It had been his present to the woman that had filled his life with love and children, a woman whose younger years had been spent dancing professionally before she’d met him and settled down. Despite his intense desire to make Genevieve happy, Job had been born with two left feet and couldn’t dance even after private lessons. So, he’d found a spell that would link his body to another’s so he could hold his wife in his arms and dance with her just once.
That spell had required both participants to donate some blood to the brew that essentially linked them like a puppeteer and marionette. His grandfather’s limbs had moved in concert with Mr. Castle’s and left the room, and Genevieve, in awe.
He’d tweaked it somewhat, necessarily so. Instead of asking Serena for her blood, he’d cut open his chest and drawn pitch black blood from the spiderweb that still spread across his skin like a ticking time bomb. He’d used the same elements, Calamus, wormwood, myrrh, but he’d used them together with dragon’s blood, an unstable element that allowed dark magic users to bind others against their will.
Using it was breaking one of his people’s most basic laws of harm ye none. Of course, Serena’s entire goal in life was to harm as many people as she could, so he’d excused himself and stolen the only source of it that he knew of, the one locked in his parent’s basement with other unstable magical elements.
He pulled the vial out of his pocket, now, and held it up in the mid-afternoon light. It was a dark purple, so dark it almost looked as black as the curse he’d added. Dread filled his stomach as he looked at it. This was it, once he swallowed this he would be physically bound to Serena. Once he swallowed this, there would be only one way out.
Grief spread as fast as the sheen of sweat that covered him from head to toe. His hand began to shake violently, so badly that he had to put the vial back in his pocket to keep himself from dropping it. One slip and his plan to save Ashlynn would be over.
Ashlynn. Cian’s heart seized at the thought of her. She’d grieve for him, for the life he’d promised her, and for the life she’d left behind in the past. She’d be alone in a world that wasn’t her own. Cian gritted his teeth and blocked the onslaught of emotions that threatened to steal his determination. If he let thoughts of her into his heart, he’d never be able to go on and he needed to.
It was a small thing, really, he reminded himself. He was already losing his soul and didn’t want to exist in that state. Losing his life, offering it in return for the safety of those he loved, that would bring him peace at least. He was doing it.
Before he could rethink his decision anymore, Cian popped the top of the vial and downed its contents.
It ran like acid down his throat, leaving behind the taste of decay and rot. Cian gagged and covered his mouth with his hand, forcing his body to keep the vile liquid down. After several moments, he recovered, and began shaking with the import of what he’d done.
A strange sensation began at his toes and travelled the length of him, heating his blood as it went. Cian stared down at his chest as the magic settled there and, unbelievably, his heartbeat began to echo. He covered his heart with a hand and felt her there, her heartbeat, inside him, bound to him through the dark magic.
“It worked,” Cian murmured, gritting his teeth to stop the emotion that swelled. He took a deep breath that neither cleansed nor steadied and straightened to his full height.
It was time.
Chapter Eleven
The rickety Jeep swerved to the right as Faith sped through town, knocking Ashlynn’s shoulder into the passenger side door. It broke her from the trance she was in.
“Sorry,” Faith told her. “Traffic is insane right now. Can you still see him?”
Ashlynn inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, calling to her magic and evoking the tracking spell again. It was thin, weak, but did the job. Cian’s curse slowly shredded away at it, pushing her back, but her connection to him was strong enough to hold. She guided Faith through the city as she saw Cian in her mind, turning down streets, passing store fronts, street signs.
But something was wrong now.
“I-I don’t know,” Ashlynn finally replied. “He’s not in the city.”
“What do you see?”
She struggled to make the void around Cian come into view, to find any indication of his whereabouts. Ashlynn shrugged helplessly. “I’m not sure. Trees? Lots of trees. Grass. There are no buildings or landmarks to know for sure. He could be anywhere.”
Faith swerved again, gentler this time, and sped through the winding streets. “What’s he doing?”
Ashlynn pursed her lips. Eyes closed. “He’s on his knees. Hands held out at his sides.”
