Through heavy breaths she answers, “Isabel’s darkness. She won’t be using it again. Once we go back home, I’ll find a way to destroy it for good.”
I look down at the pendant with terror. It no longer feels like a beacon of safety, but instead like a necklace of death and destruction.
“Don’t worry,” Eliza says placing her hand on my upper arm. “It can’t hurt you. It will only answer to me.”
I doubtingly nod my head. “What now?” I ask her.
Isabel stirs on the ground behind Eliza. “She’s still alive?” I ask. “I thought you killed her?”
“No, I just took her powers away.”
“Is that what all that stuff about weakening her was?”
“No, that was something else. Let’s get out of here. She’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”
“What about Charlie? He’s unconscious.”
“I’ll see if I can wake him.”
Eliza walks over to Charlie and kneels on the ground next to him. She places her hand on his forehead and gently whispers a spell. His eyes slowly open. He blinks rapidly looking at her with confusion. “Zoë?”
“No, I’m Eliza. Zoë's sister.”
Charlie sits up with her help and holds his hands over his face. “I’m dizzy. What happened?”
“I saved your life.”
“What about Zoë? Where is she?” he asks.
“Don’t worry about Zoë. She’s gone.”
32. THE RETURN
“What do you mean she’s gone, Eliza?” I interrupt.
“Once Zoë pulled the memories out of the tree, the only thing she was useful for was giving them back to their owners and sending them home.”
Charlie sits dumbfounded and silent on the ground, trying to pull himself together and listen to our words.
“So where is she now?” I ask.
“I gave her strict instructions to help everyone in the cave and then go home herself. I’m here to help the two of you get home.”
“Wait. How will we know that Zoë has safely made it out of here?”
“Easy. When you wake up at the colony, she’ll be standing next to your bed smiling at you.” She pauses then changes her tone. “Look, Emma, that spell that I put on Isabel isn’t going to hold her for long. She’s weak enough that we can get out of here without incident. If we stay longer and she gets ahold of you or your pendant, she will use her rage to regain everything I took away from her. There’s no telling what she will be capable of then.”
I swallow hard at the thought of it. “But the curse isn’t broken. She can still hurt people. She can still try to capture people to become human again!”
She grabs my arms and squeezes them, gaining my complete attention. “Listen to me. She can’t hurt anyone, she can’t capture anyone. I took her darkness away. It’s not something she can just decide to have again. We cannot break this curse right now. Zoë is the only one who can do it and she isn't strong enough yet.”
“What? Zoë? Why Zoë? Why can’t you do it?”
“Because the only one who can break a meiga’s curse is the meiga who cast it… or one of her descendants.” She releases her hold on my arms.
“But Zoë isn’t a descendant of Isabel,” I say confusedly.
Eliza sighs. “She is. When I searched for a soul to pull from the limbo, I looked for someone who was connected to Isabel. I knew it was the only way to truly break the curse.”
An immense feeling of dread pools in my stomach. “So who is she?” I ask grimly.
She hesitates a moment before answering me. “Angelina. Isabel’s daughter.”
Not knowing what to do with that information, I let my mind run wild. “So that’s why she was able to undo the spell Isabel placed on Cardine?”
“Yes.”
“Is that how she kept me hidden from Isabel for the past twelve years?”
“That was partly her. Partly me.”
“You? But you moved away—you weren’t involved in any of this."
She makes a telling face at me. “I am the one who has kept you safe. I was sent away to not only learn how to control my abilities but also to learn how to perform incredibly powerful magic. I am the one who shrouded your father in a protection spell to keep him hidden from Isabel while he walked. I am the one who can teach Zoë everything she needs to know to break this curse.”
The reality of her words set in harshly. I have so many more questions for her, so many things I don’t understand but want