Amuletto Kiss

by Gina LaManna

  “You may die, old man, but not Lily.” Lucian shook his head. “You won’t let her die. She’s the key, isn’t she?”

  Then with a whirl of purple light, he hit me with the same curse as he’d sent on the Master. I had no time to respond, to conjure another counter curse before my breath was gone and my eyes swelled with the lack of oxygen. I couldn’t mutter a word, an incantation, or a goodbye. My body collapsed under me, giving out as I sank to the ground in a paralyzed slump.

  After what felt like minutes, the flash of a green light streaked before my gaze and the pressure on my chest vanished. My breath returned in unceremonious heaves, and I treasured each round of oxygen as if it might be my last.

  As I righted myself, I studied the picture before me. The Master of Magic’s chest rose and fell in heavy pulses from the aftershocks of his complex counter curse. Meanwhile, Lucian watched us with a pleased, twisted smile. He’d found the Master’s weak spot, and we all knew it.

  “If you kill her,” the Master breathed. “You’ll be committing suicide. Mass murder. She needs to live, or we will all die. Kill me, kill anyone—but Lily must live.”

  “Why do I not believe you?” Lucian stepped forward, a ball of brilliant violet fire in his hands. “You are weak, old man. Your attacking powers are stripped, I made sure of that when I brought you down here. All you can do is fight back.”

  “Your attacking powers are stripped?” I looked to the Master of Magic. “But...how?”

  Lucian laughed. “I’ll show you my tricks someday, dear daughter—if the Master chooses to let you live. It’s up to him, really.”

  The dim glow from the Master’s eyes told me this was true. “The prophecy will do you no good, Lucian.”

  “It contains Lily’s name, doesn’t it?” Lucian pressed. “As her rightful father, I should hear it.”

  I couldn’t help a derisive snort. “You might want the prophecy, but not because of familial ties—if you’re going to lie, Lucian, do it well.”

  “This is how it’ll go.” The purple fire in Lucian’s hands grew larger as he spoke directly to the old man. “I’ll hit you first. Lily will have to choose to attack me or save you—it can’t go both ways. She’ll choose to save you because that’s what she does. While she is helping you, I’ll kill her.”

  I’d known my father was the enemy. I knew he led The Faction, led the group that challenged everything I believed in. Yet he’d never directly threatened to kill me before, and the words stung. I hated that they hurt, that they surprised me after all I knew about him already.

  “You’d murder your own daughter?” I looked to him, my heart breaking at the familiarity I saw in them. “For what?”

  The Master of Magic glanced my way, hesitated. There was no doubt in my mind about the truth of Lucian’s words, and the Master must have felt the same. And so, the Master forfeited. He raised his hands, the fight seeping out of his posture. Lucian smiled grimly.

  “Good,” Lucian said. “I’m glad we can all agree.”

  “The prophecy is a simple one,” the Master began with a heavy sigh. “It predicts the arrival of the next Master of Magic. I’ve been Master for centuries. Hundreds of years. My time is winding to a close.”

  “Who is it?” Lucian demanded hungrily. “Who will it be?”

  “Why does it matter?” I snarled. “You don’t control them anyway.”

  “That’s exactly what he wants to do.” The Master of Magic turned to look at me. “All Masters are born mere mortal babes. They grow into children, they love their families—as most children do. Should the future Master be born into a family that—” he turned to look at Lucian—“has less than ideal ethical beliefs, the world will be in grave danger. Masters are not immune to poor choices or unfortunate upbringings: that is why the amulet exists. To protect these children against such fates.”

  “But—” I gasped. “This amulet can’t belong to me. It mustn’t. I’m not—I don’t have children.”

  “You might not now, but someday.” The Master’s eyes warmed. “I’m afraid, Lily, that Diana was correct.”

  My heart pounded, my hand fisted against the amulet. “But—”

  “You are the Mother of Magic. You will give birth to the next Master of Magic, and he will replace me when he comes of age.”

  “I’m not—no,” I said, sitting, gasping. “No, that’s impossible.”

