Page 32 of The Midwinter Mirror
I hesitate. I don’t want to get my hopes up then—
“Come on, Zayne, or it will be Christmas before you even tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Okay, so here’s the thing. Amber taught me and Josh this spell. It’s a sort of spell that dissolves spells. Makes them go away. And I want to try it on you.”
“To break the compulsion spell?”
I search her face. “Are you okay with that?”
She presses her lips together. I can see the fear flash in her eyes. But then she nods.
I pull Josh’s journal from my pocket. The words blur for a second because I don’t want to get this wrong. If this doesn’t work, there’s no backup plan. We’re screwed, and Tansy’s screwed with us.
I look at Holly. Her eyes are wide, scared, but steady. She nods once.
Will it work? I just don’t know. I can feel the panic tightening my gut. The air thickens, metallic on my tongue, like a storm about to break. I take a deep breath and read the words of the spell:
“Twist and tether, veil and bind—
Undo the spell and free the mind.”
Chapter 13
Unbound
Holly
The words reverberate between us, hanging in the air long after they’re spoken.
What’s supposed to happen? “I don’t—” A bolt of agony shoots through my brain, and my knees give way as I crash to the floor.
I’m vaguely aware of Zayne calling my name, but I can’t answer right now; I’m a little preoccupied by the fact that my brain is melting.
He must’ve hit the brain-melting spell by mistake. I press the heels of my hands into my eye sockets, trying to stop everything leaking out.
Then, as quickly as it came, the pain is gone.
And it’s so very quiet.
The voice that’s been in my head my whole life—shoving, twisting, hissing: not real, not real, not real—is gone. For the first time I can remember, there’s only silence. My own silence. My own thoughts. It’s so strange, like I’ve stepped off a cliff and the ground has disappeared from under my feet. My chest feels too tight. My eyes sting. Gods, I should be laughing, but all I can do is shake. Because if this is freedom…then what the hell have I been living all these years?
“Holly? Talk to me, Holly.”
Zayne’s voice cuts through the silence.
I lower my hands and peer up at him. He looks really scared, like he thinks he might have blown my brain. I blink. The world looks somehow clearer.
“Holly, if you don’t goddamn say something soon, I’ll…I actually don’t know. I’m dying here. Just let me know you’re okay.”
I lick my lips. “It worked.”
“What? Is that it? How do you feel? Are you okay? For a second there, I thought your head was going to explode.”
“So did I.”
I search inside myself. It’s like alien territory, somewhere I’ve never been before. It’s so…clear. And I realize I’ve lived a life in a haze of fog. My thoughts now are all sharp as needles, whizzing around in my head, poking at my past, the choices I had, the decisions I’ve made. Fucking totally wrong decisions, based on a completely fucked-up worldview. All the things I blanked from my mind.
There’s an ache in my chest that’s building. “I let you down,” I whisper. “I saw the Hunter that day. Leaving Silvergate. He vanished. He had blood on his hands. He was gone by the time you reached us—just your dad and mum. She was already dead.”
