Page 179 of Queen of the Crimson Throne

Kara.My magic whispered.

The blood belonged to Kara.

My legs trembled. She would be fine.

My whole body burned as I continued to pull at my magic, searching for more traces of the letter.

Who else? Who else?

My jaw locked.Who else?I screamed into the abyss.

A figure formed in my mind.There. I followed the thread of magic toward them as they continued to manifest.

The figure was dark—but I couldn’t glean anything else yet. They were sitting, there was something in their hand.

Was that who wrote the letter? Is that what they were doing?

I dove farther into my magic, it bucked against my call, but I continued to pull at it. I was so close.

Something dripped down my face, but I ignored it as I drew closer to the figure.

The tips of my fingers were edged in pain, I ignored it.

I was almost there.

“Luciana.”

I ignored his voice. I tried to move my hands, but they refused.

Just a little farther. My feet remained planted in place.

What the fuck, I grumbled. I pulled at my magic again, but it refused.

“Lucy.”

The illusion around me faded. My room came back into view around me as I fell to the floor.

“Luce,” Nico gasped, catching me before I hit the ground.

I gritted my teeth. “Bastard, I was so close!” I screamed. “I told you, you’d break my focus!”

“I need to try again.” I tried to stand, but couldn’t, my legs refused to move.

“The fuck you will, Luce. You are not doing that again.” I shoved him off of me, as much as I could without being able to move my legs.

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Luce, that spell, the magic was consuming your body. It was eating at you from the inside out.” I furrowed my brows. “Your hands and feet were frozen, your lips were turning blue, your nose was bleeding profusely.”

I brought my hand to my face, and when I removed it blood stained my fingertips.

“Do you even have any magic left?”

I searched inside, feeling for the well of magic that resided in my chest, finding only a small ember of it remained.

I had used it all. Every last drop.

I looked at my stinging hands.

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