Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

VALERIA

A fter the final entry, there was a passage written in a language I didn't recognize. Only blank pages followed. I shut the book hard. Anger welled inside me—fruitless, illogical anger toward a woman who'd been dead for over a hundred years. Delfina claimed she'd kept the prophecy a secret to protect the coven, and I was sure that was true. But I was all too familiar with the Garcia psyche; I was certain a part of her did it to hide her own mistakes. It was what my mother would have done in her situation.

And, I thought dismally, if I'd been in Delfina's shoes, perhaps I would have taken a flame to the Book of Shadows myself.

By erasing all evidence of the prophecy, she'd cast her coven into dangerous ignorance, though she'd solidified the legend I'd grown up believing: Delfina Garcia, the perfect leader, the standard I could aspire to but never achieve. In reality, the woman staring down at me from the painting in my dining room had been as flawed as me. She'd tried her best and come up short. It was now my turn as high priestess. I wondered if I would fare any better.

My thoughts turned to the prophecy , a union as dangerous and destructive as… a meteor that rushes toward earth. Why did that sound eerily familiar? Why did I associate those words with Gwen?

Her poem. I struggled to recall the verses I'd read aloud the day I humiliated her on the quad. Oh, to be a meteor whose power lies not in light but in destruction.

A sick feeling washed over me. Gwen had written about the prophecy before she even regained her powers. Oh, to combust with you… Those words had been about Luke. Had she known all along? It seemed impossible. But perhaps whether she realized it or not, her path had always led to the Meteoric Union. To him.

Luke.

My mind raced. Was he being pulled by destiny like a leaf in a current? Like Levan had been before him? Keep them apart at all costs, Delfina's diary warned. If the diary was correct, he had no knowledge of the prophecy or his malevolent power. Maybe I could talk to him, warn him of the horrible fate he and Gwen shared before it was too late. The eclipse was two days away. If I was going to act, it had to be now.

Before I knew what I was doing, I clutched the book in one hand and rushed out the door.

The now-familiar sight of dead trees greeted me as I raced over my front lawn toward Luke's. My heart pounding, I swung open the iron gate and hurried up the steps to his house. But I stopped before the heavy wooden door, my breaths coming quick and ragged. Why had I gone to Luke and not Gwen? I thought of the hurt I'd seen in Gwen's eyes the last time we spoke, when I told her I couldn't trust her. The wounds were too fresh; she wouldn't listen to me now, I told myself. Luke was the logical choice.

But in my mind was an image of Levan and Delfina wrapped in a tearful embrace, everything forgiven. Some desperate part of my heart ached for that—to hold him again, to feel his arms encircle me as we wept out the madness of these past weeks. I hesitated for just a moment, then I knocked.

Footsteps sounded in the foyer, and the door swung open with a creak. Alexis Nichols stood before me in a red-and-white checkered apron. The house smelled of dough and spices. The chandelier above our heads twinkled cheerily in the morning sun.

"Valeria," he said. "Always a pleasure. Come on in."

His dark hair fell around his eyes in messy waves. The center of his brow seemed drawn into a permanent frown, as if grief for his lost power was carved on his face.

"Thanks. Is Luke home?"

Doubt whirled in my mind. What if Luke didn't believe me? He was so into Gwen, perhaps he wouldn't want to believe. The book had to be my proof. I clutched it tighter.

"He's around here somewhere," Mr. Nichols told me. "I'll call him. Can I get you anything? I'm afraid the banana bread isn't quite ready yet."

"No," I said, trying to hide the nerves in my voice. "I just really need to talk to him."

Mr. Nichols didn't reply. His mouth was frozen in a pleasant smile, but his gaze had traveled to the book I held, the diary of delfina garcia engraved across the front. Silence settled over us for an uncomfortably long moment.

"I'll just see if he's in his room—" I blurted and took a step toward the staircase.

With a decisive movement, he grabbed my arm. I whirled toward him, at first more surprised than afraid.

"What are you doing?" I cried. "Let go!"

"Looks like you've been doing some reading." His tone was calm, almost casual, but his grip around my arm was viselike.

"I didn't know she kept a diary. What did you find in there, Valeria?"

My mind flooded with panic as his fingers tightened around my arm.

"You must have read about the prophecy by now. I assume that's why you're here to speak with Luke."

He knew.

I didn't have time to think. I didn't have time for anything now but escape. Adrenaline rushed to my limbs and I flailed, scratched, kicked at him. But he was stronger than me. He held me easily.

"I'll take that book now," he said. "Who knows what other nuggets of wisdom it holds."

