Page 70 of The Witch's Spell
At first, it moves in a circle, but then, as Thorne flexes his fingers in mine, it shifts, creating an infinity symbol, spiraling around and between us, like we’re the two circles and our joined hands are the one point of contact.
The wind is frigid. It buffets me, sending my hair and cloak snapping wildly. I’ve never been in a hurricane, have only heard about them in tales from the coast, but I imagine this is what it must feel like to stand upon the shore as the storm moves in with a might that can rip trees clean from the earth and level villages in a matter of minutes.
Calm, I think, squeezing my eyes closed against the onslaught of air. It feels like tiny icicles are pelting my cheeks, stinging and stabbing my exposed skin.We’re sending you home. You won’t be trapped here any longer.
When I dare peek through my squinted eyelids, I can no longer see Thorne standing across from me. I’m wrapped in such dense fog that it feels like I’m completely alone in aworld of gray. If not for his hands still grasping mine, I might think myself lost in the void.
The roots around my boots creep higher, wrapping around my stockinged calves. They hold me to the earth like a tree, refusing to let the vortex of fog rip me away.
Just a little longer, I think, gritting my teeth as the wind tears at my clothes.Then you’ll be home.
There’s the sound of the earth splitting around me, but I can’t see through the fog and have no idea what’s happening. All I can do is cling to Thorne’s hands and pull as much magic as I can up from the earth and through my body, projecting it out into the crystals, which may have been hurled away by the power of Thorne’s storm.
I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to hold on like this. If not for the roots wrapped around my legs, I’d have been sucked up into the storm, thrown far over the trees and into the distance.
I can’t let that happen. I have to hold on.
Tears stream down my cheeks, but they’re whisked away immediately by the force of the vortex. I’ve been gritting my teeth, holding as firm as I can, but a cry finally rips from my throat.
“Thorne!”
And at that exact moment, the air shifts.
It flows between me and Thorne, being sucked away into a world I can’t see. The fog spirals around itself, whirling and twisting and writhing.
When it’s gone, it leaves me standing in the fairy meadow in almost deafening silence. My hands, holding Thorne’s just a moment ago, are empty. And when I fully open my eyes, Ifind a thick tangle of roots arching over the place where my and Thorne’s hands were connected, like a perfect gateway between our two realms, meeting at the spot where our skin was touching.
But across from me, all I see is empty space.
Thorne has vanished along with the fog.
My chest aches. My cheeks and eyes burn.
How can he be gone, just like that?
The roots that were holding him to the ground are gone as well, as if they were pulled into the fairy realm along with him.
I release my magic slowly, pushing it back into the earth, where it originated from. The roots binding my legs retract into the frozen soil, and when I look down, it’s almost as if they were never there at all.
And it’s almost like Thorne was never here at all.
But I’m not ready to let him go. I feel like I just grasped ahold of him.
The archway is standing right in front of me, the tangled roots that form it firm and unmovable. I stare through the archway, and in my peripheral vision, I see a sparkle, a hint of a world that’s not my own. A longing swells in my chest.
I don’t want to let him go. Not yet.
One of the guys calls my name—Faolan, I think—but I don’t turn.
Instead, I take a step forward, my intentions clear. And I vanish into the portal.
Chapter 34
Thorne
BETWEEN ONE BREATH AND THE next, the world goes from chaos to silence. The air around me smells different—like flowers despite the chill.
I open my eyes.
