Violet’s words came to me. ‘Fight fire with fire!’
I held onto her words and the love of my family and dug deeper than I’d ever thought possible. I matched the fire, flame by flame until I became the fire. And it ravaged me like an inferno. Life as I knew it lost all meaning as the forces of dark and light sought my soul.
At the moment when I thought all hope was lost, I heard Jet scream – ‘FIGHT!’
Using every last bit of strength, I blasted the fire with everything I had, extinguishing the flames to cinder and smoke. Heat bled from my body. I opened my eyes and there, staring down at me, his tears falling, was Jet.
‘I’m okay,’ I said, my voice no longer possessed by demons, but finally my own.
Gingerly, I sat up and Jet pulled me into his arms.
‘I thought I’d lost you,’ he said.
For a few moments, I resisted him, but then something shifted inside me and I relaxed against his body, let him hold me. Shortly after, I fell into a deep sleep inside his arms. When I woke, it was quiet and dark inside the tent. I was dressed once again in a tracksuit. I pulled my jumper back and brought my arm close to my face. My sores were still there, but they were no longer infected. Jet’s potions had literally sucked the evil from my body.
I rolled to my other side and there was Jet, his face younger in sleep. He was still wearing the same crumpled clothes, and he looked as tired as I’d ever seen him. Before I could stop myself, before I could think, I placed my hand on one of his cheeks.
He opened his eyes; they were gentle and soft.
‘Hey you,’ he said.
‘Jet, I…’
‘It’s okay, rest now.’
‘No, I need to say something.’
He waited while I tried to find words that expressed how I felt.
‘The thing is…without you, I would be dead now. Saying thank you – those words, they are all I have, but they will never be enough.’
Jet smiled and for a moment, I imagined him as he would have been if his parents hadn’t died, if we didn’t live under a dictatorship.
‘It’s okay, Eva – you’ve done the same for me. It’s only fair I returned the favour.’
My words got stuck in my mouth as tears welled up in my eyes. ‘You saved me. I owe you my life.’
Jet wiped away my tears with his fingers.
‘Well, I could never expect you to owe me your life, but I would like you to promise me something.’
‘Anything…’
Jet propped himself up on his elbow and Pearl, who’d been asleep on the end of the bed, slinked beside him, purring.
‘I have a feeling this won’t be the last we hear from the dark forces – they will keep coming for you, particularly when you’re vulnerable.’
I swallowed, the truth of his words making my skin turn cold.
‘And when they come for you, you must promise me that no matter what happens, no matter how bad things get, you will always follow your heart.’
I blinked quickly as the meaning of his words sank in.
Jet’s eyes glimmered in the darkness as he spoke. ‘You and I both know how bad things can get, so this promise, it’s going to be much harder to keep than you think.’
My mind flickered back to the most torturous times of my life. If there was anything I knew, it was the lengths the dark forces would go to turn my heart to darkness.
‘They will make you want to be like them. They will make you thirst to kill. But the thing is, it will still be your choice. The dark forces can never take your choice away.’ Jet took my hand, held it tightly. ‘You have a good heart – a kind and loving heart. And you must remember, in your darkest hour, who you really are, and make choices from your heart. Can you promise me that?’
Inside Jet’s brown eyes was an unspoken question that sat waiting for an answer. His request sounded so simple, and yet I possessed powers of light and darkness. He was asking me to choose the light, every single time. My family, their lives were at stake. I knew I would do whatever it took to save them.
‘I can’t promise you that, Jet. I’m sorry. I would do anything for my family… Anything at all.’ Jet removed his hand and rubbed his eyes while I continued speaking. ‘I know that’s not what you want to hear. And trust me when I say I don’t want to be a dark force, but if it’s the only way I can help my family, I will do it.’
Jet groaned. ‘Don’t you see, nothing good can ever come from the darkness. Please, I am begging you, please choose to follow your heart.’
I took a deep breath and placed my hand on Jet’s heart. ‘You’re the one with the good heart. For you, I will try, but I can’t promise you. I’m sorry.’
Jet removed my hand and lay on his back. ‘They will come for you, again and again, Eva.’
‘I know,’ I said quietly. ‘And that’s why I need you to teach me dark magic, before we go back to rescue my family.’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘We’re going to need every bit of magic – the white and the black – if we’re to have any chance of saving my family…and Violet.’ A sob broke free from my chest. ‘Please, Jet. I’ll be careful how I use these powers, but I need to arm myself in every way possible.’
Jet fell silent; the only sounds came from the sea in the cove below and the leaves that rubbed together in the breeze.
Eventually, Jet rolled back and faced me. ‘Dark magic, it will change you forever. Is that what you want?’
Inside me, the forces of
