Chapter 7

Actually, it turned out to be just one Cursed One, but it was the biggest, meanest, ugliest one yet. It charged forward like an enraged beast, broken chains jingling like bracelets from its thick wrists. I tried to freeze it in its tracks, just like I'd done to the other two, but nothing happened.

Ok, so that's not entirely true. In fact, a lot happened. After I failed to stop the Cursed One, it backhanded me—hard. For a few terrifying moments, my body flew through the air, helpless, flailing. When I slammed into the Spirit Tree, I knew how all those insects felt when they splatted against the windshield of the Government supply trucks.

Something bubbled under the tree's bark—then exploded.

White-hot heat flashed through my body like a wildfire.

And just when the pain began to fade, it hit me again.

And again.

And again.

Relentless and merciless, the searing whip slashed me.

Wave after wave after wave, the river of fire split down my nerves, burning me from the inside out.

I cried.

And I screamed.

And finally I curled up into a tiny ball and surrendered to the pain.

And that's when it stopped.

"Are you all right?"

I opened my eyes, but I couldn't see anything. The whole world looked like a blotchy watercolor painting.

"You were screaming for over five minutes," the invisible stranger spoke out from the blurry abyss.

Only five minutes? It felt like someone had looped the end of the world on infinite repeat.

"I couldn't risk removing you from the tree."

I rose awkwardly to my feet, my vision swirling, my bones grinding in pitiful protest. I felt like I'd been run over and then electrocuted—repeatedly.

"What happened?" I croaked. My voice sounded like a squeaky wagon rattling over shifting gravel.

Hands steadied me before I stumbled. The invisible stranger's hands. They felt smoother than I'd expected from a Knight.

Wow, what a weird and random thing to think about after almost dying.

"You didn't almost die," he told me.

Great, so now my internal monologue was broken? It was really inconvenient not knowing if I was only talking to myself.

"As soon as you hit the Spirit Tree, it lit up like the sun," he said.

I could see again. I looked down at my hands. Slim streams of light coursed under my skin—from the tips of my fingers, up my arms, all the way down my legs. Warmth lingered in my veins, a calmer and cooler warmth than the firestorm of agony that had raged inside of me just a few moments ago.

"You were stuck to the tree."

The tree!

Still shivering, I circled the Spirit Tree, searching for Dante and Nevada. I found them lying on the ground, eyes still closed. Their chains were broken. Glowing tendrils of magic crisscrossed their bodies like cocoons.

I heard the invisible stranger walk up behind me. "Don't worry. They're fine," he assured me. "They're still asleep. It takes most people a few minutes to wake up."

"That was…the Blending!" I realized.

"Yes," he replied.

I moved slowly. I was still a tad dizzy. "It hurt." I reached up to clutch my head. "Was it supposed to hurt like that?"

"No. It's supposed to feel wonderful."

I cringed. "I can't do anything right."

"It's not your fault. It hurt so much because you already have magic," he told me. "Your body had to sort that out."

"I didn't mean to…" I shook out my hands. They were still tingling, like fireflies were nipping at them.

"You didn't mean to actually go through the Blending," he finished for me. "You only wanted the General to think you had."

I blinked. "How…"

"How did I know about your plan to become a Knight?" he said. "Like you, I have a talent for spotting the obvious. You don't need the spirits to give you magic if you already have magic. That means you already have a magical mark, somewhere on your body."

I set my right hand on my hip. My mark was there, right above my hipbone. It had started out small, so small that I'd thought it was just a birthmark. But over the years it had grown. By the time I'd realized I possessed magic, my mark was an undeniable sign of my otherness.

Of course I'd hidden it away under long t-shirts and pants with thick waistbands. There was no place in this world for someone who had been born with magic.

"After tonight, I won't have to hide it anymore. I can wear it proudly." I tried to laugh at the irony of it all, but I only managed a wheezy cough. "When the General returns to pick up the Chosen, I'll show him my magic mark. He won't know that I've had it all along. He'll think the spirits have blessed me. And then he'll have to bring me to the Castle with the others."

"Your plan is to pretend you cheated the system to gain magic. But you've had magic all along," he said quietly.

"That was the plan." I rubbed my hands up and down my sore arms. "I wasn't supposed to get an electric shock of the spirits' magic juice in the process." I dropped my arms to my sides. "By the way, what do you think that did to me?"

"Hard to say. Maybe it did nothing."

"You don't sound very convinced of that."

"Big, burning jolts of magic tend not to come with zero consequences whatsoever," he said, the shrug evident in his voice.

I brushed my long braid off my shoulder. "Well, as long as my hair doesn't fall out and I don't turn into an evil supervillain."

He didn't say a thing.

"Wait, you don't actually think either of those things will happen, do you?" I took a firm grip of my braid; it was easier to hold on to than intangible things like virtue or kindness.

"I doubt you'll go bald or evil, but that doesn't mean there will no fallout from this experience. Magic always leaves a mark," he said. "Even if you can't see it."

Well, that certainly was foreboding.

I looked around. "What happened to that big Cursed One?"

"The monster is gone," replied the invisible stranger. "Its soul is at peace now."

"I hope there aren't any more of them out here."

"There aren't. I checked while you were…busy."

Busy. That was one way of putting it.

I must have flinched because he added quickly, "I'm sorry. I couldn't pull you away from the tree. If I'd broken the magical connection, it might have killed you."