  Lucian’s eyes glimmered with satisfaction. “This is... better than I thought.”

  “No,” I rasped. “It makes no difference whether or not it’s true; should I ever have a child, he’ll never meet you.”

  “You might reconsider after you see this.” Lucian extended his hands and formed a swirling cloud between his outstretched fingers. “I believe congratulations are in order?”

  I moved closer to him as an image appeared above his palm, so clear it was almost like a window into another location. The figure was being tortured, disgustingly so, and with horror, I realized I recognized the man: the build of him, the dark hair, those tortured eyes, the screams of pain. He was mine.

  “Let him go!” I shouted at Lucian, my eyes glued to the image before me. I moved closer, closer, the alarm bells in my head clanging at full force. “Where is X? What have you done with him?”

  “He’s being tended to,” Lucian said with a slow smile. “If you’d like to save his life, let’s talk.”

  “What more can you possibly want from me?” My voice was flat, my eyes dead as I studied their reflection in his. “You have taken everything I have.”

  “Not yet, I haven’t.” Lucian drew from his pocket a piece of parchment. It was blank, but as he looked at it and muttered an enchantment, words appeared there. “Review and sign.”

  “What is this?”

  He pushed it toward me. I surveyed the finely inked cursive. The words were simple. The meaning was not.

  “Sign,” he encouraged, tapping a finger to the parchment and pulling a pen from his robes. “Or your husband-to-be dies.”

  My mouth was dry, the fight leaked from my muscles at the impossible choice. “No.” I studied the page, pushed it back. “This is an impossible task. Give me something else, anything else.”

  “You heard him,” Lucian stated. “You know the prophecy, and now you will choose between your future spouse and your future child.”

  “How can I sign away custody of my child if he doesn’t even exist?”

  The words on Lucian’s parchment gleamed a blood red shade on the back of brown parchment: I, Lily Locke, hereby agree to grant full custody of my firstborn son to Lucian Blackmore, creator of this binding agreement.

  The words continued on for a few more paragraphs, but none of them mattered. The shield around my heart hardened as I looked up at the man who was supposed to be my family, my protector, my father. And found a monster.

  “I know what’s going through your head,” he said, cool and composed. “You’re thinking that if you sign this now, you might be able to find a way to break the contract. That you won’t have to follow through on the terms and conditions.”

  I set my jaw and remained silent. That was exactly what I’d been thinking. I loved Ranger X more than life itself. But there was another way to solve the problem besides finding a way out of the contract, the simplest solution of all—a loophole: Ranger X and I could marry, but never have children.

  With a new wave of hope, I reached for the pen. That was just the way things would have to be. At least I would still have my partner, my soulmate. Without X, my life would be empty anyway.

  As I held the pen and prepared to sign, my necklace gave an encouraging hum, a slight glow and warmth that gave me hope I was making the most of an impossible choice. Or maybe, it was telling me that after all this, there would be a way out of the contract. Either way, I had to make a choice.

  “Now you’re thinking that instead of breaking the contract, you’ll avoid this situation entirely and never have children,” Lucian said smoothly, eerily narrating m
y thoughts. “Who knows? Maybe that’s possible. Maybe you’ll find a way to break the contract and change fate.”

  “Of course I will,” I snapped through my teeth. “But I want it in writing—on this contract—that the minute I sign, Ranger X will be set free and left unharmed.”

  Lucian considered my request, then nodded as more words appeared on the page. I studied the binding agreement, satisfied with the addition. Then I lowered my pen to the page.

  “You and I both know, Lily, that a magical contract cannot be broken,” Lucian warned. “And prophecies must be fulfilled.”

  I bowed my head, bit down on my lip so hard the skin broke. I tasted blood, metal, as I began to scrawl my name. What choice did I have? If I didn’t sign, Ranger X would be dead. We’d never have children anyway, and I would be left with scraps of nothing.

  If I signed, I would at least have X. We could have us.

  Together, we could get through anything.

  I signed, swallowing the taste of blood.

