Broken Magic

by Catherine Vale

  I looked up at her, as I gathered up that dark power, letting it fill me from the inside, humming over my bones and tingling over my skin. It was stronger than anything I’d ever felt before. And it told me things. I tried not to listen, but its voice was so loud, so persistent. I had to end the Queen first, and then the realm was mine for the taking. I just needed to open myself to this power, to let it run through me, to never close myself off from it again.

  I stepped back, squaring my stance, letting that humming, magnificent, shadowy power fall over me completely. I lifted my hands, roaring with the strength of it, my voice echoing over the clearing. The skin walker guards, who almost had their long, bony hands on me, flew back onto the grass, senseless or dead—at that moment, I didn’t care which. I drew from that well, my entire body straining with the effort. It was deeper than the ocean and darker than furthest corner of space. I took it in, that power lifting me from the ground, leaving only the tips of my toes touching the grass, my bones shuddering so much I thought they were trying to escape my skin. More guards tried to take me by my trembling arms and legs, but that power tossed them back as though they were nothing.

  My vision cleared, my heartbeat slowed, and my breath stopped in my lungs. I became the stillness in the air, my mind narrowing to a single, pulsating point. I could see everything in the clearing, even what was going on behind me. I looked up at the Queen, not thinking, not planning, just letting that bottomless well of electric power direct itself. It knew what it wanted, so I let it do what it would do, leaving myself open, giving it my hands, my body, my mind. That magic turned itself loose, unleashing a vibrant, swirling power from every pore of my tingling, too hot skin. It was a wave that moved over the crowd, drawing everyone’s attention, and flew straight for the Queen. A cold smile twisted my lips at the thought of her falling dead from her balcony, her body strewn over the leafy maze below.

  But the amulet on her neck blazed a hot, crackling red. As soon as that wave of power came for her, a sizzling crimson wall shot up in front of her, shielding the entire balcony behind the translucent barrier. My tide of murky power battered it with a series of flashing sparks, but didn’t break it. That restless, whispering tide turned, falling away again, and I collapsed to my knees, my limbs twitching and jumping on their own.

  The breath returned to me in a stuttering stream, smoky and thick, and I could feel my heart knocking against my heaving ribs. I leaned over onto my hands, the grass cool against my black palm as I wretched. Using the dark power was like releasing a pressure valve—all the excess buildup was channeled out through me. But a residue lingered inside me. I was empty of that terrible power, but could still feel it itching at the cuts on my hands, like an infection that I just couldn’t shake. I wanted to turn my stomach inside out, but there was nothing inside of it. I shouldn’t have let that darkness unravel inside me, shouldn’t have opened myself to it. I felt dirty and used up, but from the inside, where I couldn’t just wipe it away. I wanted to vomit until that feeling left me. White magic was good and felt natural. It never burned me internally like this. It never left a rotten taste in my mouth.

  Hands dropped onto my shivering shoulders, tugging hard at me. I couldn’t fight them off, couldn’t even gather enough breath to scream.

  “I don’t know what the hell you did, but it bought us some time,” Grayson said, nearly breathless from all the fighting he’d done. “We have to go.”

  I shook my head, not even able to speak with the corrupted feeling slithering over my skin and through my veins. That power had done something to me, sullying me in a way I might never be able to wash off again. And it still whispered to me—telling me to open myself again, to use it to take over this realm, to force all that power to run through me alone. I could stand at the very heart of this realm, every beat thudding in my own chest, every creature living only because I allowed it. I shook my head fiercely, the nausea twisting my stomach into painful knots.

  “Alicia!” Grayson snapped, shaking me firmly.

  I wretched again, much harder, my heartbeat throbbing behind my eyes.

  He jerked me to my feet and started running, tugging me along after him, headed for the rear exit through the wall of bushes. I stumbled along after him, struggling to breathe. My thoughts refused to settle. It was like that well of dark magic had scrambled my insides and changed me in a way I wouldn’t be able to set right again. But at least my legs worked.