He reached for it with his free hand. Enough . The word rang in my head like a gong . I didn't need to fight him with muscle and fists. Through my fear, I held an image of my mother, coffee cup in hand, and I let the sunfire rise, let the flames engulf my heart. An orange glow built in my open palm and, in a rush of heat, I launched it at him as hard as I could. He flew backward, releasing me and tumbling across the floor.

A little wave of pride washed over me. I'd controlled the sunfire, even as fear pounded in my chest. But there was no time to revel in what I'd done. This was my chance. I turned toward the door, but something made me hesitate. If I left now, I might never know the truth. I turned back to him, one arm extended, ready to hit him again.

"Okay, you better tell me what the hell is going on," I demanded. "And if you don't, I have plenty more fire where that came from."

He picked himself off the floor slowly, removing his apron in a little cloud of flour and dust. His dirty hair hung over his face. He brushed it aside with one white-powdered hand.

That was when I saw his eyes. There was power in them, a power I recognized. How could I have missed it before? The light that had gone out in my parents' eyes the day they lost their magic still shone in his.

"The overconfidence of youth," he mused. "My dear, the last time you faced me, I nearly put you in the ground."

Before I could speak, before I could move, he threw something at me—something dark, amorphous. A shadow.

It struck me and it felt like death on my skin, cold and devouring. It coiled itself around my body, a serpent the color of night, writhing and tightening its grip. I fell to my knees, the stench of death and misery filling my lungs. It was the same oppressive aura that had clung to the dead trees, to Petra's body.

The Shadow Spell. He was the witch from the forest.

"You!" I choked out the accusation through my pain. " You killed Petra! She found out about the prophecy. She was going to tell—so you killed her!"

"Yes, but don't worry, sweetheart, I won't kill you," he said, his voice like rotten honey. "Just give me the book, and everything will be all right."

A thick rope of black stretched from his extended arm, trapping me in its coils, draining the life from me. No. Through my panic, I knew one thing: I could not give up the book. If he wanted it, there had to be something important inside—something that threatened him.

I thought of the indecipherable words that followed Delfina's last passage and dug my nails into the ancient leather. From within me, I drew fire. I couldn't hit him as hard as the first time, not with the Shadow Spell writhing around me, but I narrowed my focus and shot an arrow of flames straight at the point between his dark blue eyes. As it struck him, his hands flew to his face. The inky mass suffocating me dissolved as he cried out in pain.

I sucked in air and struggled to my feet. He would recover quickly. I had to leave— now .

I turned toward the front door and froze. Luke and Gwen stood in the doorway. How long had they been there? My eyes darted between them.

"Mr. Nichols has gone crazy. We have to go."

I stepped toward the door, but they didn't move. My heart fluttered like a trapped bird, but I squared off in front of them, bracing for whatever came next.

"You knew about the prophecy," I said, though I wasn't sure now to which of them I spoke.

The words hung in the air like dust waiting to settle.

Luke replied, "My family has always known. You can't bury a secret as powerful as that. Delfina Garcia was a fool for trying."

A plume of darkness curled in his palm.

"Get out of my way, Luke," I said. "I'm warning you."

I summoned the sunfire once more, but it was Gwen who hit me first. Her moonfire flashed across the air between us, sending me sprawling on the floor. The two of them stared down at me, Luke's brow raised in cocky defiance, Gwen's gaze as cold as night air.

"Gwen—you're a part of this?" I cried.

"Don't act so shocked," she replied. "You said yourself I couldn't be trusted. Guess you were right."

I had spent so long doubting her. Why was I surprised to learn my suspicions were correct? And yet the betrayal stung like the spot between my ribs where her spell had struck. I pushed myself to my feet, powered by the sheer will to escape.

I sent a wave of fire flying at the figures in the doorway. They staggered back, but they were up faster than I expected. The moonfire crackled at Gwen's fingertips. A black serpent coiled at Luke's wrist, ready to strike. Beads of sweat glistened at his temples as he held control of the spell. Malevolent magic drained him, I understood, just like it did Gwen. No wonder the promise of unlimited power was so enticing to him.

"You really think you can defeat all three of us? That's the Garcia narcissism I know and love," Luke sneered.

Mr. Nichols still lurked behind me. Luke and Gwen barred my path. He was right. There was no way I could take them all. But as I watched the sunlight dance off the crystal chandelier, a plan coalesced in my mind.

"I thought Delfina and Levan destroyed all the evidence of the prophecy," I said, taking a tiny step backward.

A sly smile crossed Luke's lips.

