Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“So,” I asked, exhausted but hopeful. “Can you help us figure this out?”
He stroked his beard, thinking, before the corner of his lip twitched into a smile. “Yes, I think I can. I think you’ve given me enough to scry and see if Macie really is linked to all of this.”
“Scrying?” Dylan asked.
Hunter nodded. He ran his finger around the stone bowl. “Matter, energy, water, it’s all recycled. This water here has touched corners of the world we’d never see in our lifetimes. With a little bit of mana manipulation—the energy druids can naturally tap into—we can get a reflection to show an image of who or what it is that we seek.” Hunter dipped his fingers into the unnaturally blue water. Ripples slowly rolled away from his touch, bouncing off the smooth gray stone bowl. “It takes coaxing to get the image clear, and with your suspicions, we can direct the mana toward a certain person. If it’s a link, then we’ll see their reflection in here, showing us where they currently are.”
I held my breath as I watched Hunter work. He removed his dripping fingers and grabbed the bracelet off the table. He said something under his breath and for the quickest of moments there was a bright green light shining underneath his palm, flashing upward.
He placed the bracelet in the bowl. The water fizzed and bubbled as if we’d dropped some kind of chemical solvent to cause the reaction.
“And now the letter.”
He picked it up from his lap and held a corner of it over a burning candle. It caught and started to burn. He placed the letter on the surface of the water. The fire briefly spread outward, as if the water had been oil this entire time. It vanished once it reached the edges of the bowl. The letter sank to the bottom, the ink swirling off. There was a figure forming.
“Look inside. Who do you see?”
Dyl placed a reassuring hand on my leg. I put my hand over his. I didn’t want to be right. I couldn’t imagine being right. I braced myself.
Leaned forward. Looked in the bowl.
Saw eyes I recognized.
Sucked in a sharp breath. I closed my eyes and shook my head, unable to rationalize this. All this time. It had been her?
Dylan knew just by my reaction alone. He dropped his head and cursed under his breath. He rubbed my leg, trying to reassure me. But this—fucking hell. It broke me. My best friend’s sister was threatening to kill my fated mate. How could I reconcile that with who I knew her to be?
“And this is certain? She’s the one who wrote this letter?” I asked.
Hunter nodded his head solemnly. “And who cursed the bracelet. It appears she’s a druid who’s working with black magic. A defiler. That’s grounds for imprisonment, or worse.”
“Worse?” Dylan asked.
“The Druidic Council doesn’t take kindly to people working with death energies. It can corrupt not just the user but the people around them, if they do it for long enough. It’s like a poison that spreads. So if there’s a druid that’s found to be using it, depending on what they’ve done and for how long, they can either be jailed on Razor Island or they can be numbed.” Hunter’s skin blanched at that last one. “No druid ever wants their connection to mana severed. It turns them into lifeless husks. I don’t know which fate is worse.”
It was as if I’d been dunked into an ice bath. Shock and fear chilled my bones. As horrible as she had made my life these past few years, I still felt a need to try and figure out a way to fix this before she was sentenced to a life of misery. Not only had I known her since she was a kid, but I also didn’t want to do anything that would inflict more pain and trauma on Emmy’s life. He’d suffered so much loss already. Could I talk to her? Make her admit to it all and just stop? Promise that she’d stopped working with black magic as well?
The idea of her even dabbling in that dark side of magic made my skin crawl.
I looked into the reflecting surface again. “All I see is my best friend’s sister.” She was lying down on Emmy’s couch, reading… no, wait, that wasn’t Emmy’s couch.
It was mine. And that book she read, it was the one I left on the side table.
Holy shit. She was in my house.
I stood up. Dylan rose to his feet. I steadied myself and said, “Don’t tell anyone about this, Hunter. Let me speak to her first. I’m going to surprise her and I’m going to make her admit it all. I’ll get her to stop.”
Dylan placed a hand at the small of my back. “This could be dangerous.” He spoke out of clear and logical concern.