Atone: A Fairytale (Fairytale Trilogy) (17 page)

Love.

The word formed itself in Becca’s mind, but she refused to acknowledge it. She knew what Alex and Luke had—the kind of love with a capital L and a big fat “true” in front of it. It was something she had never quite believed in before them. The kind that she was pretty sure that she, coming from the fragmented—and then fragmented again and again—family that she did, was not capable of.

Alex reached over and pushed a strand of Becca’s dark hair away from her face as if she knew Becca had no response. “Of course we’ll help you.”

Lilia tightened her arm around Becca’s waist in agreement. “How do you want to do the spell?”

“I, uh, I thought Alex could kind of take point. She’s the strongest of us.”

Alex smiled. “I don’t know that that’s true. I think the person with the most invested needs to be in charge, and that’s you.”

“But I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I’m strong enough.”

“That’s always a good place to start.” Alex laughed. She unwrapped her arm from Becca’s waist and grabbed her hand, linking their fingers. On Becca’s right, Lilia did the same. She felt her friends’ power sparking inside them, bubbling up and running down through their arms and into her. The reservoir of power inside her chest suddenly ignited, sending a wave of warm energy through her as her power rose up to meet theirs.

In the mirror the reflections of their power grew brighter—the auras coalescing into images of their emblem flowers, Becca’s violets, Alex’s sweet alyssum, and the graceful, white lilies that Lilia shared with her mother.

And then she couldn’t see their reflections in the mirror. Her view was obscured by the sparkling columns of power in front of them, writhing and twisting, waiting for orders.

Becca focused her mind on the columns—three separate strands of power—and they began to braid themselves together. The streams sparked against each other.

Becca looked past them to the mirror. She could see its spell pulsing steadily among the golden claws. Alex was right; there weren’t any weak spots. No loose or frayed areas where she could attack it. She was going to send their power against it directly and hope that they were strong enough to bend the spell to their own will.

To her will.

She caught sight of her reflection in the glass. With the power streaming out of her and blowing her dark hair in tangles around her face, she could pass for the magic goddess Nicholas had described.

Nicholas. She let her eyelids drift shut again as she brought his image to mind. Nicholas the beast. Nicholas the way she saw him in the mirror—a man, but somehow different than he used to be. She could see the frustration, anger, and despair in his eyes and it sparked something deep inside her. An answering desperation. She felt her power roar in response as it fed into the braid in front of her—a deep rushing sound, like wind through a canyon.

“Ready?” Alex asked in an undertone.

Becca opened her eyes and refocused on the mirror, on the place in the spell where the stone would slide in and close the portal. She kept the image of Nicholas firmly in her mind as she lifted her hands up, fingers still entwined with Alex and Lilia’s and raised them toward the mirror.

Close. Seal the portal.

The braid of their magic snaked around the mirror, twining around the claws of the frame and pushing against the threads of the curse. Where they touched, the curse spell sparked deep gold, the magic flaring in response to the touch of their power. Before she could even hope that it would do what she asked, the spell pushed back against their braid, which flashed violently in response.

Becca gritted her teeth. The mirror spell was strong, but she could be stronger. She refocused on the image of Nicholas in her mind, this time imagining him in front of the mirror—the portal was open; she could see behind him straight into the Fae Realm—and then she imagined it closing, the spell that held open that doorway into another world closing in on itself, crumbling to pieces behind Nicholas.

She was pumping more and more of her power into the braid. It burned hot and bright as it flowed out of her hands. She could feel that Alex and Lilia were giving her so much of themselves, but she needed more. And then she found it, deep within herself. Their braid pulled back from the mirror spell, twisting and coiling in on itself as she fed her power into it. The entire braid flared—bright white, green, and violet meeting together in a blinding flash before it settled down into a single cohesive mass shot through with the colors of their individual powers. It hung heavy with power in the air in front of them, waiting.

Close.

No longer three separate strands, their power now had a single purpose: freeing Nicholas. Becca sent their new spell against the mirror. The blowback from their spell colliding with the mirror’s pushed her back, but Lilia’s and Alex’s hands supported her, holding her steady. And as she focused on the mirror she could see the places where the portal spell and the protection spell twined together, could see their strands brightly lit up against her mind. Of the two spells, she could tell that the one that held the portal open was the strongest. She focused her energy on where they met. If she could somehow separate the two pieces, maybe she could free Nicholas without having to close the portal. Maybe she’d be strong enough to break the protection spell.

She could see the strands of the protection spell, feeling them begin to weaken and loosen as their magic pried them away from the portal spell. Their power began to run in and around the small loops that were created as the portal spell began to loosen its grip on the protection spell. Becca couldn’t even think of it as a spell. It was a curse, the curse that had damned Nicholas.
Push farther apart, farther apart.

She imagined their power wrapping around the protection curse, choking it, crumbling it into a million pieces.
Break, break, break.
The chant took up residence in her mind. It was all she could hear over the rushing noise the power streaming out of her was creating in her mind. She thought she heard Alex say something, but she was too focused to understand it.

The strands of the curse got more pliable, beginning to move. They looped out in large arcs as if searching for something.

“Just snap. Just break.” Her voice sounded strained even to her own ears.

“It is not going to break,” Lilia yelled, her breath coming in small pants. “It is too tightly woven.”

“No,” Becca gasped. “We just need a little more power.”

“If you give much more, it could hurt you,” shouted Alex.