"It's true, Levan never told his children about malevolent magic or the prophecy in our blood. He swore to rid himself of all memories of that terrible temptation ," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "But Levan's health failed in his old age. On the day he died, he burned a letter here in our hearth. His son was overcome with curiosity, and stole the letter from the fire without his father noticing. It was from a woman, written very long ago. She told of her undying love for him, how she ached for him every day. But she also wrote about the malevolent magic they shared. She begged him to return her power, even told him how to do it. And she wrote about the prophecy, the ritual that would unite them, the eclipse, the meteor shower," He closed his eyes as if recalling the words. "‘ Our bloodlines are forever bound. If the prophecy does not come to pass in this generation, my darling, then it will in another. Fate cannot be denied. '"

"A love letter," I murmured . A love letter engulfed in flames. Petra had gotten it right again.

"Exactly." Luke cocked his head curiously at me. "It contained some pretty dangerous information. So why would Levan keep a letter like that for all those years? It wasn't for the parts about malevolent magic—he already knew that stuff. I'll tell you my theory. He held onto it for Elizabeth's words of affection, the promise that she thought of him every day." Luke now spoke as if these revelations were nails he meant to drive into my skin. "You see, in the end, he never loved Delfina. He only loved her ."

The words did hurt, but I held his gaze furiously.

"Why now? If your family had the spell to restore magic, why didn't they give the Fosters their power back generations ago?"

"The thing was"—Luke sighed as if suddenly bored with my questions—"when Levan's son rescued that letter from the fire, the flames had already begun to consume it. The signature was burned away. All my family knew was that we were destined to unite with one whose magic had been revoked, a witch forced to live as a Mundane. Each generation of my family watched the sky for clues to the bloodline that was bound to ours, clues to when the Meteoric Union would take place. But there was no sign from the heavens, and no eclipse came. We began to wonder if it was just a myth, the ramblings of a madwoman long ago.

"We concealed our malevolent magic for almost two centuries. Even the strongest witch needs a coven, and we knew we'd be cast out if we revealed our true power. My own mother didn't know until I was thirteen. I was angry at her for some stupid, childish thing, and this dark force just flowed out of me. I was as surprised as she was when it knocked her down in pain. She told me it was bad magic, something I should never use. But it was too late—I was already in love with it. My dad understood, though. He told me about the prophecy that very day, and we swore I would be the one to fulfill it. The eclipse had already been predicted, and even then, we could hear the whisper of meteors in the distant sky. Of course, my mom didn't understand. How could she? My parents fought about it. She said as long as we chose malevolent magic, she couldn't be a part of our lives."

I remembered Luke as a lonely boy, hiding away in a ghost town, weeping the loss of his mother. Now I knew why she left. The day I fell in love with him, he already loved malevolent magic.

"I was devastated," Luke went on. "If my own mother abandoned me because of my power, who would ever love me? I decided I'd be alone forever. The eclipse was only a few years away, and I had no way of finding the witch who shared my destiny. A part of me held out hope, but hope can be a frightening thing. So I buried it so deep inside I almost forgot it was there at all." He fixed his eyes on me now, but I looked away, dreading his next words. "And in the depths of that despair, I started dating you, Valeria."

Tears filled my eyes. "Why?"

"Because sometimes it's easier to be alone with someone else."

So that was it. He'd never loved me. I'd just been something for him to cling to as he fell. My eyes met his, and it was as if all the light had disappeared from the room. The blue in their center was like the night sky, a freezing place where you can't breathe. The boy I knew was gone. In fact, in one hideous instant, I realized he'd always been the cold, hostile person I now saw before me. I didn't know there was more inside me left to break, but looking at him now, I felt the last piece of my heart shatter.

"After our dates, I'd come home and stare at that letter, reading and rereading the promise that there was someone out there who shared everything with me, even malevolent magic."

I inched backward again and they stepped toward me, instinctively closing the distance. The chandelier cast tiny rainbows across the floor between us.

Just a little further.

"How did you find out it was Gwen?" I asked.

"Malevolent energy had been building in the air for months as the eclipse grew nearer. The stars hum with it. One night, they showed me the way. As I gazed at the constellations, Gwen's face appeared to me, and I knew." He smiled as if recalling some precious memory. "All those years of despair were for nothing. Fate was always going to reveal my path. Gwen and I are destined for this. Nothing can change it." He shot me a meaningful look. "Nothing can stop it."

"So you gave her her power back."

"Yes, the very next day. It was a beautiful spell, probably the gentlest thing you can do with malevolent magic. All restoration, no sacrifice."

"And then you took our parents' magic." I stepped back again, letting them close in.

Mr. Nichols spoke from behind me, his voice thick with condescension. "We didn't want your mother and the others interfering with our plans. Now they never will. Of course, I had to act like I'd lost my magic too. I suppose I played my role well, but I must admit it feels good to get everything out in the open. I've spent far too many years hiding the superiority of my family's power. When my son achieves the Meteoric Union, we'll never have to hide again."

