me, tall and broad, with one strong arm wrapped around my waist. I was far shorter than he was, and the way he curved protectively over me made something pulse inside me. It was the only physical sensation I had.
Was this an out-of-body experience?
It had to be.
I’d become one with the magic of the forest. The earthy scent was stronger, the feel of the breeze stronger. I was connected with it in a way I never had been before.
I watched as we stood in the middle of the clearing, seemingly frozen. Magic sparked around us, swirling in glittering bursts of gold and black. The tattoo on my arm glowed as I used my power. Hades was so deadly, so evil, yet the way he held me…
I wanted to watch forever, but the forest called to me. Needing me.
I could feel its hunger, its desperation for life. It’d been suffering here for an untold amount of time, but I could fix it. I just needed to give the dying trees the life they so desperately required. And I could feel it in the forest, low against the ground. In the air.
Take.
I commanded the trees with my power, feeling the connection between them and the earth. I commanded their branches and roots to reach out and take the life that they so desperately required. Somehow, it felt dark.
Bad.
But they needed it. And the power felt so good.
I kept going.
When I spotted one of the branches strangling a silver bird, I gasped. Then I caught sight of a root with a rabbit in its grip.
This was where the trees were getting their life? I’d commanded them to take it from the forest creatures?
Yes.
The darkness seemed to swell inside me, pleased that I was finally making the connection. Despite the fact that the idea made me ill, I liked the sensation. I felt invincible, and the trees were as well.
And yet, my soul screamed within me. What I was doing was terrible. I’d never do something like this normally, and yet the darkness had control of me. It strangled my normal self, urging me on, filling me with such certainty that I ignored the horror around me and kept going. Kept saving the forest at expense of the animals.
Seraphia!
The shriek sounded inside my head, and I looked up to see Echo in the grip of a branch.
Horror opened a chasm inside my soul, and desperation followed.
The sight of it shocked me into action, dredging up the last vestiges of my soul that fought to embrace the light.
“Stop!” I tried to scream.
But I had no body. I was still an incorporeal mass, watching the trees strangle the life from all the helpless creatures of the forest.
I had to fix this. Had to save them.
They needed life. All of them needed life now. The forest animals that were dying and the trees that were just trying to survive. My first attempt at using magic was causing unmitigated chaos, and only I could stop it.
But how?
Where was I going to get that kind of living energy from?
For a long, horrible moment, my mind was entirely blank…and then it came to me.
Myself.
The thought blazed with such certainty that it had to be true.
Head ringing with panic, I tried to force my magic into the trees. Into the animals.
At first, it didn’t work. The darkness didn’t want to let it work. Hades, this place, had twisted me. It’d polluted my soul, and now I had to find the real me again.
“Echo!” The word was soundless, but the bat seemed to understand.
He thrashed more fiercely against the branch, finally breaking free. Frantic, he flew toward me. Toward the shadow that I’d become.
When his little form shot through my chest, I felt a burst of strength. Of focus. He flew back and hovered near my shoulder, his presence strengthening me.
I had no idea how to use my magic like this—I was certain this wasn’t what Hades was training me to do—but I had to try. Desperate, I focused on the forest around me, imagining giving my life force to the trees and animals, envisioning it as a white mist that flowed into them with strength and healing.
Come on.
It had to work. If it didn’t, I’d lose myself to the dark. I could feel it even now, pulling on me. It sang to me, a siren song of strength and power. The worst part was that it was nearly impossible to resist.
But I did—barely. I focused on Echo, taking strength from my