  I looked over my shoulder at the mess we’d left behind in the clearing. Guards were strewn all over the grass, getting up slowly, rubbing their heads, and seeming stunned. The Queen bellowed from her tower, ordering her minions to come for us, that oil black amulet blazing on her neck. If that wealth of shady power hadn’t worked against her, I had no idea what would. All hope of ever getting back to my home world had evaporated in the sizzling electricity of that unnatural magic. I was alive, but not for long. As soon as they found us, Grayson and I were done for.

  CHAPTER 14

  ~

  WE RAN THROUGH THE MAZE of tall bushes for what felt like an eternity. Grayson tugged me along in his wake, pulling me around corners and through narrow corridors until we burst through the exit. On this side of the mountain, I could see a small town below us, little houses pressed closely together and a system of colorful dirt roads winding between them. The guards were coming for us. There were so many thundering footsteps that the ground shook beneath our feet. I heard them yelling out to one another, and above their voices the Queen shrieked threats from her high balcony—her voice infecting the air with a shivering sound that stabbed my ears.

  “This way,” Grayson said, not the least bit breathless from all our running. Despite not having eaten a decent meal or slept well in days, nearly being barbecued in front a crowd, and my insides feeling scraped out from the blunt edge of the black magic I’d allowed to work through me, I felt mostly okay too. A little worn out, but able to run again when Grayson started off, not taking me by the hand this time.

  The woods were tantalizingly close—less than three hundred yards away—and that was where we were headed. I put some lead on it, speeding up beside Grayson, my long legs keeping stride with his and my arms pumping to help keep the pace. All those years on the high school track team were finally paying off. Coach would be proud to hear it. If I lived through this and found a way back to my home world, I’d be sure to tell him.

  We motored into the forest, jumping through a slender opening between two trees—Grayson falling back a step to let me go first, always the gentleman, even when our lives were at risk. I tucked that away, planning to give him a hard time about it later. Right now, we needed to get as far away from the castle as we could. The woods on this side of the mountain were just as thick as they were on the other side with the trees unnaturally close. The thick canopy cut out the sunlight completely, leaving us in cool shadows. The air was scentless and still, just like everywhere else in this realm except the throne room. There was a narrow black path cutting through the trees, but Grayson stepped away from it almost immediately.

  “They’ll expect us to follow the path,” he said, though I hadn’t asked.

  We kept running, dodging around bushes and under low hanging branches, getting ourselves well and truly lost. But if we didn’t know where we were, neither would the guards pursuing us. Grayson was right, they’d expect us to keep to the path.

  We came to a stop several long minutes later. I bent over my knees, breathing heavily while Grayson surveyed what we could see of our surroundings. Giant trees penned us in on all sides, their leafy branches keeping every glimmer of sunlight from touching the ground at our feet. Most of the thick underbrush was at knee level. I tried sending feelers out, testing the air with the impotent power building inside me, but it was useless. Even the creeping, whispering, corrupted power lay still, refusing me access now that I was safely away from the Queen and her amulet. Something about the power in that charm spoke to the infection in me, opening up that bottomles
s well that begged me to drink from it until I made myself sick.

  “What the hell did you do back there?” Grayson asked, with his hands resting on hips. “I thought you didn’t have access to your magic.”

  I stood up again, leaning back against the nearest tree trunk to steady myself. My head felt ready to float from my shoulders. Even my skin felt weird, like it belonged to someone else. It didn’t make much sense, even to my own throbbing head, but there it was.

  I showed him my palm, covered in the black skin that had spread outwards from the deep cuts that I’d sustained attacking the guard in my cell.

  His light eyebrows drew together and his eyes widened, sucking in the cool shadows around us. “What happened?” He took me by the wrist, keeping his fingers safely away from the rotted skin as he surveyed it, turning it this way and that in the dim light. It didn’t hurt anymore, but my entire hand now felt numb and empty.