Faith sighed. “He’s doing the spell to call Serena to him.” She pressed on the gas pedal.
Ashlynn groaned in frustration. “I wish I could just see.”
Suddenly, movement from the backseat startled them and Ashlynn spun around with a gasp.
“Masilda!” Faith called as she glanced back in the rear-view mirror. “I told you to stay in the house!”
The child shifted closer to them, squeezing herself between the two seats. “I’m right where I need to be.”
“Your uncle is going to kill me,” Faith replied with an aggrieved sigh, but she didn’t argue any further and focused on the road ahead.
Ashlynn turned to look into the soulful gaze of the child and barely breathed as Masilda gently placed a hand on her face, her thumb resting at the temple, and closed her eyes. Ashlynn could feel herself being coaxed back into the tracking spell, the influence of Masilda’s power forcing her there. After a moment, the child opened her eyes and the corner of her mouth quirked up.
“He’s in the clearing just outside of town, where the river opens up,” Masilda told them and returned to the backseat, tucking herself into the corner and putting on a seatbelt.
Ashlynn and Faith exchanges glances, neither able to find the words for what they’d just witnessed the girl do. Faith’s confused and shocked expression told Ashlynn all she needed to know. Masilda was capable of magic far beyond what the Seer was teaching her. Wordlessly, they stared ahead as Faith continued to speed her way through the traffic until they broke free of the city’s limits and turned down a dirt road that eventually led them to a dead end.
Faith stopped the car and turned to Ashlynn. “Go! He’s not far! I’ll stay here and call for help.”
Without missing a beat, Ashlynn flung open the car door and took off through the woods. Tiny branches whipped her face as she panted heavily and searched for a break in the trees. For any sign of the man she loved.
She prayed she wasn’t too late.
Finally, the sun appeared in the distance and the sound of rushing water tickled her ears. She followed it, bursting through the treeline as she frantically searched for Cian. Her eyes landed on the back of his head and her heart skipped a beat. Just like the image in her mind, he was still on his knees, facing the rushing river.
She thanked the heavens for the sound of the gushing water beating off the rocks, for Cian didn’t seem to notice her approaching from behind. As she neared him, Ashlynn could hear the whispers of his chant as his fingers dug into the ground, syphoning the energy right from the earth. She dared reach out to place a shaking hand on his shoulder.
“Cian -”
But the second her fingertips brushed him, a surge of dark energy collided with her body and sent her flying back. She landed on the hard ground with a smack that forced the breath right from her lungs. With great difficulty, Ashlynn pushed herself to her feet and looked to Cian across the way. He’d stood and turned toward her with eyes that were completely black. His chest heaved rapidly with the power of the curse that filled his body.
“I told you to stay away,” he bellowed in a voice that wasn’t quite his own.
A shiver ran through Ashlynn’s injured body. “Cian! Please, don’t do this. You don’t have to give in. We’ll find Serena together and put a stop to this once and for all.”
>
“Leave,” he commanded again. His magic, red but poisoned with black tendrils, billowed around his arms like smoke.
“No,” Ashlynn replied firmly, forcing her voice to not shake, and stood her ground. He’d fought for her, to keep her safe and loved, and she’d be damned if she’d do anything less for him. She’d fight for him, even fight with him, to save his life and soul. Although, Ashlynn faltered, she wasn’t sure she’d be a match for him in her current state. She’d been feeding Cian bits of her magic for too long and felt the loss of it now.
Suddenly, Cian tilted his head back and roared at the sky. A loud, chest rumbling shriek that terrified Ashlynn. She watched as the magic coursing around his body thickened, seeping into his mouth. He brought his gaze back to her once again, grinning as he did, and ripped the white T-shirt from his body.
Ashlynn gasped in horror.
The curse had completely taken him over, the black veins stretching across his skin, covering just about every inch of the man she loved. Tears swelled in her eyes.
“Cian…”
He laughed maniacally with the sharp edge of insanity. “There’s nothing anyone can do for me now.” He began to walk toward her, his strides unhurried. “I’ve given in. It’s easier. It’s…” he inhaled sharply, “freeing.”