  As the electrical current of magic sizzled up my arm, the very one that bound me to the inhumane contract I’d been forced to sign, Lucian smirked. I glanced upward as my chest felt split in two, and watched as that smirk turned into a smile, a smooth, cold smile with all the smugness in the world because of one fact.

  He was right, and we both knew it.

  Contracts couldn’t be broken; fate couldn’t be changed.

  The anger within my very spirit bubbled and boiled. It slithered into every crevice of my chest, my heart, my soul. A blackness invaded my every thought, a darkness blotting out the world around me.

  Around my neck, the amulet glowed and burned. Its magic seeped through my skin, the burn no longer stinging against me but feeding off the wrath there.

  Together, the heart emblazoned on the charm outside my body joined the pumping heart within, and they pulsed together, golden fingers of magic swirling around my body, dazzling and stunning, ripping and tearing at the air around me.

  Gradually, the smile slipped from Lucian’s face. I could only imagine the blaze in my eyes, the lightning from my fingers. Diana’s words, repeated from the goddess Ceres herself, buzzed through my brain as I sensed the amulet’s unrest: the ancient Roman goddess had been angered.

  The magic seethed into a blooming black cloud and radiated from every part of me. Lucian stumbled, took a step backward, clutching the contract to his chest. I stepped toward him. It was just him and I—no one else existed. I laser focused on him, feeling the anger building to a level that might shatter this house of gods from its very roots.

  “Lily, stop,” Lucian pleaded. “Don’t, I’ll—”

  “It’s too late,” I said, and as I spoke I lurched forward. The voice wasn’t my own, but that of a powerful woman, an echo, a robotic intonation both deeper and stronger and more courageous than my own. “You have angered us.”

  Lucian looked over my head, startled, but there was nobody else. The Master of Magic watched from the wings. This was my moment, and he was letting me have it.

  “By the power of Ceres,” the voice said, radiating from my lips, though I had no control over the words, “you will be destroyed.”

  My hands rose of their own accord. My body seemed to stretch and grow as an unknown power coursed through me. Someone more powerful than any wizard was acting through me, possessing me. The ancient goddess, Ceres herself, had come to protect the wearer of the amulet. She’d come to protect me.

  True fear blossomed on Lucian’s face. “No—Lily!”

  His shout went unanswered. The unembodied entity crashed through my limbs as my mouth shouted a spell in an ancient, foreign language. As the words rolled naturally from my tongue, a burst of magic shot from my palms straight to Lucian.

  He clattered to the ground, unconscious, but I couldn’t stop the magic. Power in spades filtered through my veins, out my fingers, radiated from every inch of me. Another day, the presence of this much power would have killed me. It would have broken me from the inside, destroyed every figment of my being. This evening, however, I had the rage of the past mothers of magic, of Ceres herself, of all owners of the amulet before me protecting me.

  A rumbling began in the distance. It grew and grew until I felt the very crumbling in the depths of my stomach and the tips of my toes. I felt the collapsing sensation in the base of my spine and the beat of my heart.

  The cement walls, thick and sturdy, began to crack around us. The dungeon started to crumble in on itself, the ceiling caving even as I stood still, the magic licking my fingers as it turned the world on its very axis.

  A bolt of understanding hit me, and as the roof over us began to crumble, I launched myself across the room and threw my body over his. The Master of Magic allowed himself to be covered by me as hunks of cement thundered down around us.

  It took minutes for the dust and debris to settle. Maybe hours. Maybe longer. I cowered in exhaustion over the Master of Magic as we breathed heavily amid the ruins.

  When it was finally safe, I moved next to him and glanced upward to find starlight blinking above us. The damage I had inflicted with the help of Ceres was astronomical. More than half the Hall of Masters had fallen, the statues broken and battered and destroyed. I had barely been touched and not a scratch marred my body. The Master of Magic remained unscathed as well, save for the prior injuries inflicted by Lucian.

  The Master studied me carefully as he eased into a sitting position. “Ceres has been at work here tonight.”

