by Janet Tait
“And it killed your brother, didn’t it?” Melina walked around the circle stones, studying Kate as her dress trailed her. “Is that when it made you a caster?”
“Why don’t you ask Kristof? Apparently he knows everything about me.”
“You shouldn’t have been so open with him. But then, you thought he was your boyfriend. Not your enemy.”
Kate crossed her arms.
“My brother believes he can have anything he wants,” Melina said. “Anyone. Our father sends him on a mission to gain information from an enemy, and he thinks nothing of breaking the Rules to get it. Even if he breaks a girl’s heart in the process. Typical. Makris men are like that, you know. Callous. Privileged. Out for themselves.”
And you aren’t? Please.
“You’re angry at Kristof for his betrayal, at Dmitri for his attack. You want to get back at them for what they’ve done.”
What kind of game was Melina playing? “Sure. Of course.”
“Then help me figure out how the stone works. Help me understand the power inside you. How you broke the teleport block around the estate, why the power tried to consume you a moment ago.”
She shifted on the cold stone tiles. “Why?”
“Simple. Whatever power you called up, you can’t control. You need my help.”
Kate’s heart sank at Melina’s words. She was right about the lack of control. If she tried to use the power again, anything might happen. Something awful. Something fatal.
“I don’t need you. I have my own family. My uncle, my friend Dylan, they can—”
“They aren’t here. I am. And they don’t have this.” She opened the silver box. The stone sat inside, a black disk lying against the pristine white of its silk cocoon. It drew in the blue-green light of the Sanctum’s gems and wrapped the gems’ glow around its obsidian darkness, as if taking the Sanctum’s power as its rightful tribute.
She tried to avert her eyes, to look at something else, anything, even Melina’s smug smile. But the stone drew her gaze back as surely as a swaying cobra held a mouse’s attention.
It whispered to her. Sang to her, in a deep, dark voice, like a quiet echo of the power that spoke inside her. Touch me, touch me. Pick me up, look into my depths. Then everything will be over. She wrenched her attention back to Melina.
“I’m going to examine you,” Melina said. “You have two choices. You can help me, or you can fight me. If you fight me, I’ll win.” Her eyes gleamed in the green light of the Sanctum. “If you help me, we might both benefit. Make the right choice.”
No, there’s a third choice. Pretend to cooperate, learn all I can, and use it to control this power inside me. And bring down its darkness on you, Dmitri, and Kristof.
I’ll take option three, thanks.
She drew her knees in and hugged them close. “Okay. I’ll cooperate. Just don’t use the spellcuffs. Please.” She sniffled. Playing the scared little Null wasn’t much of a stretch.
Melina’s smiled a knowing smile. “Good choice. Now stay quiet and don’t resist.”
Melina tapped out the points of the symbol, sang her chant—so like yet unlike the Hamiltons’ language—and tendrils of green energy, smelling faintly of chlorine, shot from Melina’s hands, penetrated the circle stone barrier, and wrapped themselves around Kate.
But the stone played its old games. Trying to entrance her, to get her to lose herself in its ebony depths. Trapped by the circle stones and the cuffs around her hands, fighting the pull of the Pandora Stone, she could no more stop Melina than she could hold back the summer sun.
Melina’s spell sank into her body, and she felt it rummaging through her tissue, her bones, her blood, her muscles. A sharp, cold tingle ran through her spine. Then a ripple of pain crashed through her skull, a rush of warmth flushed her face, and the sharp, acidic scent of chlorine choked her nostrils.
Pure fear seized and shook her. No. I can’t afford to lose it. Not here, not now. She visualized Melina: her eyes narrowed in concentration, her lips curved up in an arrogant smile. She wasn’t going to let another Makris get the better of her. Dammit, she was a caster now, too. There had to be something she could do.
Two problems: Melina and the stone.
She’d better take one at a time.
The stone first. She took a breath. Another. Then she focused on the stone’s voice in her head, calling to her. She pretended its words came from a brassy horn, calling in the distance and imagined the horn moving farther and farther away. As the stone’s call faded, she pulled her gaze away from it, millimeter by millimeter. The pressure in her head eased the further away her gaze drifted.
