and out into the world.
Then all three of them dropped back onto the library floor. Debris fell atop and around them. And as Gen and Ethan scrambled to Kierse’s side, her heart kicked into gear once more.
She groaned, the aftermath of the magic still a live wire on her nerves.
But she was alive.
She was alive.
And when she opened her eyes, it was to tears streaming down her friends’ faces. To Lorcan staring in shock. And Graves.
Graves, who was still bleeding on his floor. Graves, who looked like he had seen a ghost. Graves, who crawled toward her and brought his lips to hers.
The memory of his lake and wildflowers bloomed in her mind again. She didn’t know what it meant. Didn’t know he was even capable of inserting memories in other people’s minds. Or maybe he’d only been able to do it for her as she was dying.