"It's not your fault." I shivered. Now that the wildfire in my body had finally burned out, I felt so cold. "This happened because of me." I squeezed my arms to my chest. "And my stupid plan."

"Actually, it was a pretty decent plan. And it would have worked too, if not for the Cursed Ones."

"What were they even doing out here?" I wondered. "We're deep inside Bayshore. They would have had to make it past dozens of towns, dozens of fences to get here. Unless…" I stared out at the bay beyond the swamp. "Maybe they swam here?"

"The Cursed Ones are afraid of the water," he told me. "They can't swim. Their bodies are too dense. They simply sink to the bottom."

"So, I guess they can't breathe underwater?"

"No. Thankfully, that is not one of their powers."

"Yeah." I shivered. "Thankfully."

My glance flickered to an old, crooked tree at the edge of the swamp. Someone had carved a crude drawing of a Cursed One into the cracked trunk, right next to the words, ‘Long Live the Rebellion'. It seemed a lot more people snuck into the Forbidden Zone than I'd thought.

I shook my head and looked away from the tree. "That last Cursed One was different than the other two. Bigger. Crazier."

"It was older. The longer someone has been infected, the more the Curse changes them," the invisible stranger explained. "Every day, they grow bigger, stronger, more savage, better at hunting. Their sense of smell improves. The old ones can smell a human from many kilometers away."

"There was something else different about it. The big Cursed One was wearing chains around its wrists," I remembered.

"Yes. I noticed that too."

"It's almost like…" A flash of red amongst the green leaves drew my attention.

I started walking toward the forest at the edge of the swamp. The muffled footsteps told me the invisible stranger was keeping pace right beside me.

"I know how the Cursed Ones got here," I said quietly, as I plucked a bright red scarf from a tree branch.

Then I ventured deeper into the woods, peeling back the foliage to find the discarded remains of a pair of shoes. They lay in long shreds, like something had split them open from the inside. A few paces further, there was another ruined pair of shoes—and beyond that, a tattered bundle of brown fabric that had once been a shirt.

"The scarf belonged to Finn," I said. "And the shirt was Sean's."

"Who are Finn and Sean?"

"They are…they were my classmates. Until a Cursed One got them." My throat constricted. "And made them Cursed Ones too." I turned away from the graveyard of clothing, all that remained of the two boys' humanity. "Those first two Cursed Ones we faced, they must have been Finn and Sean. They snuck into the Forbidden Zone tonight. They couldn't have been more than a few minutes ahead of me when the Cursed One got them." I shook my head. "How could the Curse work so fast? How could it strip away their humanity so fast?"

I felt a hand on my shoulder. "That's how it works: fast," he said. "Sixteen years ago, the Curse nearly wiped out humanity before we even knew what was happening. I'm afraid that once the Cursed One caught the boys' scent, it was already too late for them. People with magic are immune to the Curse; those without are not."

"This was no accident." I squeezed my fists so hard, it hurt. "The big Cursed One was wearing chains. Someone must have brought it here and tied it up, knowing it would eventually break free of its chains…" My thoughts snagged on a single phrase, a single memory. "Have you heard of someone called the Black Knight?"

"Knights don't wear black," the invisible stranger replied.

"I know. You guys prefer more inspiring colors for your armor. But earlier tonight, just before Finn and Sean went into the Forbidden Zone, they mentioned ‘the Black Knight'. They said their whole plan to unchain the Chosen from the Spirit Tree and take their place had come from the Black Knight. Whoever this Black Knight is, they tricked Finn and Sean, preying on their desperation for magic in order to lure them out here, where a Cursed One was waiting to get them. The question is why? Why would anyone want to create more Cursed Ones?"

"I don't know," he said. "But this isn't the first incident like this."

"Wait, so this has happened before?"

"Yes. Today, there have been many attacks by Cursed Ones on humans, all across the world. These attacks happened inside protected towns. Somehow the Cursed Ones made it past the town walls without anyone seeing anything."

"That's why you're here," I realized. "In case it happened here too."

"Yes. I've prevented several attacks today. I've searched each site for clues of who is behind this, but so far I've found nothing."

"There has to be something here." I took a step toward him. "I will help you search."

"Oh, I'm afraid you have bigger things to worry about right now."

"Like what?"

"Like preparing yourself for the General's arrival. You do still wish to go through with your plan, don't you? You still want to go to the Fortress and become a Knight?"

Oh, right. I'd gotten so riled up by the Cursed Ones that I'd totally forgotten the reason I'd come here in the first place.

"Yes, I still want that," I said.

"Then you'd better hurry back to the Spirit Tree."

A few musical notes danced on the wind.

"I'm sorry. I have to go. I have a lot of ground to cover and not much time to do it." The invisible stranger fell silent for a moment before adding, "But before I leave you, I need you to promise me that you won't tell anyone I was here."

"Why?"

"Please. Just promise me."

"Ok, I promise."

"Thank you."

"How do you know you can trust me to keep my promise?"

"Motive is more important than merit."

I frowned at him. "What does that mean?"

"It means I know you always do the right thing because it's the right thing, not because you want to score so-called merit points with people," he told me. "So if you ever need me, call on me and I'll be there."

I was about to ask him how I was supposed to call on him when I didn't even know his name, but the change in the wind's song told me he was already gone.