by Elle Cardy
“Stop or there’ll be nothing left,” Jasmine cried.
“That’s the idea,” Gley said, calm and triumphant. “The Beast can’t survive without magic.”
“That was your plan? All along? To destroy magic? No one will survive.”
“Durne can. There’s no magic in the man yet he survives. When you depleted yourself of magic, the Beast couldn’t touch you. It’s the only way to defeat it.”
Screams from the phantoms shivered the power-filled air. Dras collapsed, an inert form in the snow. Brusan slumped against a monolith, his face pale. Weakness sapped at Jasmine, and her knees trembled.
“We’ll all be dead,” Jasmine said. “Durne is different. He was born without magic. My depletion almost killed me.”
Gley made no reply.
“Listen to me. You can’t destroy magic.”
“Then Finn will die,” the girl said.
“Finn will die anyway if you continue! It doesn’t have to be this way.”
The girl glowed with power, her face radiated rapture. When Gley loosened her grip, Jasmine stumbled back, shielding her eyes from the storm of magic around the girl. The vortex reached, bucked, and lunged. Its touch stripped, snatched, and seared. Impossible to fight. Impossible to breach. Gley stood at its center, thinking she was saving the world when instead she was destroying it.
Jasmine couldn’t be afraid of power anymore. She couldn’t fool herself into hoping that Gley was right, that the world could recover from the loss. Durne had faith in her, not that she’d overcome the curse of being Kahld’s daughter, but that she would make the necessary choices that were best for others, not herself. The choices that mattered.
It had never been about the power. It was about the choices.
There was only one way left to take. The thought made her sick. Bitterness swept through her. Gley was right. They were the same. The choice she was about to make was not a good one. It was more frightening than she could imagine. It would likely end her, but it would give the others more time, time they wouldn’t have if she didn’t stop this madness. Not much more time, but it was all they had left.
One madness exchanged for another.
Jasmine scrambled from the circle’s center and ran for a phantom. Its oily black rend in the world beckoned. The visions of destruction that had haunted her for so long boiled away, revealing the final act of her life. Marcelo had been right. She would die in Yactun. There was no changing that. She’d made her choice. This would be for Finn. For Brusan. For the crew of the Wielder’s Prize and everyone else who lived.
The Beast had wanted this from the beginning. It hadn’t been hunting her to end her. It had been guiding her to this moment. When she’d been locked in the pen at the Guardians’ manor, it had freed her. When it looked like she would turn away, it herded her back onto the path. This was her destiny.
And she truly would do anything for Finn.
Tapping into her oceans one last time, she threw herself into the phantom. Darkness, vastness, and pain embraced her. The Beast’s screams turned to a roar of victory. Power flowed from her into its great maw. She threw it all she had and more.
It hungered.
It fed.
It rose from the depths.
Chapter 43
Silence. Cold and white.
A soft breath. Her own.
She took another. Crisp and vital. A tingling sensation chased across her skin.
Jasmine blinked snow from her lashes and climbed to her feet. The great stones looked down on her, dark and brooding. Witnessing.
“What … what is this?” Gley asked, looking at her hands, at the stones, at the pale sky. “What did you do?”
“I did what had to be done.” No dark visions shimmered nearby. She closed her eyes, looking for the dark, and no clouds closed over her, no oceans boiled. Wait. A faint hint of smoke. There. A black column of darkness. A plume of fire. The dark future had not been averted. It was still coming for them as she’d known it would.
Finn stirred, as did the others. Small mercies.
“You freed the Beast,” Gley said. “You did it knowingly. You betrayed me. You betrayed everyone. You’ve destroyed us all.”
“How could you?” Finn croaked. He glared at her as if she were a stranger.
A new kind of pain stabbed Jasmine’s heart, so sharp it took her breath away.
“You would’ve killed us first,” she said to Gley. “At least now we have more time.”
“Not a lot.”
Finn would never love her again. He would never accept her for what she truly was. He would never again hold her or shine his smile on her. He was lost to her. Because he knew her secret, her truth that because of the accident of her birth she was deemed an abomination. But he was alive. And that was what mattered.
Wasn’t it?
Gley pressed her hands to her temples. “My plan would’ve worked. Magic has only brought misery to this world. The Beast is free because of it. Because of you.”
Unmoved, Jasmine took a deep breath of frosty air. She hadn’t expected to taste the air again, to blink or feel. Everything seemed too bright, too hard, too stark. She lived because the Beast had allowed it. An accident? A punishment?
“We have a new task, you and I,” Jasmine said, feeling weary to the bone.
“Get away from me.” Gley’s voice echoed. The stones no longer absorbed the girl’s presence. Perhaps it was only temporary. Perhaps the stones had disowned her for attempting to strip the world of magic. Jasmine doubted she’d ever know.
“The longer we wait, the harder it will be.”
“What task?” Dras asked.
“We need to find the Beast.”
Gley swung around in a circle, her arms out as if blessing the stones. “To kneel at its feet and beg for mercy?”
“To do what we should’ve done. Not take its source of power. Not send it back into its prison. We need to end it. Once and for all. Are you with me?”
“Aye,” Brusan said without hesitation. The only one who’d spoken.
For all the pain she felt, that quick response from the man she used to hate changed everything. Whether the others followed or not didn’t matter. Finn’s revulsion didn’t matter. What mattered was finding the Beast. If it took everything she had, including her life, then so be it.
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Thank you for reading Wielder’s Curse. Book One of the Wielder’s Storm series is Wielder’s Prize. Jasmine’s adventures conclude in Book Three, soon to be released.
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Acknowledgements
Wielder’s Curse was a difficult book to write because it was the first piece I’d attempted after my brother passed away. For the first draft, my mind lacked clarity. It took steel nerves and pig-headed determination to wrestle the story into what it is today. Because of those struggles, this story is especially close to my heart. It’s a reminder that even the greatest hurts can heal.
I learned not to let anyone — including myself — try to tell me my dreams are impossible. I learned not to let anyone or anything hold me back. While I encountered both internal and external roadblocks, I learned to face them with dignity and calm, and the determination to do good. To get it right. Against the odds, I held my ground.
I want to acknowledge my mother, a special woman who knows all about struggle. She has encouraged me from day one, never showing doubt. She doesn’t know the meaning of giving up. A shining example of how to run with the bulls.
Tim, my beautiful husband is another blazing light in my life. He gets me like no one else on Earth.
I want to also thank my writer
friends, Carol, Susie, Denise, Alex, Mark, Chris, and so many more than I can name here. All in your own way, you have supported me through the years. I deeply appreciate the connection I have with you. A special thank you to Carol Riggs for being the first to read through the whole manuscript and for your considered feedback. So helpful!
Lastly, I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior for Your abundant blessings. You are the true meaning of AWEsome.