Bit by bit, an old memory, a happy memory formed. It grew and grew until it was so bright that the darkness disappeared.
‘Discedo!’ I shouted.
Immediately, the dark creatures disappeared and so did my taste for blood. I fell onto my knees and dry retched.
‘Eva,’ said Jet, dropping beside me, taking me in his arms. ‘You did it! I can’t believe it. You were terrifying…and amazing.’
I began to shake violently.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘I…don’t…know,’ I said, the fever I’d finally gotten rid of resting lightly back on my skin. Except this time I knew that no treatment would work; I had chosen this.
‘Shit!’ said Jet. ‘It’s the darkness – it’s…’
‘Changing me,’ I said, tears rushing to my eyes as I realised the truth in the saying, If you play with fire, you’re going to get burned.
Jet turned to me for the third time in the last ten minutes. ‘You don’t have to do this, you know.’
I positioned his head back to the front, sharper than I’d intended.
‘Lucky for you, you don’t have to look at yourself, but for me – not so lucky.’
Jet chuckled. ‘Do I really look that bad?’
‘Yes,’ I said, picking up my scissors and starting to cut his unruly, wavy hair.
Jet let out a long sigh and gave over to letting me cut his hair. Eventually, he closed his eyes and relaxed. I recalled being a young girl when my auntie taught me how to cut hair. I’d been thrilled, of course, but I’d never thought it was a skill that I would need one day. For a brief moment, I remembered being in my auntie’s house. It could be described as shabby chic, with whitewashed walls, oversized floral couches and little trinkets wherever you glanced. As cute as it was, its appearance wasn’t what made me yearn for being there. Inside its walls was the heavy, deeply comforting presence of love and safety, something I’d always taken for granted.
I returned back to the cloudy, cool spring morning, where a fever now lived in my skin.
‘You okay?’ asked Jet, opening an eye.
I realised my hands had stopped moving.
‘Sorry, yes,’ I said.
‘Not feeling…any worse?’ asked Jet, his other eye opening.
‘Nope,’ I said, recollecting to the night before when taking command of the dark spirits had made me sick.
Jet had helped me back to camp, where I’d collapsed in bed, shaking and fevered. Jet had slipped back into carer’s mode and had given me the potion that helped make me better last time. It had relieved my symptoms, for sure, but the truth was, it was no longer a cure and we both knew it.
Eventually I’d fallen into a deep sleep, where the dark creatures were waiting. It had been a long, tortured kind of night. When I’d woken, I’d still felt warm, but in another way somehow stronger as well.
‘Close your eyes,’ I said, an edge to my voice.
Jet closed his eyes and I felt my body relax. All morning he’d been staring at me as though I was no longer the same person. He’d grilled me with question after question. It was obvious that last night’s spells had done more than make my body sick – it appeared my mind had been infected as well.
All day Jet had begged me not to learn the last of the dark magic spells, but I knew there was no turning back now. In four days we would return to Melas to try and rescue my family, and I needed every ounce of power I could muster.
Jet groaned as I ran my fingers through his shorter hair. On the ground around him lay his dark curls. I would never tell him, but I liked his hair longer and a little wilder. He’d always been gorgeous, but living in the outdoors had changed him in so many ways. He was stronger and bigger – finally grown into his body. But his face was leaner, his eyes darker, and his cheekbones appeared chiselled into his olive skin.
I moved to stand in front of him and began cutting again. The truth was, it was impossible not to stare at him, but it would have been far safer not to. My heart might have been nailed shut, but there was something so beautiful and raw about him now that being so close to him made my skin burn even hotter.
He opened his eyes and met my gaze, an electrical current passing through us. I cleared my throat and waited for him to turn away, to return me to peace. He didn’t.
‘Please, Eva – don’t learn any more dark magic.’
I tugged on his hair and concentrated on cutting a straight line.
‘You know that I’ve made up my mind.’
He appeared to be wrestling for control of his emotions. ‘I don’t know anyone who has practised the dark magic you want to learn. Even the black witches won’t cast the spell.’
My skin flushed hot and cold.
I didn’t know the spell he referred to, but I knew the dark magic Jet didn’t want to teach me – the killing curse.
‘Just because I’ll know the magic doesn’t mean I will use it,’ I said, tousling his hair.
Jet reached out and took my arm, sending pulses of his energy through me.
‘Oh no you don’t,’ I said, standing back from him. ‘There’s nothing you can say or do that will change my mind. I simply need to know how to–’
‘Kill someone…’
‘I’m done,’ I said, turning and packing away the scissors.
‘If you ever kill anyone – you know what will happen, don’t you?’ he said.
‘We’ve been over this,’ I said, my voice terse. ‘I’ll become the Fire Queen. Yes, I know.’
Jet ran his hand through his hair and was about to fire some retort when Boy, who’d been watching out over the cove, bounded towards us, barking and growling.
‘What
