Page 53 of Broken Rejected Mate

But Claire is standing, shaking her head. “No, Veva. We need you for that power. If you’re guiding it, you won’t be able to push that power into the spell.”

“I can do it.”

I startle, turning to find Sarina standing beside an armchair, looking at us with wide eyes. Her book lies face down on the arm of the chair behind her.

“No,” I say, shaking my head, but she takes another step, holding her hands up.

“I want to help,” she says, her brow wrinkling. “I know how to put my power into a spell—you taught me.”

Claire gives her a sympathetic look. “That’s very nice of you, honey, but we’re going to need a lot more power than that. Your powers won’t crest until you’re much, much older.”

I open my mouth, but the door opens and Emin comes walking in, looking breathless, harried. His eyes skip from me, then to Sarina, and the expression on his face calms.

“What is it?”

My hackles rise. I don’t like the way he walked in here, like something might be wrong. Like he needed to make sure we were okay.

“It’s fine,” he says, shaking his head. “It’s okay—”

“Emin.”

His eyes meet mine, and I hold his gaze for a second, willing him to tell me the truth. He sighs, pulls me to the side.

“Dorian and I came across something…interesting. During our hunt. And we’re dealing with it, but I wanted to make sure the two of you were okay.”

He gives me a look that says,I can tell you more later, but not here.

Fine. I nod back, turn to go back to what we were doing, but another idea comes to mine.

“Emin.” He stops at the sound of my voice, turns back to me, eyebrows raised.

“What?”

Ten minutes later, we’re arranged around the casting table. Group casting doesn’t normally require holding hands, but in order to loop Emin into this, we need physical touch. Sarina insisted she wanted to participate, so she and I bracket him, holding his hands in ours.

“We’re going to push our power toward you,” Claire explains. “I’ll do most of the steering, but I’m going to channel it through you.”

“And you want me to…?”

“Think about the Amanzite. Picture it. Imagine that connection you have with it when you’re shifting—all that stuff. The goal is to get as close to the real thing as we can.”

Emin lets out a thin breath. “I’ll do my best. No promises.”

“I have a feeling this is going to work,” Claire says, nodding and taking Sarina’s hand in hers. “Alright—let’s begin.”

Closing my eyes, I let my power rise to the surface of my skin, like water coming to a boil. I gather it up, channel it, push it toward Emin and Claire.

We’ve been doing our best each time with this, but this time is clearly different. Every other time, Claire has been busy guiding the ship, but now, with her full power, we’re buoyed, far more ability to take the spell where we want to go.

The caster to my left whispers a quick, surprised, “Wow.”

It’s what we’re all feeling. I throw everything in me into this spell, pushing, pushing. My maternal instincts call on me to open my eyes, to make sure Sarina is okay, but I can’t—I won’t interrupt the spell by pulling my attention away. I can only hope that including her was the right decision, and that she has the discipline necessary to stay keyed into the spell.

The magic rises and falls inside the room like flood water, leaving us all gasping for air and boneless when it pulls away again.

And when I open my eyes, the table is heaped with a pile of synthetic gems.

“Did we…?” one of the casters asks, eyes wide.

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