rest of the sandwich down. “You have so much power flowing off you.” Her gaze dances between Alex and me. “Both of you do.”
“We just stuck our fingers in a socket,” Alex replies expressionlessly. “Hurt like a bitch.”
“Don’t try to be cute, little boy.” Amelia narrows her eyes as she strides forward and jabs a finger against Alex’s chest. “You promised me the witch who could remove the mark of evil? Where is she?”
“Alex,” I hiss, shocked. “Why would you do that?”
Alex brushes me off with a shrug. “She just needs Aislin’s help taking the mark off her daughter. It’s no big deal.”
Amelia laughs sharply. “That’s all? Really? Do I need to remind you of what’s at stake for you if you don’t bring me the witch?”
I cross my arms and wait for Alex to explain, but he simply shakes his head and gives a half-shrug.
“Look,” he says to Amelia with mild tolerance, “we ran into a problem.”
The witch folds her arms and stares him down. “Not we. You.”
Alex sighs. “It’s out of my hands. Aislin . . . She’s gone over to the Malefiscus side. Even if we find her, she’s not going to take the mark off your daughter unless we can get her to take it off herself, which doesn’t seem very likely.”
Rage flares in Amelia’s eyes as she raises her hands above her head and wiggles her fingers until they glisten a golden orange. “Well then I guess it’s time for you to die.”
I do a double-take at Amelia. “What? You can’t kill him just for not bringing you Aislin. It’s not even his fault.”
“We can try to find her and see how it goes. Maybe you could use a Tracker Spell on her.” Nervousness creeps into Alex’s voice, which puts me on edge since he rarely shows signs of being nervous.
Amelia shakes her head. “If that was possible, I’d have found her already. But she’s off the grid. No one can find her with magic.” Without warning, her fingers sizzle and shoot sparks.
I lunge for her, but she dodges to the side, and then the sparks shoot from her hand and hit Alex.
His eyes widen, and he buckles to the floor.
“You killed him!” I shout, trembling from head to toe.
No, he can’t be dead.
Nicholas said so.
But the longer he lays there on the floor, the more I fear Nicholas has once again fed me lies.
The witch scurries around to the coffee table where a black candle is glowing. She picks up a piece of amethyst and chants something under her breath as I hurry for her, ready to kick some witch ass.
“You’re not going anywhere until you bring him back,” I demand, reaching out to grab her.
She plunges the amethyst into the flame right as I catch hold of her sleeve. My body erupts with heat, and I wrench back, wincing and bumping my knee on the corner of the table. By the time I regain my balance, she’s gone.
“Dammit.” I rush back to Alex and slide down on my knees next to him. “Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead.” I place my hands on his cheeks and watch his chest, but he isn’t breathing. And the electricity feels dull, lifeless. I suck back tears and move my fingers to his wrist, feeling for a pulse. “You aren’t dead.” Tears spill from my eyes. “Nicholas said you couldn’t . . . not without me. And I’m here so . . . Please, Alex, just wake up.”
The only response I get is the sound of my tears and the heartbeat echoing inside me.
ALEX
“Kiss me,” she whispers, looking down at me, her brown hair a veil around her face. “Kiss me until we both take our last breaths.”
“Then what?” I ask, staring up at her. She’s so fucking beautiful I can’t stand it.
“Then we die together,” she says simply.
“Is that what you want?”
She nods. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
Leaning up, I press my lips to hers, and she somehow breathes life back into me. I can feel myself returning, my heart beating, the electricity igniting as I come alive again . . .
Through the darkness, I can hear Gemma freaking out as she searches for my pulse. She keeps taking sharp breathes, and every time her skin brushes mine, my body hums. Part of me wishes I was dead, that it was all over, and I could die happy knowing she was still alive. She could live her life, happy and free. Of course, even