Becca ignored her, trying to pump even more power into their spell. The mass of power was quickly becoming more purple in color as the balance of power in it shifted. It was writhing frantically, becoming more and more agitated as it tugged against the strands of the curse. The threads of the curse refused to snap, they were becoming more pliable but not brittle like Becca had hoped. Her spell twisted around them. As it pushed and pulled at the threads of the curse, they looped farther out away from the mirror, twisting around Becca’s spell, reaching out for her.

“Change him!” she screamed. “Change him back!”

“Becca!” Alex yelled, or at least Becca thought she was yelling. Alex was standing right by her, but her voice seemed to be coming from far away, from the end of a very long tunnel. “Stop the spell. Stop the power! Now!”

“Almost there,” Becca’s mouth formed the words, but she wasn’t sure any sound came out. “I’m almost there.”

The loops of the curse, now bright gold and vicious looking, twined their way down her spell, coming closer and closer. Becca searched inside herself. She knew she could break this spell if she could find enough power. What was she holding back? There was something there…

Anger. Fiery hot and flashing. She was angry as hell. She wasn’t even sure who she was more angry at…Nicholas? The fae? Maybe herself? It didn’t matter. She grabbed onto that anger and let it seethe through her. Her spell exploded with violet light. The entire room was bathed in deep purple. She could hear Alex’s and Lilia’s voices, but couldn’t make out what they were screaming.

Change him. Break. Change.

The strands of the curse recoiled from her spell, twisting away from her furious power. The spells wrestled together mid-air, tangling in a desperate battle.

Becca was so focused on the strands, she didn’t realize at first that she was beginning to lose her vision. It was getting bright on the edges. The light seeped across her line of sight until almost everything was obscured but what was directly in front of her: the two spells battling for dominance.

Change
, she thought once more, desperately.
Please. I…I love him.
There was a blinding flash of light. Images burned onto her retina—claws digging into the soft petals of violets, the flowers twisting into gold—and then everything went black as she was yanked out of Alex’s and Lilia’s grip and thrown across the room.

~ Chapter Twelve ~

E
VERYTHING HURT.
B
ECCA
felt as if she had been twisted inside out and then wrung like a damp towel. She tried to open her eyes but all she could see was a golden haze behind her eyelids. She could hear voices. They sounded far away and she couldn’t understand them. Trying to make out the words made her head ache.

In fact, everything made her head hurt. The rest of the pain was beginning to ease, but the throbbing in her head seemed to only intensify.

The indistinct voices finally resolved into words. “Becca? Can you hear me?” Alex’s voice sounded very close, but softer than it had before. She could feel cool hands touching her forehead and it was only then that she realized that she was burning up.

Becca opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She tried again and finally managed a, “Yes.”

“Thank God,” Alex breathed, stroking Becca’s hair back from her warm forehead. “I was getting worried.”

“Wh-what happened?” Becca asked. She cracked one eyelid open experimentally. The golden haze was just as strong as it had been before.

“Do you remember taking on the mirror spell?” Alex asked, a new note of concern seeping into her voice.

She remembered her power attacking the strands of the protection spell…remembered the words she’d screamed in her mind. Panic, swift and sharp edged, shot through her. She could tell Alex was still waiting for a response, so she slowly nodded her head...and then groaned at the pain the movement caused. “Why does my head hurt?”

“Because the mirror spell hit right back, and you flew across the room and hit your head on the wall,” Alex answered.

“I don’t suppose the spell broke?” Becca asked even though she knew the answer. She’d opened both eyes, but the haze still remained so she tried blinking rapidly a few times.

“No, it um, well, it’s kind of a visual thing.” Alex ran her hand over Becca’s forehead again. “Are you having trouble seeing?”

“Yeah,” Becca admitted.

“And you’re hot. Your power is still running out of control. Something like this happened to me. You need to focus on pulling it back inside you; not letting it run all over you like this.”

“This is my power? But it’s—” Becca broke off.
But it’s the wrong color.
Now that she was focusing more closely she could see the purple edging the golden light flowing behind her eyes. It disconcerted her. Her power had always been purple with a sort of golden glow; now it was almost entirely gold. She had a brief recollection of the curse spell winding its way down the stream of her power and swallowed painfully.

“Concentrate, Becca. Pull it back into you. You’re getting hotter.” Alex’s tone was soothing, as if she were lulling a baby to sleep, but Becca could hear the restrained concern.

She took a deep breath and focused on the center of power in her chest. Alex was right, she could feel the energy running rampant through her whole body. She concentrated on finding the disparate strands and pulling them slowly back into the center of her chest. She felt them coiling together loosely, coming back under her control. The haze began to fade from her eyes. She blinked again as Alex’s face came into view, a few inches above her own.

“Hey there.” Alex grinned down at her. “All better now?”

“Mostly.” Something was still off. Her power was still gold, and the balance of it seemed wrong, as if it were vibrating at a slightly different frequency than it had before.

“How is your head feeling?” Lilia asked quietly from her side.

“Like I hit it really hard.”

“You did. I’m surprised you did not dent the wall.”

Becca choked back a laugh and then winced. “I’ve got a really hard head.”

“I believe I’ve mentioned that before,” Lilia teased. “I think you should go see a doctor.”

Becca groaned. “I don’t think I need a doctor. I’ll be fine in a few minutes. What would I even say happened?”

“I’m sure we could come up with something,” said Alex. “Do you feel sick to your stomach at all?”

“Not really. But this floor is really uncomfortable.”