Page 66 of Love & Heart Braking

“He was carrying a very large bag the other day and I snapped at him,” she murmured.

“Cool. What’s the next step in this loosening then?”

The witch roused herself. “You must stay as still as possible. After the loosening, you will likely experience some instability with your magic due to the shaking consequence of the curse. You will also be very tired. You must rest afterward.”

Just what I needed, unstable power. “Got it.”

Vera assumed a position in the middle of her crystals, and I closed my eyes, trying to relax my body.

Think of Devereaux in a baseball uniform.

I smiled.

Wham!

Power hit me with the force of a carriage. My lungs were crushed beneath her might. I contorted, seizing, unable to arch as her magic punctured my chest and legs, my arms, and my very mind.

My jaw locked.

My fingers clawed. It punctured me over and over, sending me spiraling toward savage panic born of my will to survive this onslaught. Stop!

The pain continued. My body jolted and twitched to her every effort. Savage sounds ripped from my chest. Noises I wouldn’t have thought myself capable of making.

Please, stop.

Every minute was an hour. Every second a lifetime.

I heard a distant scream, and ice filled me.

But I was too far gone.

Dots filled my vision, and I almost wept in relief through the blind agony, trying to reach for unconsciousness and speed its arrival.

Then, as though I’d popped my head above water, the puncturing attacks shut off. With them, the searing pain disappeared as readily as the flick of a light switch, in me one moment and gone the next.

The black receded, and I inhaled deeply.

My hands rose to my chest, then to my face where I felt to make sure everything was still in place. Trembling, I swung to sitting, unable to believe my body still appeared the same after that onslaught. I couldn’t believe I’d survived that.

She hadn’t been kidding.

The shaking subsided, and weariness settled in my bones. With colossal effort I lifted my head to where Vera had collapsed, fragments of her crystals scattered around her. The torches had extinguished. The darkness of night felt cloying and loaded without them.

I kicked off my symbolic heels. “Good work, girls,” I whispered.

Folding to a heap beside my tote, I pulled on my boots, then managed to crawl my way to standing using the slab for support.

So tired.

The butler appeared from the shadows. “Will you require assistance returning to home, miss?”

Nope. “I’m good.”

I stepped in his direction and wavered on the spot. Black filled my vision once more. Make that a yes!

I gasped an address at the man.

Black hugged my mind.

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