She could still see the stone, in the corner of her vision, but its dark power no longer swamped her.
Melina didn’t notice. Head thrown back, eyes unfocused, she seemed caught in the flow of her own spell.
Melina’s spell poured through the circle-stone barrier, its green energy like a solid rush of water. Kate’s body absorbed the energy with a sharp tingle. It felt like the spell Grayson had done after she’d been changed. Maybe it did what Grayson’s spell had done—delved into the depths of her cells and into her DNA itself to see what she had become. But it felt like Melina’s spell went further. Its green energy not only scanned Kate, but Kate could also see it flow between her and the stone. Did the spell watch the stone as it sang to Kate and assess the stone’s function, as well?
If so, Melina would know what the stone had done to Kate as soon as her spell finished. She’d know how Kate had cast the spells that let her break the teleport block and burn Dmitri.
That would be more than Kate knew herself. Was there any way she could see what Melina saw? She scrutinized Melina’s spell with her magesight. Then she looked at the stone. Nothing. She wasn’t a master technician like Melina—only a newbie caster. Despair welled up in her.
What had Dylan told her? Lyndal, the stone’s creator, had made the Pandora Stone to bring back primal magic—the kind that had existed in the First Era. Was primal magic the kind of power she’d called up in the tree house and in Africa? But according to legend, primal magic casters had no problem controlling their spells. They just had to pay for them in…
Shit. They paid for their spells in death.
The butterflies in the catalpa grove, the lizard in the tree house, the beetles, and the seagulls. All of them dying, even as she called up the blackness inside and cast her spells.
Oh God. That’s what I am. A primal magic caster.
If Dylan was right, that meant the stone really wasn’t finished with her. Its calls to her were attempts to complete its programming, interrupted by Brian’s spell. Attempts to finish making her into a primal magic caster—one with control.
Was Kate supposed to touch the stone and complete its transformation? Maybe she’d gain the control over its power she now lacked. Or maybe she should find some way to undo what it had done. Being a Null again would suck, but being powerless was better than losing herself to…that hunger rising up from the dark ocean of what had to be primal magic inside her. The force that threatened to pull her down and consume her. Every time she used the power, it killed something. What would it do if she lost control again? Eat her alive? Kill someone else?
Melina’s eyes opened, and the stream of green energy snapped off. Kate slumped to the floor, exhausted. Her body ached, her head hurt, and her mind spun.
“That’s…very interesting.” Melina shut the stone’s silver box.
Kate relaxed as the stone’s call muted. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what you found out?”
“Why would I keep it from you? That wouldn’t help anyone.” Melina walked behind the blue glass wall and put the stone and book away. She came back around to face Kate. “The Pandora Stone is trying to possess you, permanently. Its creator, the First Era caster Lyndal, designed it to take a blank slate—a Null—and transform it into a tool to awaken primal magic from its long sleep. The stone planted a direct link to primal mag
ic inside you, and primal magic plans to use you as a gateway back into the world.”
No, no, no. She’s lying. She must be. “How can primal magic ‘plan’ anything? It’s not alive.”
“Isn’t it? You’ve felt the call from the stone, how primal magic speaks to you. You think it doesn’t have intention?”
Oh, it did. It definitely had intention. If only she could figure that intention out.
“It wants to return, seeks what it views as its rightful place. That’s primal magic’s purpose, not any of these legends that you’ve heard. The stone is its agent. And after so long an absence, it’s very hungry.”
“What? You’re… You’ve got to be kidding.” Kate sat on the cold floor, silent. Melina’s story could be true. It made sense in a weird way, as much sense as the explanation she’d come up with. The stone had possessed her before. Maybe its call to her served as the set-up for the final possession. She made her hands into fists before Melina could see them shaking.
Melina’s a Makris. Just like Dmitri. And Kristof. They all lie, break the rules, and take what they want. So why is she bothering to tell me anything? What does she want from me that she can’t take?
