Blade's Edge || Deception Book II ||

Chapter 40: Smoke and Shadows Pt. II

Well, not blacked out. My mind just disappeared from the physical world into the magical as the strain on my magic coursed through me. My blood turned to fire, a blazing inferno that threatened to consume me from the inside out.

Unbidden, faint memories of a wave of black magic, the sound of explosions, blood, crumbling statues, and broken temples flashed through my mind, glimpses of light in a shattered mirror. Then, an image of a girl with golden blond hair curled in the centre of a disaster solidified. All around her lay broken stone, once gleaming white, now reduced to smoky rubble. But she lay unharmed in a clean circle of white marble, ash drifting through the air to adorn her head. Then three figures, one in grey robes, an owl perched on her shoulder, another in silver, a grey wolf at her side, and one in black, accompanied by nothing except swirling darkness, emerged. The one in silver crouched down and picked up the bundle of white in her wolf's jaws, setting it in front of the child. The girl was so focused on the white wolf pup that she didn't notice the god in black and his power as it curled towards her heart from behind. Or the fourth figure, clad in black robes as well, a polecat and labrador at her feet, emerge as she cast a spell with white fingers, her green eyes unreadable.

But I did. And I saw Hecate as she clenched her hand, her power dissipating, and turned, eyes blazing with magic, towards me to say, "Break the seal, Clari."

All of a sudden, I was back at the chasm inside myself, the jagged chains running across the rift. But this time, there were two locks of stygian iron. Two, not one. And the one on the left was pulsing with power, temptation, and somehow, I knew that this was the new one. Not the old one, and unlike the right, which emanated with searing cold, I knew that I could. I could shatter the chains.

So I did. I reached out in a daze, and the moment my fingers grazed the stygian chains, a tremor ran through them, radiating towards the lock in the middle of the chasm.

Crack.

The sound of the lock shattering cleaved the world in two, the vibrations so strong they jettisoned me back up, up, up away from the canyon, and I slammed back into my body with a gasp.

My eyes flew open, and in that instant, I became aware of four things.

One, the sweat that had been rolling down my face was gone.

Two, the illusion I was holding with my mist was still there.

Three, the strain on my magic had diminished significantly. It was still there, and I felt lightheaded and dizzy, but the burning fire of the Phlegethon running through my veins was replaced with normal, demigod blood.

Four, there was a titan with a unicorn horn flying towards me.

On instinct, I tucked my knees in and lurched forwards, rolling out of the way, and Atlas slammed into my magic, somehow crystallized into a solid form, and I let the impact ripple through, let the disturbance echo, and exhaled, letting my magic dissipate.

"Nooooooooooo!" Atlas roared as the force of the sky crashed on top of him. "Not again!"

"Fuck," I muttered under my breath as I staggered to my feet, ignoring the cursing Titan behind me.

"Fuck," I repeated as the sudden flow of fresh magic vanished, turning my legs into jelly, and I fell back to the ground. Groaning as the last of the flames in my blood vanished, my fingers fumbled for my pocket. Gods. My magic was depleted and there wasn't a single drop left. I doubted I could summon even a flicker of shadow.

Let's hope the magic cards are still there, I thought fervently as I reached inside the pockets of my sweater. If I'm lucky, there will be a card imbued with healing power and all I have to do is rip it.