Ashlynn’s blood ran cold. “What?”
“That’s right, princess,” he replied. “Your Cian is gone. He tried to play with magic he didn’t understand. Poor, self-sacrificing soul. He belongs to the darkness now, and Serena will soon be here to collect her prize.”
Ashlynn stood tall; her spine locked in place as she refused to let her weakness show. This dark version of her Cian would pounce at any sign of weakness, she could see that clearly. Her chin trembled but she pursed her lips and forced it to stop. Gritting her teeth, Ashlynn called to her magick from the depths of her soul, spun it inside, willing it to strengthen. She could feel the weak spots, the holes left behind from helping Cian, and reached out for whatever strength she could find.
Cian’s shrewd eyes narrowed as he realized what she was doing. Ashlynn watched in horror as he rolled a ball of black magic in his hands, letting it grow as he eyed her wickedly. “Now, if I could only have that raw, ancient power that resides in you, I’d be even more powerful than Serena. I could bring you all to your knees,” he said with a leering grin and stepped closer, holding the blackness menacingly in his grasp.
He moved quickly, pushing it toward her with a thrust, but Ashlynn was prepared and blocked it. The impact of it struck her like a blow, though, threatening to knock her back. Panic filled her veins as she realized just how easy it would have been for it to break through. Ashlynn forced herself to slow her breathing, to keep oxygen moving in and out of her lungs so she could think, could prepare, could find a way to save the man she loved.
Cian advanced closer and Ashlynn back away, throwing bits of emerald green magic at him in a weak attempt to thwart him, but he only seemed to absorb the power. Growing stronger with every step he took.
“Cian, please,” she begged as tears broke free and flowed down her cheeks. She had no way to fight back, she knew it as well as he. So, she opened her heart to him, reaching for the magick that resided in love, instead. “Don’t do this. I know you’re still in there. You have to be.”
Cian only chuckled.
“I-I love you,” she told him as she dodged another of his attacks, blocking it just in time with a blast of her own. Again, he absorbed her magick like water on his skin.
“I love you,” she said again, the salt of her tears stinging her dry, cracked lips as she tried futility to break through the darkness to her Cian, to bring back to her. She saw the glint of amusement in his eyes and let her head droop, knowing it was too late. “I’ll always love you,” she whispered, closing her eyes against the look of nothingness in his gaze. As her eyelids fluttered shut, something flickered in his expression, a moment of pause, so quick she nearly missed it.
Hope flared to life inside her soul. She was getting through.
“I always have,” she continued, lifting her chin once more to look Cian right in the eye. “Even in the past, before we ever met, some part of me loved you. The idea of you. A man so good, so pure, the only man I could ever let into my heart. I came three hundred years into the future to find you.”
Cian paused again, the corner of his mouth twitching as his black eyes seemed to go blank with emptiness. But he didn’t advance, so Ashlynn took a careful step toward him.
“And I know you love me, too,” she kept going, desperate to break through. “You risked everything to be with me, the strange woman from the past. You took me in without question. Kept me safe.”
Tiny finger slipped into hers, making Ashlynn gasp as power flowed into her depleted body through the connection. She kept her eyes on Cian and squeezed Masilda’s hand, recognizing the child’s magick and accepting the gift she silently offered. Through the connection of skin and magick, Ashlynn’s mind saw Masilda standing by her side, holding her hand as they both stared, unblinking, at Cian.
Power flowed, like a living thing, from the child into Ashlynn, lighting her up as brightly as the sun. A magic far beyond anything she’d ever felt in her life. How something so raw and concentrated could reside in a child was beyond her. But she squeezed Masilda’s hand, eternally grateful for the help.
With a tear-soaked face, Ashlynn smiled wide and braced herself before pooling their joined power. She looked to Cian, eyes still black as tar, and thrust every ounce she could toward him. Willing the curse from his body, praying she could save his life in the process.