  “I cut it on some enchanted glass,” I said, then pulled my hand gently away, closing it into a fist so neither of us would stare at it. “It gave me access to something dark. That’s what I used against the Queen, but even that didn’t work.”

  I couldn’t explain what using that magic had done to me and how it had felt. He wouldn’t understand, because he didn’t know what it was like to use pure, clean magic.

  A branch broke with a loud snap right behind where we were standing. I spun around, expecting to find guards surrounding us and ready to strike. But it was only Madden. My relief was so total, I collapsed onto the nearest tree, my legs suddenly useless. Grayson appeared to be bristling with rage. His pretty eyes were narrowed to glittering slits and his body went rigid, as though ready to jump to violent action.

  “Are you running?” Madden asked, tilting his head, but not enough to knock the bowler hat askew. His velvet jacket was buttoned closed and he wore matching pants with no shoes. There was no sign of Trystan or Blossom anywhere in sight. “And if so, from whom?” He kept his gray eyes trained on me, not even sparing a glance Grayson’s way.

  “The worst evil I’ve ever encountered, that’s what,” Grayson snapped. He still looked ready to pounce on the faery, pummeling him with his clenched fists. But he didn’t move from his place right beside me. “I’ve never seen such concentrated wickedness. Why didn’t you warn us about the Queen? She tried to kill Alicia!”

  Madden shrugged shoulders that were as broad as Grayson’s, but narrow like the rest of him. He didn’t break eye contact with me, even as he smiled, revealing two small, neat rows of teeth. He was ancient—I could tell by the way he carried himself—but the petal white skin on his face and hands was free of blemishes, not a single wrinkle or age spot. He was beautiful in a way the pale Queen could never be. It was the pure magic living at his center, same as mine—or, at least, same as mine had been before I let that other rotten well of power stake a claim inside me.

  “I’ve warned many travelers entering Wonderland, even going so far as to offer them a seat at my table,” he said, his low voice a comfort, even though what he said alarmed me. “But no one ever listens.”

  Grayson made an annoyed noise and turned to me. “We need to get the hell out of here. If we kept up a good pace, we could be to your portal by morning.”

  Madden gave a low amused chuckle that made Grayson’s spine stiffen further. His light eyes blazed, but he kept them pinned to my face.

  “The portal is closed and we have no access to magic, remember?” I said, and Madden had another laugh at Grayson’s expense. I shot him a flat look, but that only made him seem more pleased with himself.

  “How did we get into this realm in the first place if the portal is closed?” he asked. “The magic had to work at some point.”

  I shook my head. “The power that engaged the portal was from the other side where the Queen has no command. That’s the only thing that makes sense. Once arriving here, the portal closes, like a one-way door. The Queen somehow found a way to keep all the realm’s magic to herself.”

  “How are we supposed to get out of this realm?” Grayson asked.

  Without magic, we were stuck here. I didn’t know what to tell him, other than the terrible truth. I chewed my lip, thinking of a way to break it to him, when something suddenly occurred to me. It might be nothing, but I couldn’t shake the thought free.

  “You came through the portal by invitation, right?” I asked, my brain buzzing with questions as I tried to fit the pieces of this peculiar puzzle together and figure a way out.

  Grayson nodded, his golden brows drawing together in slight confusion.

  “Okay, and when you entered Wonderland, did you find yourself at the base of a tree?”

  “No,” he said, with a shake of the head. “I stepped through some kind of magic mirror to get here and ended up on the path.”

  A mirror. My eyes widened as I drew in a sharp breath. The dark mirror with the corrupted glass. The mirror that the strange woman had slipped through the window of my cell in a dungeon filled to the brim with imprisoned supernaturals, all stripped of their magic. If we freed them, they could help us. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was all we had at the moment. We’d just have to make it work.

  “We need to go back to the castle,” I said, staring up at Grayson.

  His face tightened into a deep scowl. “What? You mean the castle we were lucky to escape with our lives?”

