All I wanted to do was scream at her that there was no goddamn way I could use my powers and give my life up to McCain.
Suddenly, I stopped. I stopped because of the unique look in her eyes. It wasn’t exactly powerful, or at least not powerful in a way I could recognize. It had at once a quiet submission about it and yet an unmistakable energy beyond anything I’d ever seen Sarah amass.
“There is always a balance to be struck between power and weakness.”
“What? What the hell are you talking about?” I asked through clenched teeth. “Are you telling me that there is some way I can use my abilities as a seer without them costing me?”
“No.” She shook her head, the move soft but still powerful. “Magic will always cost the practitioner. And yet, within each unique skill set there is a balance to be found.”
“Look, you’re wasting my time,” I spat. “If you know something about my powers, if you know some way that I can use them without losing my future, then tell me.”
Again, Sarah considered me with that same grim expression. “All I know is that within every single type of magic there’s a balance to be sought.” She gestured toward Bridgette. “Though strong displays of magic will bring about strong costs, smaller, infrequent displays,” she looked at her hands and looked up at me, “you can usually get away with them.”
I brought my arms wide and gestured with them. “Do you honestly think small, infrequent displays,” I matched her tone exactly, “are going to be enough to defeat a sorcerer king?”
Bridgette was still propped on her shoulders, and it was clear she wasn’t following. “Why do you keep talking about sorcerer kings? What the hell is going on here? Who was that guy? Why did he look like Max?” she insisted.
Sarah turned to her. “He was Max. At least, what Max once was. Max isn’t a fairy. He’s a soul shadow.” Sarah hesitated. She cut her gaze toward me.
I felt a chill race down my back. Though I knew Max wasn’t a fairy, I still didn’t technically understand exactly what he was. Yet, at the mention of a soul shadow, I swore my body reacted to that news as though somewhere deep inside me was buried a clue. I even brought up a hand and clutched it against my sternum. “What the hell is a soul shadow?”
“It’s a fragment of somebody’s everafter, of their destiny,” she explained.
As soon as Sarah said that, my expression soured. Because there was that word again. That treacherous word. The word that haunted me and threatened to take away everything I’d ever worked for. I hardened myself against it, clearing my throat with a snap as I continued to face Sarah. “Say I believe you. Say I believe in destiny for half a second. How exactly can we save Max?” I twisted my head back to him, my expression instantly softening. “And how can we defeat McCain at the same time? If you’re right, and Max is somehow,” I swallowed, “a shadow of McCain’s soul, then how the hell do we save him without saving McCain?” I struggled with my complicated thoughts, fighting against my fatigue at the same time. Because I was still very much injured. Though a few of the medi witches had come into the room, they were justifiably concentrating their efforts on Bridgette.
I caught a few glances of her stomach. It looked as if somebody had tried to carve her in half with a samurai sword.
“The answer is I don’t really know,” Sarah said. She dropped my gaze and stared at her feet. “You’re going to have to find out.” She shifted her attention back and faced me once more. “Because you’re the only one who can end this. You’re the only one close enough to Max and McCain to figure out how to save them both.”
“Save them both?” I spluttered. “There’s no way I’m gonna save McCain. He’s a monster. Some twisted shadow of humanity.”
Sarah offered a grim nod then shook her head. “That doesn’t change the fact that you’re right – there’s no way to save Max without saving McCain. Max can’t function on his own. He’s only a scrap of a soul. If you get rid of McCain, he….” She simply shrugged and trailed off.
Cold swept through me. It felt as if I’d grabbed one of Dimitri’s transport keys and opened a door into the heart of Antarctica. I’d never felt more frozen, more stuck. My worst fears were coming true.
Bridgette snorted. “Sarah, you didn’t face that guy. He had power the likes of which I’ve never seen. The Lonely King may have been a powerful sorcerer, but this guy—” Bridgette’s voice cut out and she took a rattling breath. “He’s worlds apart. We only got out of there because of Chi’s quick thinking.”
Sarah slowly nodded her head but then shook it straight away. “I get that, but it doesn’t matter. The only way to save Max is to save McCain. You need to knit his soul back together.”
“I won’t,” I said in a rattling voice that shook so hard through my sternum it was a surprise it didn’t cause an earthquake and tear the building down around my ears. “That bastard has to pay for everything he’s done to my family. For everything he did to Mary.”
Bridgette shook her head. It was obvious she wasn’t following. “Who’s Mary? You mentioned a curse? What on earth is going on?”
Sarah switched her gaze to me, and I wondered just how much she’d managed to figure out about Max and my family. Max had told me the day we’d met that I should never reveal the curse to
