Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

A melia’s head spun as she tried to recall all of the knowledge she had acquired to break the curse, punctuated by Isolde’s constant insistence that she was not meant for this.

You will never be a countess. You are an artist from a poor family. He is using you to be rid of me. I was where you were, thinking I was special, but the family threw me away. Do not allow the same to happen to you. Together, we can be so much more.

Deep in her soul, Amelia knew that Isolde was trying to manipulate her, but the power she was sending toward her, which was now coursing through her veins, was so tempting that it was hard to deny her.

Looking at Max, however, she knew he was where her true future lay – in whatever form it would end up taking. Isolde used magic and illusion to try to convince Amelia of the way forward. Max was simply his true self and had given her everything she had ever asked of him and more. She had to believe in that and in him.

Together, they could fight Isolde’s power.

She took a breath. “Max, could you start by creating protection around us? It might not hold, but it should help shield us some from whatever Isolde tries to send our way.”

“I shall do my best,” he said, standing back, his face opening up to the world around him as his arms stretched out wide. “Fire, water, earth, air,” he murmured, seemingly gathering all of it in his arms as the room began to swirl with wind, flame, liquid, and soil. Amelia’s mouth dropped open as all of the elements began to answer his call, swimming around them. Finally, they all bonded together, forming a circle of protection and power around the two of them.

When Max opened his eyes, he seemed just as shocked as Amelia at what he had accomplished, as a purplish glow hovered in the air around them in a circle.

“I did it,” he said in astonishment.

“You did,” she said, awestruck. She had been falling for him before, but now, with this new vulnerability about him, she knew that theirs was a bond that could never be broken. She believed in it as much as she believed in all of the strength that surrounded them.

“I have the incantation ready,” she said, reaching into her pocket to find the words she had written, that she had wanted to share with Max earlier but didn't have the chance thanks to their visitors. “First, you need to call upon your ancestors for their guidance and strength. This will help to stabilize our ritual and bring all of the true memories to light.”

“Do you think that will anger Isolde?”

“She remembers only the worst of it all. Everyone has their own version of the truth, but perhaps we can piece together what actually happened with shared memories.”

“You can do that? Bring them all together?” he asked, shocked, and she felt her first dip in confidence.

“I can try.”

He had never done it before, but there was no better time than this moment.

“Very well,” he said before he took a breath and called to his ancestors out loud.

“Grandfather. And whoever else might be listening. I need your help. We must break this curse and keep our family alive. Be with us. Help us. Show us what we need.”

He closed his eyes as he seemed to hear a response, but before he could share it with Amelia, a piercing scream resounded within the room. Amelia screwed her eyes closed as she covered her ears with her hands, trying to prevent Isolde’s anger from coursing through her own body.

“She doesn’t want them here,” Amelia cried out, but Max took her hands and clenched them tightly.

“They’re here anyway,” he said, and they looked around them in shock as the spirits had manifested in near-physical form, practically floating around the room. They all appeared as they did in their portraits, and when Amelia looked at the portrait she had worked on for weeks now, she was shocked to find that Isolde was no longer within it, but had floated outside of it, the colors of her gown the only thing that was still attaching her to the canvas. She was trying to reach them, to reach Amelia, but it appeared that Max’s protective shield had worked and was keeping her out, although the purplish red glow seemed to flicker and dim every time Isolde surged toward them.

Max reached into his own pocket, pulling out the locket that Isolde had desired to possess ever since Amelia had discovered it. She felt her own pull toward it and wondered whether it was wise for Max to give it to her. He obviously had the same concern, for he paused momentarily before handing it over to Amelia.

Amelia hesitated as she wasn’t sure she would have enough power to resist, but she knew she had to trust herself. She grasped the locket in her hands and fastened the clasp around her neck. It pulsed with the eerie green light as she closed her eyes, trying to resist its intoxicating pull.

It was calling to her, threatening to draw her in and under, but then Max pulled out the signet ring that matched it and slid it onto his finger.

Amelia drew a huge intake of breath as a new kind of power surged through her. Max’s ring was not only part of the spell – it centered her, steadying the power of her locket and tying the two of them together.

“This can be yours, Isolde,” Amelia said, lifting the locket toward her. “I just need you to agree to stop fighting this – stop fighting us.”

The wind in the room began whipping around them, indicating that Isolde’s response was far from favorable.

A clanging came from beyond the room, and Amelia whipped her head toward the doorway to see what new threat could be emerging, her breath catching in her throat at the shield and swords dancing down the corridor, animated as though they were living beings.

“Bloody hell!” Max exclaimed as he swiped a hand through his hair before pushing Amelia behind him. They were still within the protective bubble, but the swords hurled themselves toward them, each one getting closer to piercing their surrounding shield.

“We need to do something!” Max shouted, and Amelia reached out, grabbing his hand to ground herself.

“Isolde,” she shouted. “You need to reconcile the past. We need to learn what happened to find the love that remains. I know it’s there. I know you can find it within yourself. Within Edward.”

She closed her eyes, reaching deep into the memories that Isolde had shared from the painting, using Max’s power through their joined hands and spirits to reach his ancestors and find the answers from them.

