Page 74 of Cursed

He studies my face and sighs. “I suppose you deserve to know that. Magic is disappearing. I need more.” He grumbles, “But I thought you figured out all this. Please don’t tell me my intelligence skipped over you too.”

“Yeah. I know all that. But why do you needmypower? Can’t you just keep draining the supes?”

“That was only meant to be a short-term solution, to refill our reserves, until we could figure out how to stop the diminishing magic in the realms.”

“But I’m not just another magical refill, am I?” I guess. There has to be more if he had needed to ‘breed’ me into existence.

He shakes his head no. “You are my plan.”

“It doesn’t make sense.” I grimace, wondering what his long-term goal is. “Even if you can use my power, eventually, there will be no more magic for you to shapeshift.”

“Who says I needmagicto do that?” He chuckles darkly, lifts the ward, and saunters out. He has everything he needs now.

My mind keeps getting caught on the idea that he doesn’t needmagicin realms to shapeshift. I thought that was the basis of my power. I am able to energetically taste a magical affinity and then use my innate magic and transform it. At the hospital, I discovered that I could absorb magic and change it to my will.

When the etheric magic supply disappears from the realms, what else could he use to power my magic-shifting affinity?

Would he use someone’s life force as a source? Souls?

Or could he use raw cosmic energy itself?

What wasmagicanyway?

Quade had said some things defied explanation. But I was beginning to wonder if they defied them or it was just that no one had come up with a good enough theory.

Closing my eyes, I allow my attention to drop into my gut, where I sense my magic exists—sparkles of light and darkness.

Light… What islight?

I remember back to my science class in my human-run school…Light is an electromagnetic wave—a form of radiation.

Then I wonder if the darkness I perceive inside me is some form of the dark matter that is supposed to make up the entire universe.

So, can I change energy at a quantum level? Is that essentially what all magic is? Are we just innate scientists with no comprehension of how we transform? Is what I can do even that special? Or is it special since I can do it with any energetic form and shift into whatever I choose?

Am I just a biological magical adapter?

But what energy did my father intend to use?

Couldanythingbe used?

I ponder why magic has been dwindling. From our studies, some claim it’s being drained by the influx of humans in the realms. They take up so much energy and resources with abandon.

And it’s accelerating. But some part of my mind doesn’t think it’s only about sheer numbers or resources. Since the onset of the industrial age, magic has been vanishing exponentially. Some magicitians believed that was the problem.

Electricity and electromagnetic waves in the mortal plane’s air and land.

Couple that with the theory that what happens on one plane affects the other realms, and it does make sense. And it would account for the speeding up of our disappearing magical supply.

Could it be the downfall of magic are electrical towers and Wi-Fi? Would technology be the death of us?

But could it also be stopped? Transformed?

I doubt very much that my father intends to stop anything from killing off the magical population. No, he didn’t give a damn about them. If my theory was correct, then he would likely transmute the human’s energy to use for his own gain.

And who knows? Perhaps he plans to take control of the human realms with his shifting ability. He would be all-powerful if he allowed all the other supes to die off. There would be no one to stop him.

The humans wouldn’t even be able to keep track of him. He could shape-shift to evade any resistance.

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