Chapter Seventy-Five #2
She whirled her hands and attacked, and her winds turned into shadows. Evelyn spun, and the two Carson sisters fought one another. Anger, hurt, all of it leaked from their magics.
“Nūa was my home once,” Evelyn’s shouted above their chaos. “Witches are my people. Do you know what it’s like to walk the streets of your kind’s city and not be seen for what you truly are? As if everyone that passes by just sees through you?”
Blair stumbled, drawing back her magic. “Of course I do, Evelyn. That has been my life every day for as long as I can remember.”
No, a voice shouted inside Evelyn’s mind. How could she possibly understand?
Evelyn attacked harder. Fiercer. Her magic and body moved without her. She was so off-kilter with her mind and heart. Fathomless. Empty. Hope fell through her fingers like sand.
Mirella was dead. The Blood Curse still loomed over Sorin. She and Kade couldn’t reweave the mating bond. She’d gotten her magic back, restitched her soul and more, and it still wasn’t enough. She kept running from her title and replacing it with purpose, but were her efforts worth anything?
It wasn’t doubt that wrapped around Evelyn’s resolve. It was horror. She stood in this very forest and fought against the demons of her mind before, but she was so tired. So done. So angry. What if Evelyn didn’t have a grasp on her fate as strongly as she thought? What if she’d forever be a pawn?
Never.
The hiss echoing in the back of Evelyn’s mind wasn’t resilience. Bred from malice and vengeance, it reared its fangs like a serpent, hypnotizing her with the promise of the power pulsing in her heart. Evelyn fell into the haze, its willing victim.
The flames at her hands roared to life, red overtaking the silver. The Gray Wood’s temperature rose like the Cirrillo desert, baking under the heat she emitted. Steam rolled around her like a fire-breathing beast.
“Evelyn, stop!” Blair shouted. “This isn’t who you are!”
Her sister’s voice traveled from far away. Instead, ahead, a dark witch with shadows at her fingertips that Evelyn didn’t recognize threatened to put her in her place.
Never.
For her place was above them all. She’d make them bow and cower from her power. What a wonderful, delightful prospect.
The witch’s face fell. “Evelyn . . .”
Your darkness is not welcome here.
The Gray Wood’s deep, soft voice yanked Evelyn back to reality. A breath whooshed out of her, and she stumbled forward. Spent, wary. Evelyn blinked, finding Blair yards away, hands still twirling with her winds. Pure horror etched across her face.
A branch shot out of the thicket of trees, grabbing one of Blair’s wrists. Then the other. Evelyn’s sister screamed as the branches tightened, snuffing her magic. With arms splayed wide, the Gray Wood held her sister in place.
“Let her go,” Evelyn whispered. “Please!”
Why have you come?
Evelyn shook her head. “Release my sister—“
What do you seek?
“A seed!” Blair said, wincing. “We are here for an ever seed.”
“To defeat the darkness,” Evelyn shouted to the canopy. “To rid the shade and make way for the light. Like you helped the faerie long ago.”
Chose, the Gray Wood said.
“What?” Evelyn asked.
Blair stiffened, the branches at her wrists going taut.
One of you wields wretchedness, darkness that is not welcome. Choose wisely, and we will give you what you seek.
Evelyn’s mouth went dry. Her heart pounded inside her chest.
“It means my shadows,” Blair rasped. “It has to. Let it have them.”
Is that your choice, Evelyn?
She met her sister’s gaze head-on. Her midnight stare pleaded. Begged.
“Yes,” Blair said through gritted teeth. “It is my choice. Take them!”
Light glowed from the branches holding her sister’s wrists, and Blair unleashed an earsplitting scream.
“No!” Evelyn shouted, dropping to her knees. “Stop!”
She dug her hands into the Gray Wood’s soil, connecting with the enchanted forest through touch. Something eclipsed Evelyn’s earlier ire. It was of the same making as the pulse in her heart for Kade. It sprang upward, like a buttercup popping past the dirt in spring.
Your actions define you.
Evelyn’s newly weaved heart pounded in her chest while a sense of knowing bloomed in her belly. Evelyn still believed her title was just words. But there was a core part she’d never shed. Protector. How could she willingly hurt her sister? Shadows or not, Blair was not darkness.
But you could rule—
No, Evelyn said. Adamant, final. Silencing the power she’d stolen from the Otherworld. The flame that she’d let corrupt her soul. The darkness that wasn’t hers at all.
There you are, the Gray Wood whispered.
“I give you my magic,” Evelyn replied. “Not my sister’s. Mine.”
“Evelyn,” Blair rasped. “What are you doing?”
How much are you willing to give?
“All of it.”
“No!” Blair said. “Don’t do this. I’m not worth it. Our sister is gone because of me—”
“I’ll not let you be swallowed by blame like I once was.
For I thought I killed our parents. Yes, I played a part.
Could’ve made different choices. But in the end, it was vampyrs who killed them.
Circe killed Mirella. Not you.” Evelyn swallowed a shaky breath.
“I love you, and I refuse to take away what makes you you, Blair. I see you, and I’m so sorry it took me this long. ”
Blair blinked and tears streamed down her face. “Evelyn, no.”
She dug her hands deeper into the soil and surrendered.
The Gray Wood’s roots sprawled up and over her, and Evelyn sank into the forest of ever trees orbit. She embraced the bark tightening around her. Gave into it. She’d give it all, she decided. To defeat the darkness. To save those she loved. Her soul, magic, life.
Everything.
Ancient, powerful magic rushed around her. Roots and branches intertwined. It was one magnificent circle of light and dark, death and life.
The purest form of balance.
You have passed our test, Evelyn, the Gray Wood whispered. We would not dare take away your life and light.
Because her efforts mattered, but so did choice. The Sun Goddess’s power possessed a callous nature, so, Evelyn gave it back. Not to the Goddess, but to the earth and energies of this world.
Evelyn reached inside herself, found the kernel of the power she’d stolen, and plucked it out of her soul.
Her body writhed in pain, the sensation entirely unnatural.
She choked, coughed, couldn’t find her breath as fire rolled up her throat and she spat it out.
The swirling sphere of crimson landed in the palm of her hand, floating in its red-and-orange glory.
She let it roll off her fingers, and gave it to the Gray Wood.
Its ancient magic swallowed the flame whole, and the Sun Goddess’s power bled into oblivion, nothing more.
Evelyn inhaled. Exhaled. Fully herself again. Enough.
And for what you have given, here are the bones of an old friend, the Gray Wood said.
A newly formed staff bubbled from the ashes of what Evelyn had sacrificed. Made from gray roots of the forest, it stretched to her full height. At the tip, branches twisted around a silver gem, reminiscent of Evelyn’s true magic.