How could I have been so stupid? I'd seen Mr. Nichols, talked to him several times since this began, but whenever I was in this house, I'd always been too focused on Luke to pay him much attention.

"We let the younger generation keep their magic," Luke cut in. "Like I said, even the strongest witch needs a coven. Now Gwen and I will rule yours. Our love will be eternal, and our malevolent magic will be limitless."

"You weren't worried I'd ruin your plans?"

"You foolish, self-important girl," Mr. Nichols said. "You were never a threat to us. You're not the powerhouse your mother was. We figured you'd be too busy fixing your lipstick to notice what was really going on. By the time you looked up from the mirror, it would be too late. And we were right."

It was like he'd reached into my heart, extracted the worst beliefs I held about myself, and put them on display. I stole a glance upward, my limbs trembling with rage and humiliation. I had them where I wanted them. It was now or never.

"Stop messing around and get the book, Luke," Mr. Nichols commanded.

The dark coils in Luke's palm writhed. I knew I should make my move, but I hesitated, turning to Gwen despite myself. If I didn't speak to her now, I might not get another chance.

"All right, I'll give up the book," I lied. "But first I want to hear from Gwen."

"What do you need to know?" she asked with flat indifference.

"Have you always known? Even back…in the old days. Did you know?" My voice wavered with unexpected emotion.

She shook her head. "I didn't know. But all my life, I've had this sense that I was destined for catastrophe. I'd either be crushed beneath it, or I'd be the one doing the crushing."

"And then Luke asked you to complete the ritual with him and you decided to dole out the devastation?"

"It was very romantic," Luke interrupted with a crooked grin. "I popped the question and she said yes."

He smiled at her, warmth returning to his chilly blue eyes. A strange understanding hit me. He really loved Gwen. Being with her wasn't just another step in his plan. He looked at her like a man who'd found something he'd always been searching for, something that felt like home. In some insane way, they really were soulmates.

"I had two paths before me," Gwen said to me. "Miserable loner or dark queen with limitless power. Which one did you expect me to choose?"

"Once I would have expected you to choose the kinder path. But that was the Gwen I knew a long time ago."

At this, a bitter laugh escaped her throat. "You're right. That was the Gwen you knew, and you treated her like shit. Did you know I used to run the other way when I saw you in the halls at school? You used to be the scariest thing in the world to me, Valeria. You could crush me with a word, with a flash of your brilliant smile. You held a metaphorical knife to my heart for years, and you cut me whenever it pleased you. So don't blame me if I don't want to be that Gwen ever again. Blame yourself."

With a flash of white light, her moonfire struck me, this time in the shoulder, sending a jolt of cold lightning through my veins. I hit the ground. I felt as if her words, not her magic, had knocked all the air from my lungs. As I knelt before her, I couldn't come up with a single reason why she should show me mercy now.

When I finally spoke, I spoke to her unselfishly for the first time in a very long time.

"You're right, Gwen," I said. "But please believe me when I say you will not come back from this. The night of the Meteoric Union, you will lose your soul. Are you prepared for that?"

She didn't respond, but her pale features remained fixed in an expression of cool arrogance.

"Enough talk, kids." Mr. Nichols clapped his hands, the sound reverberating through the vast house. "The book!"

The scent of burnt bread drifted from the kitchen. The chandelier's fine glass pieces sparkled above. It was strange, I thought, how something of such delicate beauty could hang in such a dangerous house.

"No," I told him.

The serpent at Luke's wrist struck, and my fire rose to meet it. The shadow broke against my flames, dissipating like smoke. But in the wake of the first Shadow Spell, the next came quickly from behind. Mr. Nichols hit me in the throat, making my eyes burn with the stench of death.

Through the fog of agony, my gaze fell on Gwen. She looked young, I thought hazily, the sad little girl I'd turned my back on, loneliness hanging off her like moss from a tree. Luke hit me again, his shadow tightening around my chest. The weight of both spells was worse than I could have imagined. I had no fire left within me. I felt my heartbeat slow.

Mr. Nichols's footsteps approached from behind me. My vision blurred, but I held the chandelier in my gaze, concentrating on the chain that suspended it. With the last of my strength, I pulled. It began to sway, hundreds of crystal pieces shimmering above Luke and Gwen. In a shower of glass and metal, it came down upon them both.

The second it fell, the shadows that wrapped around my body dissolved as Luke crumpled to the floor and Alexis ran to him. Gasping for air, I scrambled to my feet. Luke and Gwen lay dazed beneath the chandelier's twisted gold frame, their blood mixing with crystal on the floor.

I staggered past them, glass scattering beneath my feet. Still gripping the book, I left them in the midst of that ruin, slammed the door behind me, and ran.