31. Dexter

Dark magic could go fuck itself.

It took away everything I cared about—my sanity, my childhood, my sister.

Yet, here I was, about to place the dark magic infector on the academy campus I went to.

Everything’s really gone full circle.

The sandstone walls of Reform Hall loomed over me, and my gut rebelled against the task my dear parents gave me.

Pushing back the irritation flaming through me, I wedged the painting infected with dark magic under my arm as I searched for a good place to hang it. It needed to have a lot of foot traffic if it was going to spread everywhere.

Dread bottomed out in my gut at the thought of dark magic infecting the students here, but…I didn’t have a choice. It was this or immeasurable pain, and I loathed their specialty of pain.

It was the entire reason why I stopped trying to disobey them.

As I reached the perfect spot in the lobby, I held the painting of the ominous castle with dark clouds rolling above up to the wall.

Pain splintered inside of me as I noticed the dark clouds start to drip with sinister magic.

“Fuck!” I gasped out as the dark magic within me clawed at my insides viciously as if trying to burst out and meet with the painting”s cursed magic. The suffocating agony funneling through me felt like every nerve in my body was tearing itself apart.

My knees crashed against the rock floor, and the painting clattered next to me. I couldn’t breathe or move; I was frozen in anguish for a few moments of absolute fucking hell.

Dripping shadow magic formed sharp tendrils inside of my body and sliced and diced my guts—literally—as it clawed to get out of me and inside of the painting.

They’d said I absorbed the dark magic, and I had. But it was dormant, still lurking inside of me. I hadn’t expected it to show itself like this. I’d hoped to forget it even fucking existed.

“Dex?” a soft voice quelled the pain for the briefest of moments.

I glanced up to meet gorgeous red eyes, and my heart lurched. “Pandora,” I croaked her name as pain rattled my soul.

Fates, she was everything I was obsessed with—gorgeous and sweet, and I wanted to possess her completely. But she was terrified of me. Her eyes reflected a fear that matched the screams of my own soul.

But then, the air crackled with an all-consuming power, and her soul eater magic surged out of her in a heap of clouds. Her eyes turned black, and black, dense smoke billowed from between her parted lips. Unlike the last time I’d seen her magic at the surface, it swallowed the painting whole.

The dark magic inside the canvas writhed and dissipated under her magic, and the magic inside of me subsided as she devoured it.

What the…fuck? How did she just do that? Did she…stop the dark magic from attracting mine?

I slumped completely against the floor, too weak to do anything else. I couldn’t form any words.

Her magic fled the painting and moved toward me. I watched in horrified fascination as it parted my lips and slipped down my throat.

I couldn’t be afraid, not of her, and certainly not of death. But was this it? Dying at the hands of a gorgeous girl I couldn’t stop thinking about?

If that was what the Fates wanted, I’d happily oblige. Instead of death, though, I found a release I hadn’t known I needed.

The dark magic that had poisoned my body and laid dormant inside of me, a nasty fucking parasite, was consumed by her. She took away every fucking trace of it, and the corrupting of my soul sharing a body with it faded. I was lighter, so light I felt like I’d fly away. My psyche began to unravel, and my magic met its tune.

Shadows danced around me, whipping around wildly, as my magic was freed from the dripping clutches of dark magic. Tendrils lashed out of me uncontrollably.

A stray lash of my magic struck Pandora.

Her scream was a knife to my chest. Her magic retracted violently as her eyes shifted back from black to red.

“Leave me alone!” I shouted, the words a desperate plea on my tongue. I didn’t want to hurt her, and I couldn’t control any of my magic right now. My magic reserves were low, and even with her negative feelings, it was only filling them slightly. My magic sought pain, and I didn’t want to cause hers.

She recoiled, her gaze on the painting now void of dark magic. “Dex, oh my Fates.” She scrambled for her tablet. Blood trickled from a wound on her cheek that I had caused, a dark reminder of my lack of control.

Before I could apologize to her like she deserved, my breaths came in ragged gasps as the weight of my own terror suffocated me.

Shadows whispered promises of pain, and I had been the unwilling victim once again. What would they do when they realized I’d failed such a simple fucking task?

Pain.

Agony.

Terror.

Relief—Pandora.

Darkmore appeared behind her, his vengeance magic palpable in the charged air as he noticed the wound on her cheek.

He reached out and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear as he looked at her cheek. “Starlight…he did this to you.”

“Hunter, he didn’t—” She came to my defense, quickly, but it was too late. His magic boomed, striking swiftly.

A matching cut bloomed open on my cheek from his magic, another sear of pain that broke me further.

But I didn’t resist; instead, I shattered.

Sobs wrenched from my throat, and my body shook in desperation in front of her.

Pandora stood there in shock, but she reacted quicker than me. “Don’t hurt him, Hunter! He didn’t mean to do this, and he’s already in pain! I saw him in absolute agony on the ground, and my magic just exploded. It consumed something in the painting.” She placed a hand on her stomach as it gurgled, and she winced. “Fates. I think there was…dark magic in the painting.”

Hunter flinched, but he squatted down and examined the painting. “I don’t see any trace of dark magic in it.”

“How did you know?” I gasped out the words between sobs. “The dark…it was…”

Her tongue wet her bottom lip as she lowered herself onto her knees in front of me, and her fingers pushed back the sweaty pieces of my hair sticking to my forehead. “I have a theory about dark magic. I think Mother was infected…and I think you were, too. I’m pretty sure I…ate the dark magic that was inside of you.”

Hunter choked on his breath. “You…what? Your magic went inside of him?”

“Holy Fates.” I was reduced to a heap of misery, but my eyes locked on Pandora as I mumbled incoherently, “You might be like me.”

Pandora really was trouble, but if she could do something like that, she could be in a lot more trouble than anyone was prepared for.

She devoured the dark magic that dangled me over the clutches of madness. In doing so, she cleansed my soul and made my mind work in a way it hadn’t in years.

But the one thing on my mind wasn’t my freedom; it was her.