She took the shared memories, combining them together as she tried to assemble the truth.

She could sense shouting in the room around her from both Max and the other spirits that had invaded the music room, but she had to leave that be and trust that Max could protect her while she crafted this within her head.

Finally, when she had everything formed as properly as she could, she opened her eyes and launched the truth into the air, allowing them all to see for themselves just what had happened.

In the air above them was cast the same scene that Isolde had shown her before, but this time, there was a new perspective – that of Max’s grandfather. Edward stood at the door, distraught, as he learned that the lies of his father had led to the loss of the love of his life.

“How could you?” he shouted. “I love her!”

“It is too late,” his father said, as Isolde lay collapsed on the ground before him. “She is gone. When I told her that you no longer wanted her, her hatred for you grew and she has no wish to be near you anymore. Find another, Edward. One who will match you in every way possible.”

“I don’t care who she is or where she is from. She is the one that I want.”

“She bewitched you.”

“She did nothing of the sort.”

The two men engaged in a battle of wills until both of them were rocked apart by an explosion that ripped through the entirety of Blackwood Manor.

Isolde’s curse, the surviving part of her, wove around them in an eerie green glow, completely encompassing them until their souls were dyed with it.

“What is happening?” Edward whispered before they were launched back to Isolde’s perspective – only instead of her physical form, she had become her spirit, her pain overtaking her and fueling her entire being. All of her power had seeped into the curse she had cast as she sank into the painting, which completely consumed her as well as the spell itself.

Suddenly a roar split the air as one of the swords pierced through the bubble and into Max.

Amelia was launched back into the moment as Max’s pain invaded her body, and the images above them faded away as she could no longer maintain her focus.

“Max!” she cried as she fell on top of him, sensing him throwing up his arms in an attempt to hold onto the protective spell as Amelia ripped off a piece of her dress and held it to his shoulder, trying to staunch the blood that poured through the wound.

“You have to go, Amelia,” he cried. “She’s not listening, and I cannot allow you to be hurt in the process.”

“We’re not done yet,” she said, pushing herself up and off of him. As much as she wanted to stay and see to Max, she knew that if she didn’t end this now, there would be no coming back from this for either of them.

She practically crawled across the room until she grasped the artwork that she had painted earlier – not Isolde’s portrait, but the one of her and Max, caught together in the gardens. She held it up above her head as she began to speak the incantation she had written down, reciting it from memory.

By the light of the moon and the stars that gleam,

I call upon forces seen and unseen.

What was wronged, now set to right,

Release this soul from endless night.

Through blood and time, the ties unbind,

No more shall shadows cloud this mind.

By earth’s deep roots and winds that sigh,

By flames that burn and seas that cry.

From ancient grief and sorrows deep,

I call forth peace, in love’s name keep.

Let the curse that binds now fade away,

Bring forth the dawn, a brand new day.

With heart and will, by magic's key,

I break these chains, so mote it be.

As she said the words, the image of her and Max entwined in an embrace swirled out of the portrait in a kaleidoscope of color, and she sent all of the love she felt for Max into the spell she cast.

Max called to the elements, binding them into the incantation, until they were all together to produce a spell more powerful than any Amelia had ever felt before.

She tried to send it all toward Isolde’s portrait, where she knew the curse was held. She could only hope that Max’s ancestors were providing their own power to help bind it all together.

Power radiated from her fingers, into the locket around her neck, until she felt it lifting off of her, reaching toward the portrait.

The colors that had painted her and Max together began to mix and swirl, until she nearly couldn’t make out their forms anymore. With a crack in the air, the locket shot toward the portrait, and as Max’s protection spell began to wane and the swords threatened to collapse right through it, Amelia reached deep within herself and sent every ounce of power she had into the spell.

She could feel Isolde’s own anguish over all that had happened, and Amelia nearly thought all had been lost, that Isolde had become too powerful. Then Edward’s spirit stepped forward, his voice raised to be heard over the magic that had overtaken the room.

“Isolde!” he cried. “Isolde, I never left you. You must believe how much I always loved you. How much I still want you now. I’m sorry for what happened. Truly I am. You were treated wrongly, but my family shouldn’t have to suffer for my father’s sins or my own stupidity.”

While unsure whether Edward’s words were true or whether he was trying to diffuse Isolde, Amelia felt Isolde’s anger waver as she tried to decide whether or not to lessen the curse that surrounded them. The problem was, Amelia sensed then that the curse had become so powerful that it was now an entity within itself.

Isolde could break her ties with it, but unless Max and Amelia could counteract Isolde’s spell, it would live on.

“Isolde, I will do all within my power to make things right,” Max shouted toward her. “Take what you’d like, do what you want, just leave Amelia be. Do not make her suffer for my family’s sins.”

Amelia held Max’s hand even tighter as her stare searched his while the weapons threatened ever closer. She had no idea whether the two of them would get out of this, but it was worth it all if she was going to be with him at this last moment.

“Max,” she said, tears streaming from her eyes as she watched his own resolve turn to desperation. “Max, I love you.”

As their lips fused together, the air charged with electricity, and a bang echoed throughout the music room.

Then everything went black.