Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
FINLEY
Shrill shrieks echoed through the mountain and Mariah’s spirit floated into the air and joined the others who’d escaped from Stula’s ream. They swirled around the mountain like a tornado.
Power surged through and around Finley. Her heart raced at what had overcome her as Luana’s dark gift took over her body and spirit.
She couldn’t even remember the kill or how it happened.
All she could remember was the bits of Mariah’s life that flooded her mind.
She was dizzy and elated at the adrenaline pulsing through her.
And her job wasn’t done yet.
Finley floated back towards the rift where Stula and Myra stood hand in hand and chanted in unison. She had Stula’s power now too. With movements too quiet and gentle for any human, Finley lowered back to the ground next to Myra and took her friend’s hand. “Let’s finish this, together.”
Myra glowed with Stula’s power and squeezed Finley’s hand back. “No, Stula and I will finish this. You have another job to do. We’ll take care of this and hold off Amelia until you get back.”
Finley furrowed her brow and looked between Myra and Stula. “But you gave me my first assignment, and now we close the rift.”
Stula stared at her unblinking and the ghost of a smile whispered across her ethereal face. “You have what you need. Now go.”
She had what she needed. The words echoed through Finley’s ears and she blinked a few times. Then she dropped Myra’s hand. “Ai.”
Without another word Finley floated back into the sky and flew towards Ai’s tower. The rose bushes had expanded and grew all around the outside of the tower and up to the window covering it with thorns and blooms to bar everyone out.
“All right Stula, let’s see what you’ve given me.”
Finley floated closer to the tower and felt for her dark power within.
It gathered in a round black and purple ball between her hands and she threw it at the branches.
They shivered and shook but then bloomed just as much as ever.
She pressed her lips together and glared at the flowers.
Maybe there was something more her magic could do.
But she needed to get closer. To touch it.
But it was so overgrown and full of thorns there wasn’t a way to touch it without bleeding.
“I better have healing powers too,” Finley muttered. She took in a deep breath and reached out to the climbing vine that covered the window.
The thorns pierced and scraped her skin and she let out a small cry of pain.
Blood trickled out of her hands, over her wrist, and down her arms in thin streams. She swallowed back the pain and summoned her new magic once more.
A black glow formed around her hands and she focused it towards the rose vines.
They shivered and shook once again and she kept squeezing even tighter.
Then, the vines began to wither. They shriveled up the way Dusan did bac on the deck of The Mystic. Finley smiled and pushed the decaying plants away and out of the window then stepped inside.
There Ai was. Lying and sleeping as peacefully as she had before as though the battles below had never happened. Finley strummed her bloody fingers against her thigh. Stula said she already had what she needed.
But what?
Her fingers hit something small and metal in her pocket and her magic hummed. Finley pinched her brows together and dug it out. It was the tiny gadget she always had with her and helped her unchain herself and Rafe back when they were trapped in the lake by Amelia.
“Have you been keeping secrets from me?” Finley asked the golden cylinder.
She clasped her hand around it and let her magic take over once again.
The cylinder trembled and popped open down the middle into a flat circle with words inscribed across it.
Finley held the object closer to her line of vision to read what it said.
The key to open all locks
The balm to heal all wounds
The ingredient to break all curses
Lies within the heart
Finley re-read it to be sure she’d read it right and lowered it back down.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Love? The answer is love?
And it was in my fucking pocket the whole time?
” She closed the cylinder back up and shoved it back in her pocket then glared out the window.
“I don’t care if she’s a goddess. If this doesn’t work, I’m going to kill Stula. ”
She walked over to the bed and sat on it next to Ai.
She continued to sleep even when the mattress moved under Finley’s weight.
Finley took in a deep breath before speaking.
“Ai, you know I love you. I… I know I don’t say it enough.
” She took Ai’s limp hand and rubbed it with her thumb.
“But I’ve been a bad friend to you for a long time.
You’ve been at my side for everything while sacrificing what you wanted.
You barely ever tell me what you want. But if you wake up, I swear I’ll be better.
We’ll go home and stay as long as you want.
Unless Stula needs me for something. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later.”
Finley looked at Ai’s face and it was unmoving.
She groaned and leaned forward so her forehead rested on Ai’s stomach.
Then she pushed herself back up and placed her hands on Ai’s cheeks.
The blood from the thorns spread onto Ai’s skin like a deep blush.
“Ai! Just wake up! I love you! What else do I need to do?” Tears escaped from Finley’s eyes and ran down her face, and a rose petal that must have gotten caught in her hair fell onto Ai’s lips.
Finley wiped her tears then pushed the rose off Ai.
A single drop of blood rolled off her arm and onto the place where the rose petal had been.
Finley looked at her arms and saw that the scrapes weren’t only on her hands, but arms too.
Her tattoo of a mermaid and a treasure chest were cut and torn open in tiny little cuts.
She choked out a laugh with her tears. “See? Look at what I did for you already? I’m cut up, my magic is gone, I gave up my mortality, I risked my life…
Yes, it was for Rafe and for the kingdom, but it was for you too.
Because I know this is what you would have wanted.
I wanted you to be proud of what we’ve done. ”
She leaned over and let her head rest on Ai’s stomach again. “This is so stupid. Love was going to wake you up? This can’t be what Stula was talking about.”
“Don’t be so sure about that. I’ve been telling you that love was powerful for years,” a groggy voice said.
Finley swore her heart stopped. But sure enough, Ai’s stomach moved up and down with deep breaths. “Ai?”
She lifted her head and saw Ai looking back at her and her tongue licking the blood on her lips. “The blood you sacrificed for me. Because you love me.”
Tears rolled down Finley’s cheeks and she laughed then threw herself onto her friend in a hug. “I can’t believe that actually worked!”
“Why do you look so different?”
“I’ll tell you later. But for now, we have a sorceress to defeat.”