Page 10 of Spells of Shadow and Blood

Only moments ago, when I had first seen her, her eyes had been a deep ocean blue.

Now, they were black.

Just like the man we brought back to life.

Just like Cirilla.

Had her eyes been darkening with the use of the black magic? Was that the effect this kind of magic had on the body? Was that the price paid?

There was always a price to black magic.

Always.

Persephone spoke, her voice deeper than it had been before. “You are alive. Changed, most certainly, but alive.”

When the man turned to her with a grin I gasped, my hand flying to my throat.

“What happened to him?”

I had never seen anything like it before. The pallor of his skin was much the same as it had been in death, pale and chalky. His eyes were black tourmaline. But his teeth…

They had been sharpened into fangs.

“Is he…is he a vampire?” I asked, stepping back until I was pressed against the wall and could go no further.

Cirilla grinned, and the sight sent a chill running down my spine. I pressed my palms flat against the wall behind me.

“Not a vampire,” she answered, shaking her head. “So much more.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant, or that I wanted to find out. The fanged creature before us seemed so…unnatural. But the more I studied him, the more it also seemed…right. I had never felt so whole as I had when that black magic had been coursing through my veins.

I craved another taste of it.

I needed it to survive.

That night when I had returned home, I fell into bed utterly exhausted. The magic we had performed that day had taken a toll on me, and I wanted to sleep for at least three days to recover. Maybe more.

Zion had come to my room to tuck me in. He had slid the sheets over me, tucking them tightly beneath the bed. When he sat beside me, pushing my white-blue hair back from my face, he startled.

“Donika? Are you all right?” he asked, concern in his voice.

“Of course, father. Why wouldn’t I be?”

He paused for a moment, his gaze never leaving mine in the dimly lit room. He shook his head, as if dismissing the thought. “Your eyes…I just thought. Never mind.”

He smiled down at me, placing a kiss against my forehead. “Sleep tight.”

And I did. I had slept for two days after that spell, waking only when Cirilla came to fetch me for my next lesson.

When I had moved to the bathroom that morning to brush my teeth, I glanced in the mirror and reeled back with a start.

My eyes had once been glacially blue, like my mothers. But I didn’t remember her eyes any longer. Didn’t remember her face. Maybe I had imagined that they were so blue before. Maybe they never had been.

Maybe mine hadn’t either.

I had never taken the time to study my own reflection, after all. Maybe I was mistaken. My own hand moved to run across my cheek as I stared at my reflection for a long moment. My hand was cold against my flesh, but I didn’t reel back from it.

I didn’t flinch at the cerulean blue eyes that stared back at me.

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