I held my hand up, trying to stall her as she stalked forward. We were going around and around in circles, literally and with our conversation. The dream itself was empty, since neither of us had exerted any energy or attention to crafting our surroundings. We were surrounded by white as far as the eye could see with no sky or ceiling, and only my blood droplets on the ground beneath our feet as a guide.
“First, I don’t apologize for anything,” I informed her. “Like I said, I thought you’d sent him to me first. And secondly, you’ve held a grudge since William, but you never let me explain why I tore him to pieces! I killed him for you! For us. To protect us. I’ve always protected us. The people in my garden were going to tear our palace away. They were planning to cast us out of our homes. They told lies about you and said you were cursed and dangerous. They wanted to hunt you down and kill you, sister. I couldn’t let that happen.”
Luna snorted. “They couldn’t have killed me or you, and you know it. Our bond wouldn’t have allowed it, so don’t try to use your undying love for me as an excuse for your depravity.” Her feline eyes flashed. “Reverse this curse, or I swear that every day, I’ll bury you. I’ll cut you apart – cut myself apart, if need be – until nothing remains, and I will laugh each time we both die.”
I pinched my lips together in consternation. She simply refused to listen to reason.
“Reverse it!” she screamed, finally leaping toward me. We fell in a heap and the breath escaped my lungs in a loud puff when my back hit the ground. She held my wrists at my side, struggling to keep her grip because of our mingled blood. It was slick and smeared all over both of us now.
I pinched my lips together, staring at my sister. Despite her theatrics, I had no plans to stop the toxin.
“I didn’t send him to you,” she gritted out.
“I believe you, but I won’t reverse it until you stop trying to separate us.”
“I won’t, Aura. I’ll never stop trying to rid myself of you.”
I shrugged dismissively. “Then Phillip will die.”
She climbed off me and I watched her hands return to normal, but then she conjured fire and formed it into a ball, launching it at me. “You will reverse the effects, Aura,” she demanded.
I rolled to the side to try to avoid the direct hit, but wasn’t fast enough. I was too tired and she was too strong. Siphoning my energy? I had to give it to her. That was a smart move, and it made me wonder how she managed to conjure the spell.
Probably Malex.
When she conjured another fiery ball, I jumped to my feet and ran as fast as I could, pumping my arms and pushing my legs hard until they burned. But again, I wasn’t quick enough. Flames and pain burst across my back as I tried to escape. I cried out as the pain washed over me, my clothes singing and burning away, the flesh of my back blistering.
“We need to talk about this!” I shouted, trying to make her see reason.
In response, she hurled two smaller fire balls. I managed to escape the first, but the other one burst on my lower leg. Both of us cried out from the pain, which told me it hurt her just as badly to create them as it did for me to receive them. I sent water walls into the air to shield myself, but she gathered the air around us, blowing holes through the water large enough for her fireballs to fit through.
Finally, exhausted, I exited her dream and left her there to think about what she’d done to us. My dress smelled like burning fabric and hair, even though there was no sign of scorching on it. I could already feel the blisters on my back and leg bursting, the fluid running down my skin, and I bit back a curse. Damn Luna and her stubbornness.
Still, there was one thing I didn’t understand.... If Luna didn’t send Phillip to Virosa, who did? And this Malex character… Was he strong enough to cure Phillip before I could make my stubborn ass of a sister see reason?
One thing was certain: someone other than Luna wanted our bond severed, which would be dangerous for both of us. Luna and I were strong when we were united. Separated, both of us would be vulnerable, weak enough for someone to cut us both down.
That was something I couldn’t allow.
PHILLIP
Luna panted heavily as if she were running, and then four bright red gashes formed across her forearm. Blood welled up like a river on her skin, dripping onto the floor, and I ran to get a cloth to stop the bleeding. Ember squalled, pacing back and forth agitatedly next to her. Rushing back to Luna’s side, I held pressure on the wounds. Suddenly, her breathing calmed and her muscles relaxed.
I eased the bloody cloth away and saw that her wounds had already sealed, leaving behind four translucent scars.
Something was burning. I sniffed the air and looked around, but didn’t see anything. Luna whimpered in her sleep, although her body stayed still. My muscles relaxed when she let out a sigh and the tension in her body fell away.
Blotting the blood from the floor, I shook my head. What the hell was that?
The front door opened and Malex stepped in. “What happened to her?”
“I don’t know,” I answered, forgetting to be annoyed by his presence. “She was asleep and started thrashing around, and the next thing I knew, she was bleeding.”
He looked at her arm and asked for a fresh, damp cloth to clean it off with, muttering things in a language I didn’t understand. I sniffed the air again, glancing around to make sure I hadn’t moved anything too close to the fireplace.
“It’s her skin you smell. She’s been burned, but since it was her own flame, her body will heal quickly,” Malex offered. He eased her skirt up to wrap a cloth around the lower half of her right leg. “Her back is burned, as well.”
I dipped a fresh cloth in a basin of water and brought it to him. My head felt light, strange and fuzzy, so I sat down for a minute and let him clean Luna’s wounds.
“Are you feeling well?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “It’s probably just seeing the blood.”
“The sight of blood bothers you?”
“Not normally, no.” I thought of my fallen horse Blackheart and the crimson river that poured from his neck when I had to put him down. Did that really happen? I wasn’t sure if Aura hurt me, dropped me at the cottage, and implanted the memory, or if she merely sent me and Rolfe into the forest on the hunt, knowing I’d fall, and somehow guided me to her sister.
“You can’t be with Luna, you know,” Malex said flatly.
“What?” Where did that come from?
“She’s half-fae. She has enough power in her sneeze to crumble all your bones to dust. She can’t be with a human.”
“I’ve only known her a short time, so I’m not sure we’ve quite reached the part where we decide on happily ever afters,” I snorted.
“There is no decision. You can’t be with her. She does seem to fall in love easily, but it took weeks for her to fall for William. His death still haunts her. So I wonder, since you’ve been here such a short time, if Aura is behind this mutual attraction that seems to have ignited between you and Luna.”
I gritted my teeth, both from the insinuation as well as my fear that it was true. “Aura does not control my feelings.”
“No? Have you ever thought about hurting Luna? Have you ever felt yourself battling for control of your extremities or emotions?”