Dark Secrets - Linsey Hall Page 0,57

it, but you could. End the curse.”

“Absolutely not.” Fear echoed in his voice. Fear for me.

Cordelia appeared at my side, wringing her hands, her eyes worried.

Poor Cordelia. Who would buy her kebabs?

Cordelia tugged at Grey’s sleeve. Heal her.

“I can’t.” Grey’s voice broke slightly. “The curse has taken my healing ability.”

“I’m dying, Grey. I can feel it.”

I could see the truth in his eyes. It would take an enormously powerful healing charm to get me out of this, and with the battle raging…

If Eve had had one, she’d have put it in my pack.

It took all my strength to grip his arm. “Take my blood and save yourself.”

“You’re out of your mind with pain,” he said.

He was right about that. I’d never been in such agony. It tore through me like fire. I could never come back from something like this.

“I’m not doing it,” he said. “I don’t want immortality. Not if it steals your life from you.”

Stubborn man. “My life is already gone.”

A figure appeared at our side, falling to his knees by my head.

I blinked up, confused. “Michael?”

The big man of unknown species stared down at me. The last time I’d seen him, we’d been waving at him from Xavier’s canal boat.

I brought him, Cordelia said.

I blinked.

“You need to take this.” Michel pulled a tiny vial out of a wrist cuff. “You don’t have long.”

“What is it?” Grey demanded.

“Powerful healing draft. Strongest one I’ve ever made.” He uncorked it and held it over my lips. “Drink. Now.”

I did as he said, gulping down the bitter liquid. Strength surged through my muscles, and I gasped. My vision cleared, and after a few moments, I was able to sit.

Shocked joy surged through me, and I looked between Cordelia and Michael.

“She was paying my chickens a visit when she sensed you were in danger,” Michael said. “She dragged me along.”

“Thank you.” I stumbled upright with Grey’s help, taking in our surroundings.

The battle was slowing, but Mac was still on the ground. Two shifters as well. I spun back to Michael. “Will you help them? Please?”

He nodded and ran toward Mac.

The sounds of battle raged as I searched the darkness for Rasla. He’d retreated when we’d started to gain the advantage.

“He’s by the tower.” Grey pointed.

“I’m going for him.” Magic surged inside me. The connection between us burned, strange and unholy. I needed to get rid of some of this power, shove it into him until he exploded. I was an atomic bomb ready to detonate.

I sprinted toward Rasla, and Grey joined me. “Let me. You were just wounded.”

“It has to be me.” My power pulsed inside me, drawing me toward him. Rage boiled in my veins.

Grey took out two Obsidia as we neared the sorcerer.

Dark magic pulsed around Rasla, and the tower that loomed at his back seethed with the same darkness. I was determined to drive it from Guild City. From the Shadow Guild tower. From my friends.

I could grab a potion bomb from my bag, but it would do no good. I was sure of it. The power was within me, the magic of Orion’s Heart, and it needed to go somewhere. The atomic bomb feeling intensified.

Rasla saw me and charged with a roar. I hurled myself at him, grabbing tight to him as my magic erupted. His grip sliced at me, sending electric pain through my limbs, but I was stronger. My power blasted into Rasla. He shrieked, flailing backward.

Before my eyes, he turned to ash and blew away on the wind.

But the Shadow Guild tower still vibrated with dark magic. The curse was alive and well.

“Why didn’t it work?” I cried.

The sounds of battle around us faded. The Obsidia had disappeared along with Rasla, but some of the dark magic remained, polluting the tower in front of us.

It called to me, singing a siren song that I couldn’t resist. Desperate, I hurried to a window on the first floor and scrambled through it, cutting my hands on the glass shards. I barely registered the pain.

“Wait up!” Mac’s voice sounded from behind me.

But I was already inside. Grey followed. We stood in a large, empty room that looked like it had housed only rats for the last four hundred years. Dust and barren stone walls echoed with Rasla’s evil curse.

Mac climbed in behind me, then Seraphia, Quinn, and Eve.

“I feel drawn here,” Quinn said.

“Me, too.” Eve stepped deeper into the tower.

“I feel better.” Mac’s voice had brightened. “The curse. I don’t feel it as much.”

“Neither do I,” Eve said.

“We