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
Melina shrugged. “You don’t. But why would I lie?”
Because you’re a Makris? “How do I stop the stone from possessing me? Reverse what it’s already done?” Kate asked.
“I don’t know. Not yet. But I can find out. And when I do, I can use the stone to take away that dark void inside.”
“Would I still be a caster?”
“I don’t see how I could change that. I don’t have the ability to remove anyone’s magic.”
I have no idea what you can or can’t do. Kate glanced up. Melina presented the same half-arrogant smile, the same superior gaze as she flicked her hair back and looked down her long Makris nose at Kate. Like all the other caster girls, certain she’s smarter, prettier, better than a poor little Null like Kate. Well, if that’s what Melina thought, maybe I should keep her thinking that.
“What do you need to do to fix me?” She huddled in a tight ball on the floor. Better sell it.
Melina shrugged. “Work with the stone, and you. Understand the connection between the two of you so that I can reverse what it did.”
“Why would you? You don’t have any reason to help me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Don’t you understand what you did in the bedroom? What almost happened? Kate, there’s a reason we stopped using primal magic. One that isn’t in the history books. Primal magic takes what it wants. We can’t control it for long. And when it slips the leash we try to put on it, thousands die. Makrises as well as Hamiltons.”
Shit. Kate had felt the hunger of the power inside her, the insatiable appetite that lurked underneath that dark ocean. Melina could be telling the truth.
“Is that what you want? Having your soul eaten by ancient magic, being responsible for the deaths of thousands of people? Casters, Normals…”
“Of course not.”
Melina smiled. “Then let’s get started.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kate sat, legs crossed, inside the circle stones. Melina rested on a floor cushion a few feet outside the circle. A stack of books, some older than Kate thought possible, lay beside her. The hum from the activated circle stones set Kate’s teeth on edge.
After the examination, Melina had taken a break long enough to set the Sanctum up with the supplies she needed. Kate took the time to think. What Melina had told her was plausible. Too plausible. It tasted just true enough that Kate looked hard for the inevitable lie within.
All Kate had to go on was Grayson’s teachings, what Dylan had told her, and instinct. All three said that the dark, hungry ocean inside her was indeed some kind of link with primal magic. Just as the spells she’d cast were that ancient form of death magic. More difficult to figure out was Melina’s story that primal magic wanted to possess her and use her as a gateway. She felt primal magic’s hunger every time she touched it, but Melina’s explanation sounded a bit too self-serving. Make Kate afraid of primal magic, and she’d never learn to use it against Melina.
And then there was the stone. Its call to touch it didn’t feel like destruction. It felt like completion.
Five containers sat inside the circle around Kate. A glass aquarium contained some plants and insects: ants, beetles, butterflies, and the largest cockroach she had ever seen, all buzzing with frantic activity. A second aquarium held a few lizards, tongues darting out to taste the air, and a large snake coiled in the sand. Rodents—a few mice, rats, a rabbit, and a guinea pig—scratched at the glass of another, their claws leaving long, thin marks. Inside a wire cage, a flock of small yellow birds chattered and swooped. A much larger cage held a beagle, a small piglet, and a feral cat. The beagle whined, a high, panicked sound. The piglet squealed a breathy oink and kicked it hooves against the reinforced glass of the terrarium. The cat huddled in a corner.
Kate reached inside the last cage and stroked the beagle’s head. “Is this really necessary?”
Melina glanced up from her book. “Before I can change what the stone did, I have to understand it. Test the limits of what you can do.”
Maybe. Or maybe she has another reason for this “testing.”
“How am I supposed to cast with these things on?” Kate held up her hands, still encased in the silver spellcuffs.
“Don’t worry. I’ll free you long enough to cast each spell.” A small smile lifted the corner of her mouth. “I’ve set up the circle to prevent you from teleporting out—or doing anything other than what I specifically ask you to do.”
Kate remembered what had happened when she’d touched the screen the circle had thrown around her back at her Sanctum. Melina’s countermeasures wouldn’t be as relatively gentle as Victor’s. “What if I don’t do what you want?”