  “I know. I felt her. It was—I didn’t have any control over what I was doing or saying.” I shuddered. “She is so powerful, and she was so angry. I could feel things as if the emotions were my own. The spells she cast—I don’t know what language they were in, but I knew the words, knew the extent of damage they would inflict. Yet I couldn’t stop.”

  “That’s the power of the amulet,” he said, with a reverent nod toward the completely intact chain around my neck. “The mothers of magic—much like the Masters of Magic—are all connected via long, ancient bloodlines. An act of terror against you is an act of defiance against the entire line of Ceres’s children. They rose to protect you in your time of need. Much like the Masters in the hall above have protected me.”

  “But I’m not—I can’t be who you think I am,” I said. “I don’t have children.”

  “It’s not my place to wonder at fate. All that’s certain is the prophecy will be fulfilled.” As he lapsed into silence, I scanned the wreckage surrounding us. My father was most certainly dead. I couldn’t pull myself to look closer, but I didn’t need to; the stones had fallen on him in a way that made it impossible for him to survive the collapse.

  He was, after all, a mere mortal wizard.

  While I might also be a mortal witch, I understood the gods had been on my side tonight.

  Emotions flickered in the back of my mind. Ceres’s thoughts, her powers, had vacated my body, and I now felt weak and frail in comparison. My hand crept to the amulet around my neck. I held onto it as the sobs began.

  Sobs because of the complete and utter relief that we’d survived. Sobs because of the horrible knowledge that I’d killed my only living parent. Even greater sobs as I realized that the world was a better place due to his death.

  Ranger X found me amongst the rubble sometime later that evening, and try as he might, he couldn’t pry the amulet from my hand.

  “Lily, sweetheart, I’m here. I’m here, you’re safe.” He cradled me, cocooned me in his warmth. His heart beat strong, fast, and I knew that behind those soothing words, he hid a rage almost as strong as mine.

  “You’re safe,” I gasped, feeling his face, his lips, his chest. I couldn’t get enough of his strong heartbeat against my cheek. “He had you, he tortured you.”

  Ranger X shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

  “My father, he showed me...” I gulped back a wave of hurt. “He showed me an image of you being tortured, and he said that if I didn’t cooperate wi
th him, he’d kill you.”

  “I’m here, I’m safe, I’m fine. Lily, you’re hurt, exhausted. Let me take you home. He never had me.”

  “It was a trick? What about the others? Zin, Poppy, Gerry?”

  Ranger X didn’t respond. When I resumed my sobs, he pulled me close. “It doesn’t matter now. You’re safe, they’re safe—he’s gone. Poppy got help, and Gerry and Zin are fine. You can see them as soon as we get you back to The Isle.”

  “I killed him,” I whispered. “He’s dead.”

  “I know, honey, I know.” Ranger X pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You didn’t have a choice. It was always going to be him or you. There was never another way.”

  “There was,” I rasped. “But he didn’t want it that way.”

  “I know.” He stroked my hair, and in his own way, I knew that he understood. “I love you.”

  “I love you.” I blinked, my throat raw, my eyes exhausted and my body a wet rag—completely spent. “Take me home,” I told him, unable to stop the relief, the soaring in my heart as I realized he was safe, he was mine, and my contract with Lucian was null and void. “Take me away from here and marry me.”

  “You are mine,” he said. “Forever.”

  Chapter 28

  THE DAYS AFTER OUR return to The Isle flipped past, as if I’d thumbed through the pages of the calendar. The world continued on, surprisingly mundane despite the historic events marked by our time in Olympia.

  The leader of The Faction was dead. The storm clouds had parted, and the Master of Magic had been safely returned to his tower. Life continued on at its regular, monotonous pace.

  Life continued for all of us.

  It continued for Samuel Palmer, too, the man wrongly accused of my mother’s murder. On my first day back to The Isle, I’d arranged for Ranger X to set up Sammy with an apartment and enough money to get started. Ranger X had agreed easily and funded the venture with cash kept at Ranger HQ for specialized human missions. He utilized a few connections on the mainland and pulled strings to get Sammy situated in a decent job. Sammy was working to get on his feet and to face Miss Hubick with his chin held high.