and vanished.
I rocked back onto my heels and studied Hol y. There has to be something I can do. Reaching with my senses, I scanned the curse on her. It was active now, draped over her like a net made of spider silk. I didn’t have the magic needed to be a curse-breaker, but maybe now that this one was out of its shel , I’d be able to do something with it.
Maybe. Just maybe.
“Alex?” Falin stared at me, his eyes sweeping over my face. “What is it? You have that look like you have an idea and you know it’s a bad one but you’re going to try it anyway.”
I did have an idea. And he was right. “I can see magic,” I said, moving to stand directly in front of Hol y. “I mean, ever since I began seeing the Aetheric, I started to be able to see the shape of magic and the color of spel s.”
Anyone could see magic while inside the Aetheric, and most witches checked their spel s when they were there to make sure that no darkness or corruption had contaminated the spel or their bodies while they were spel casting. Inside the Aetheric magic could be touched and pul ed apart, separating light from dark. If a witch was cursed, and she could get to the Aetheric, she could pul the curse off her psyche, bypassing the need for counterspel s.
Of course, she had to do it herself. Healers had been working for years on a way to pul patients to the Aetheric with them, but so far no one had found a way to make two psyches end up in the same place.
psyches end up in the same place.
But I didn’t need to travel to the Aetheric to see magic—
or to touch it. The Aetheric plane was thin to nonexistent here, but magic stil functioned. Which means this might work.
I opened my shields. Hol y’s soul, which I’d already been seeing as pale yel ow, became clearer, almost outshining her features. But not al of it was glowing. The bite marks from the construct had healed and vanished from her skin, thanks to healing spel s, but they scarred her soul with a snaking cobweb of magic. The spel was a deep gray with veins of red. Not the most malicious spel I’d ever seen, but clearly effective enough.
Well, here goes. I reached out both with my hand and with my psyche. Part of me wanted to squeeze my eyes shut because I was terrified that I would accidental y grab her soul instead of the spel , but if I closed my eyes, that chance increased. Just be careful.
The spel felt slimy to my senses. In contrast, her soul underneath was a thing of heat and life. It was easy to tel the two apart, but not quite as easy to separate them. I needed something for the spel to latch on to, or maybe something to disrupt it. Drawing on the power stored in my ring, I sent a focused tendril of pure magic into the spel . In theory, the spel would either latch on to the new source of power and try to jump to me—though hopeful y I’d be faster and have time to cut off the stream while the spel was between hosts—or the magic would give the spel a bit of a jolt. Or it would do nothing, but that was a bad option so I didn’t think too hard about it.
The outline of the spel turned fuzzy as my magic hit it.
The edges curled like the legs of a dying spider, and I seized my opportunity. I snatched the spel in the very center and tugged. It pul ed free, wiggling in my grasp for a moment. Then, without the physical connection to Hol y to sustain it, the spel dissolved.
Hol y blinked. “Alex? Oh, my God, Alex!” She threw her Hol y blinked. “Alex? Oh, my God, Alex!” She threw her arms around my neck. “Is it real y gone?” The heat of her skin burned against my bare shoulders and she jerked back. “God, Al, you’re cold. Are those icicles on your dress?”
“It’s a long story.” I stood, pul ing her up with me. “Hol y, do you know what happened to you? Who did this?”
“I remember.” She wrapped her arms across her chest as her green eyes took on a distant, haunted look. “Al, she’s crazy. She left not long ago, saying she had one more spel to cast. She said this ritual would set her free.” Hol y shook her head and then suddenly went completely stil . Her hand flew to her mouth, her fingers pressed against her lips. “I didn’t,” she whispered.
“Didn’t what?” Oh, crap, what sick thing had the accomplice made Hol y do while she was under the spel ?
Tears slid down Hol y’s cheeks. “I ate it. I ate Faerie food.”
Chapter 36
Faerie food. It was addictive to mortals. Always. Even a single bite.