Page 80 of Poison Sun

We come to a sudden stop, gazing out at the valley stretching out before us. It’s unlike any valley I’ve seen before, with the mountains on each side going up so high that it’s like they’re touching the sky. The air shimmers with strands of magic, and trees spread out across the ground, their bright green leaves glimmering gold in the sunlight.

But there, all the way at the end of the valley, is a sight that steals my breath away.

A palace of sparkling quartz, built into the side of the mountain. Its towers gleam under the sun, casting rainbows in every direction, pulsing with powerful, ancient magic.

“The rose garden should be just beyond the palace,” I say to Blaze, unable to look away from the quartz sparkling under the sunlight.

“Great,” he says. “So, we cross the valley, go through the garden, and she’ll be there?”

She.

The Witch Langwerda, who guards the Crimson Quill.

“If the book is right, then yes,” I say. “She’ll be there. Probably in her cottage. Doing… whatever ancient mythological witches do when they’re hanging out in their magical cottages.”

I barely hear his response.

Because the wind starts up again.

It’s a different kind of wind. Not just a movement of air, but something with essence. Something alive. It caresses my skin, the breeze whispering things I can’t fully hear, pleading for me to listen.

“Do you hear that?” I turn to Blaze, scanning his face for any sign that he knows what I’m talking about.

“Hear what?”

“The wind. It’s…”

Before I can finish, the whispers become clearer.

Don’t trust him.

He’s going to hurt you.

Burn him and leave him behind.

He’s going to hate you when he learns your secret.

Blaze reaches for me, as if he’s trying to comfort me to urge me to continue, but I step away.

The hurt that flashes across his eyes is like a slap to my face.

The voices in the wind quiet, as if they were never there at all.

The voices that were telling me to hurt him. Just like how his mom heard voices telling her to hurt Blaze and his father after they used the healing spell to try turning her into a witch.

Oh my God.

It’s happening to me, too.

The spell healed my body. But my mind…

The realization freezes me to my core.

I can’t tell him. I just can’t.

If he knows, he’ll think it’s his fault. He’ll never forgive himself.

Plus, maybe I’m not hearing the voices because of the spell. Maybe it has to do with the Valley of the Vanished. Maybe something similar is happening to him, but he’s not telling me because he doesn’t want to scare me, too.

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