  “That’s the one,” I replied. “There are cells full of supernaturals in the dungeon. I don’t know how many, but we can’t leave them behind. With their help, we might be able to defeat the Queen.”

  “How are you planning to do that?” he asked, and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “The Queen wears an amulet around her neck. That’s where she keeps all the trapped magic from this realm. It hangs over her own heart, making her even more powerful than she was before. We must destroy that charm. As soon as we do, I’ll have access to my magic again, and you’ll be able to shift into your true form.”

  “You’re a shifter?” Madden asked, his smooth voice breaking right into our conversation. He still wore his sly little grin. “That explains a lot.”

  That got Grayson’s hackles up again. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “Clearly you know,” Madden said, not losing the grin.

  “We don’t have time for this bullshit.” I tugged on Grayson’s arm to bring his attention back to me. My limbs were loose and shivery. My stomach had yet to unclench itself from the use of that terrible magic, which had left the inside of my skin feeling so filthy that I ached to scrub it clean again. But I finally had a plan, and that was good.

  “I’m going back to the castle,” I said, my voice deadly calm. “I’m either going to put an end to the Queen’s stranglehold on the magic in this realm or die trying.”

  CHAPTER 15

  ~

  No one said a single word. They just stood there, blinking at me.

  I turned to Madden, eyebrows lifted. “Are you coming?” I asked. “You’re the only one here with a little bit of magic still left.”

  He shook his head profusely, the way a spoiled child might. “I’m no fighter, dear. I’d die at the first sight of trouble. I’ve only lived this long by minding my own business.” He lifted the bowler hat from his head and bowed to me, showing off a cap of white blond curls to match his pointy eyebrows. He flashed his small toothed smile at me again as he dropped the hat back onto the top of his head. “Are you certain you wouldn’t rather join us in the clearing? It’s safe there.”

  “I’m done hiding,” I said. “What’s going on in this kingdom isn’t right.”

  Madden nodded his understanding, his gray eyes bright as he watched me, his sly smile warming up. “You will free us all, Alicia.” He stepped closer and pulled me into an embrace, the clean peppermint scent of him clearing my head. “May your luck not abandon you when you need it most.” He pressed a kiss onto my temple, then he let me go, turned his back, and left us without another word, mo
ving quickly and gracefully on his bare feet. I watched him go, waiting until the trees swallowed him whole before turning to stare up at Grayson. He was looking at the narrow sliver of a path Madden had just cut through the trees and bushes, though he was no longer in sight.

  “What about you?” I asked.

  He glanced down at me, brows bunched together and eyes shadowed in that pensive way he had. “I don’t know that going back to the castle is such a good idea,” he said, finally.

  “Do you have a better plan?” I wasn’t being combative. I honestly wanted to know. What I’d proposed had a high probability of us being killed in painful and grisly ways. I’d definitely be all ears if he could come up with a plan that didn’t resemble a loosely cobbled together death mission.

  “No,” he said, lips curling into a bashful grin.

  “You don’t have to come with me.” I didn’t like the thought of returning to the castle without someone covering my back, but just because I’d chosen to take this on as my fight didn’t mean he had to do the same.

  “I don’t want you going back alone.” He watched me for a long collection of seconds, his eyes closed off and dark while the thoughts buzzed in his head. He slumped his shoulders in a defeated way. “I’ll go, if that’s the only way to find a way out of this realm.”

  “Don’t feel like you need to do me any favors,” I replied. “I’m perfectly capable of handling this myself.”

  He let loose a low rumble of laughter that didn’t escape his throat. “You were almost burned at the stake, Alicia. Accept help when it’s offered.”

  “You tightened the ropes, so…” I flashed my own sharp grin in answer to the one he sent my way.

  “I also loosened them,” he shot back, his smile widening as he lifted his eyebrows. “So, maybe it’s best that we stick together.”

  I shrugged as though it didn’t matter to me one way or the other, even as a wave of relief washed over me. I was doing this with or without backup, but it was good not to have to do it alone. “Agreed.”