Page 60 of Evil Eyed
So is mine.
33
Iwas done with the bullshit.
“Let me get this straight,” I said slowly, holding up my fingers. “All of the worlds fall to you eventually.” I put down my thumb. “There’s very little magic left.” My index finger. “I’m too damaged to love anyone.” My ring finger. “Yet I can make your crazy universe-domination easier?”
I put down my pinky finger. Leaving my middle finger up.
“Get lucked, Evil Eye. I’m not helping you do anything.”
Boss Man’s voice slithered around me. “Even to save your precious treasures?”
“You said it yourself.” I shrugged, putting as much bravado into my voice as I could muster. “They always die. Why should this time be any different?”
“I’m surprised that you’re so short-sighted. Surely you understand that there will be no paradise in the Land Beneath the Waves waiting for them. This is the end of their long, bitter battle. No one believes in magic any longer. No one needs them to keep fighting.”
I do. I need them.My throat ached, holding back a sob at the thought of their deaths.:I need you. Always.:
This time, I received no answer.
:Doran?:
“Besides…” I couldn’t see Boss Man’s face, but I could hear the snide little sneer creeping into this voice. “It’s too late to save them.”
The silvery surface shimmered brighter and began playing images like a movie screen. Doran roaring and howling with rage while another, much larger creature ripped and tore at his wings. One wing already appeared to be broken, dragging limply at his side. Bellowing curses, Aidan stood surrounded by giants with red heads. Dozens of them. Yet he slashed and whirled with both swords, trying to clear a path to Keane and Ivarr. They stood back-to-back, blasting fire and laser-bright bursts into a horde of imps that rolled toward them like an endless wave. As I watched, a huge tentacle snaked around Keane and lifted him up. Another wrapped around his legs and yanked, tearing him apart.
“Nooooo!”
Frantic to help them, I reached for the spinning wheel of magic inside me. Treasure magic danced with leprechaun emerald, sparkling with rainbows, as strong as ever. Panting, I made myself pause. Think. The magic wouldn’t be so strong if they were truly in danger. If Keane were dead. A sob escaped my lips at the thought.
But if any of them were actually dead, the wheel wouldn’t evenly spin. It’d be dark and empty, not bright with sparks.
“You can save them,” Boss Man whispered. “The power lies before you.”
The wheel spun faster in my head, streaming all the colors of our magic. One drop of the silver source energy had lit me up like a Christmas tree. What would all of that pooled magic do to me? Even more importantly,whydid he want me to try and use it?
Doran screamed, a horrible sound of pain that made my heart tremble. On his back, he kicked and struggled to get up, but the creature ripped open his midsection so deep that organs and intestines pushed up out of him in a tangle. “Help us,mo stór!”
“It’s not real,” I whispered softly, swiping tears off my cheeks.
“Are you sure?” Boss Man’s voice slithered around me. I could almost feel the brush of his breath on my neck, which made all the tiny hairs on my nape shiver with alarm. “They’re so pretty when they cry for you, Riann. It makes my black heart burn with vicious pride.”
Doran wouldn’t ever yell for help. Like in the cave—they’d refused to use their own magic to try and protect me. They’d faced what could be their final battle with stoic courage, determined to take as many with them as possible rather than escape death.
Plus, it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t seen Warwick in trouble and dying. True, he was fae and wouldn’t die like the treasures, but I suspected Evil Eye couldn’t pull that kind of glamor on my leprechaun.
Tipping my chin up, I said firmly, “I’m sure.”
The surface of the pool shimmered back to silver. “Very good. You passed the final test. No other treasurekeeper has ever made it so far. I knew you were the one.”
“The one for what?” I asked sharply.
He didn’t answer. I looked around the endless space again, looking for another trick. A way out. Something. Anything. If I could see a wall or…
See.I fumbled the hag stone back up to my eye.
Rather than molten silver, the distilled magic looked more like thick oil or even tar. The finger on my left hand that I’d dipped into the pool was stained with what looked to be black ink—that was slowly creeping up my finger. I tried to wipe it off on my pants, but the black only kept spreading, now up to my knuckle.
