Chapter 72
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
Bellamy
They’d been in there for fucking ever. When Mazz finally came back with an incredibly guilt ridden, yet still excitable, Cypress in tow, Bellamy had thought it would only be a few minutes.
Now it had been—she glanced at the clock on the wall beside her.
Okay, fine. Maybe they hadn’t been in there as long as she thought.
But really, how much could five minutes drag on?
Not being allowed in the room, stuck watching through that fake window…
It was torture. They hadn’t even done anything yet.
Just fucking talking. Cypress shifted from foot to foot, refusing to look at anyone as she, no doubt, apologized for the millionth time.
The reader just stood there with that disconcerting eerie look in her color-changing eyes, watching Vesper’s arm.
Bellamy heaved a sigh. This fucking sucked. She looked back at the clock. Not even a minute had passed. Bellamy pressed up against the window, leaning on the sill and studying them until Cypress finally moved toward Ves.
Mazz had released her hold but was following closely. She had a syringe in her hand with a pinkish-green liquid. Presumably, that would incapacitate Cypress if anything went wrong.
Bellamy’s heart pounded in her chest, and she held her breath with each step closer. She’d never properly gotten to see Dampening magic being wielded before.
Cypress hesitated, raising her hands until they hovered over the bubble.
Black raindrops congealed on the back of her hands, staying there like globs of glue attached to her skin.
Slowly, the bubble started to jerk away from Vesper and back toward Cypress.
It undulated as it was pulled into her orbit.
The sparks along the conductive string that they hadn’t been able to remove were eaten by the bubble as it returned to its origin.
All in all, the process was much more cautious and controlled than Bellamy had imagined.
It was over in barely a minute, but it left Vesper’s skin stained.
Black patches melded into dark blue, staggering up her arm in a strange pattern.
The only hint of her proper skin was where the string had been attached.
It peeked through in twisting barbed-wire patterns over her fingers, along her wrist, up her forearm—remnants of the sparks left behind.
It was actually beautiful. But why the fuck was it there?
The second Cypress stepped away from Vesper and backed into Mazz, who pulled her further away, Bellamy rushed into the room.
“Why isn’t it all gone?” she demanded, slamming the door behind her and interrupting the reader. Everyone turned to look at her. Cypress cowered behind Mazz. Bellamy rolled her eyes as she stomped past them back to Vesper’s side, examining her arm more closely.
“That is what I was explaining before you interrupted,” the reader’s melodic voice startled Bellamy. She looked up and was met briefly with black eyes before they changed to pink.
“Deliya was just saying that it is all gone, but the imprint might be permanent. She thinks the magic absorbed into my skin and sort of became a part of me,” Vesper explained, looking at the reader—Deliya—for support.
She nodded sagely. “I believe that is why it started to protect you. The magic was somehow able to acclimate to your body, mistook you as the proper ‘host’ so to speak. There is very little remaining now. It is not a large enough amount of magic to harm you, even if it wanted to.”
“So,” Bellamy looked back at Vesper’s arm, mentally tracing the pattern of the imprint. “Can you use your magic, or is it Dampener magic?”
“It would not be Dampening,” Deliya said, then frowned, studying Vesper’s arm again. “But I cannot say your Energy will reach this part of your body anymore. It should not be affected elsewhere though.”
Vesper’s brows furrowed. Her eyes narrowed in on her arm, and she flexed her fingers a few times, concentrating.
“There!” Bellamy gasped, pointing at a break in the stain on her middle finger. A spark popped weakly along the line leftover from the conductive string, crawling away from the blackened part until it surged into the air and dissipated immediately.
Vesper focused again and more sparks came pouring out of the break in the stain that cut through her fingers and palm like an Energy waterfall. Vesper groaned and slammed her head back on the pillow.
“I can’t make it take form. It’s just fucking there,” she complained, letting more sparks pop out and flutter uselessly toward the ground until they faded away.
“You still have your other hand,” Mazz interjected, shrugging. “Besides, I thought you didn’t want to be an assassin forever. Your contract has, for all intents and purposes, been destroyed. You can do whatever you want now.”
Bellamy had spent the last week so distracted. She hadn’t even considered that. Everything they’d ever talked about doing flashed before her eyes. They could go to so many places now. They’d be free, whatever they wanted to do…
Fuck. They didn’t have any money.
Vesper caught Bellamy’s eye and gave her a smile that she couldn’t help mirroring.
They’d figure it out, together. Bellamy had the offer to go work for her dad after all.
That was better than nothing. She’d go talk to Ro after Ves got out of the hospital.
That would pay well, and they’d be together.
And she still had to pay back her gambling debt too. That was a whole other issue. That wasn’t something she needed to think about now though. Now, she could just bask in the relief of their freedom.