“You could say no. After all, I can’t make you. All I can do is make it very painful for you to refuse. But then again, I also didn’t have to pull you back from that dark place you went this morning, did I? Next time, I could just leave you there. And you will end up there again. Even if you don’t use the power again, it will make sure it takes you back into that darkness and never lets you back up again.”
Yeah, Melina was a Makris, just like her brother and her cousin. Melina just had a different twist to her nastiness.
That little smile had returned to Melina’s face, the smile that said, I was born a caster, and I’m so much better than a poor little Null. Kate wanted to slap that smile off Melina’s face.
But she couldn’t. The situation called for a different tactic.
“I… You’re right.” She slumped over and sighed, putting a little pathos into it. Her acting teachers would be proud.
Melina flipped back a page in her book, read for a moment, then set it down. She concentrated, head back, and flicked her fingers. A purple band appeared around the circle, about halfway between the floor and ceiling. The strip hovered, a steady, unwavering light.
“What is—” Kate began.
“Don’t ask questions, just do what I say. Cast a light spell, the way you were taught.”
Mouth dry, Kate nodded. Melina’s eyes fluttered, and the green stones in Kate’s spellcuffs glowed for a moment.
Kate’s hand shook a little as she traced the points out, the silver cuffs pinching her fingers. Melina better be right about freeing her from them long enough to complete the spell. She wasn’t looking forward to feeling her hands burning in a bonfire again.
Thinking back to the lesson of a few days ago, she focused on the symbol for light. She murmured the short incantation and finished tapping out the symbol on her thigh. A small ball of light appeared in the air before her, burning steadily. No paranoia—normal for casting in a Sanctum. Whatever the purpose of the purple band, it didn’t react to her spell. It hovered in the air around the circle, humming gently.
M
elina scribbled a few notes in her notebook. “Now turn the spell off.”
She obeyed. The light went out as quickly as it had turned on.
“Now comes the interesting part.” Melina reached behind her. She lifted up a small red bag and reached inside, hand swathed in a piece of silk. She drew out a white bowl.
Kate’s eyes locked on the bowl. She heard a faint whisper in her mind, not the brass horn of the stone’s voice, more like a reedy piccolo. Just loud enough to set her teeth on edge. She squinted. The white material of the bowl looked just as the stone had before she’d touched it and the white had changed to black.
A primal magic artifact. It had to be.
“Do the spell again,” Melina said. “Only, use the same method you did when you tried to break our teleport block. Cast it the way you did when you burned Dmitri.”
Great. The last thing she wanted to do—dive down into that hungry blackness again.
How the hell was she going to stop primal magic from pulling her in? No idea. But she’d better figure it out if she wanted to master the darkness and get the hell away from Melina.
She let her eyes go into soft focus, as she did when engaging her magesight. She inhaled. Then she walked down the steep steps and into the basement of her mind, opened the doors once again, and looked out at the ocean of blackness that confronted her.
The waves of ebony energy lapped at her feet as she searched its dark waters, looking for some clue that would let her understand the magic’s intention. Nothing. She raised her eyes above the horizon and beheld the dark clouds, heavy with power. Torrents of jet-black-colored force streamed down like a rain of darkness as it struck the sea below, replenishing its black vitality.
The waters inched closer to her feet. The darkness pulled at her, tried to drag her into its tarry depths. Her stomach tightened.
Light, she willed. The dark force responded right away, reaching out beyond her and making something happen. She felt something else, as well—primal magic making a choice. This for that.
The darkness surrounding her brightened, a glow on the horizon. The light shone dimly, like a lamp seen through a veil. Must be the light spell in the Sanctum. She sharpened her focus on the light, and her contact with the force inside her fell away. She became aware of the Sanctum around her again, that she was still sitting in the circle stones, Melina sitting outside. The animals in the circle with her screeched in terror, the beagle howling, the rodents throwing themselves at the cage walls in a panic. A new ball of light floated in front of her, looking no different than her previous casting.