Stands of her emerald magick and Masilda’s gold engulfed Cian and forced him to his knees as Ashlynn and Masilda held strong on the other end, maintaining the connection of magick between the three of them. Blackness seeped from Cian’s form like water evaporating from hot asphalt. Her heart leaped.
He screamed out in pain as the curse clung to him in a desperate hold. His anguished cries tore at Ashlynn’s heart and she sobbed, knowing he was in pain, maybe dying, because of what she was doing to him. But she continued, through tears and heartbreak, fighting the evil that slithered insidiously through the man who was her past, her present, and her future, flighting with everything she had to free him from the curse’s hold. She refused to give in, to back down. She’d bring him back or destroy him and her heart in the process.
Masilda squeezed Ashlynn’s hand once more and the simple movement blasted out a surge of magick so intense and pure it reverberated through the air between them and Cian, hitting him as he gasped for breath and clawed at his chest, sending him to his knees. He crumpled, leaning forward on his hands, and panted heavily with his head hung low. The magick Ashlyn had been wielding evaporated, leaving her bereft for a moment. She gasped for breath, knowing they’d knocked it back, knowing Masilda had wrent the curse from Cian’s soul.
Ashlynn tore her gaze from Cian’s shaking body to check on Masilda, whose hand shivered in her own. “Are you alright?”
The girl looked at her with a solemn expression and nodded. “Yes,” she said in a breathy voice. “Are you?”
Ashlynn hugged her close and shuddered in relief. “You’re a crazy kid.” Love for Masilda burned inside her.
A moan of anguish brought Ashlynn back to the moment. She released Masilda and ran to Cian, falling to the ground at his side with hope. But the moment her hand brushed his burning, sweaty skin, he grabbed her arm and forced her to her feet with a sneer. Panic shot through her veins.
“You stupid woman,” he growled, his voice like a hollow echo. Almost…demonic.
His other hand wrapped around her neck, lifting her from the ground. Ashlynn’s legs flailed, kicking his shins desperately, searching for purchase as she gasped for breath and saw stars. But, as hard as she tried, nothing seemed to phase him.
“Now, give me the rest of the pretty power,” he demanded.
His pulled her into him and brought his lips to h
er in a mockery of a kiss as his hand squeezed even tighter around her throat. She felt the darkness latch onto her, through him, as he began to syphon what remained of her dwindled magic, sucking it from her very pores. She could feel it fleeing every orifice of her weakened body and there was nothing she could do. The man she loved was going to take her power and leave her for dead. Ashlynn strained to look down at Masilda who watched a step away with fathomless eyes.
“R-run,” Ashlynn choked out.
But the child didn’t listen. With a fierce battle cry, Masilda launched herself at Cian and grabbed his face in both her hands, pulling him down to her level. Cian’s grasp around Ashlynn’s neck let go and she stumbled backward, gasping for air as she rubbed at the torn skin. She recovered quickly and threw herself forward, trying desperately to wedge herself between Cian and Masilda, but it was no use. A golden force surrounded them as Masilda loosed a long, guttural scream and Cian turned his magic on her, a child, and began gleefully siphoning her unique gift. Her red hair flew about her face as if alive, and Cian cried out, almost as if in pain as the darkness sucked the life force from the girl.
“Stop it, Cian!” Ashlynn begged, yanking on his arm. It was like pulling at statue. “You’re going to kill her!”
It happened quickly. The blackness drained from Cian’s eyes, revealing a horrified expression full of pain and regret. He looked at Ashlynn helplessly, his mouth gaping.
“I-I can’t! It’s not me!” he squeezed the words from tight lips.
Ashlynn realized then, as she stared back and forth between the two of them, that Masilda was all but consumed by her own powers, unable to control them. They were locked in some sort of magical hold, unable to break free of the concentration of magic that poured from the child.
Slowly, Masilda tipped her head and smiled at Ashlynn. One of her tiny hands let go of Cian’s face and reached out for Ashlynn’s hand. Sobbing helplessly, Ashlynn took it, held the girl’s tender fingers in her own.
Dark Magicks Page 9