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“He’ll die if I stay, too,” she muttered, looking at him with her deeper senses, seeing the poisoned threads working their way through his system.
I can save him.
“Save him so you can kill him.” She didn’t trust a thing it said.
The warlord is still useful to me. Through him, I will control his armies.
“He would never listen to you.”
But he would do anything for his lady witch.
Kormac’s eyes closed, and his skin turned gray as his breathing got shallow. It wouldn’t be long before death took him.
It’s not too late. Merge with me and we can remove the poison. Save his life.
“At the cost of my own…” she murmured.
More like we will share the body. Two consciousnesses that will eventually become one.
Horrifying, but… it made her wonder. A glance at the glass wall and the woman within, holding the box. Her ancestor hadfound a way to stymie Koschei and save her country. It only took sacrificing her life.
One life for thousands.
One life for a special man.
She reached for the box and prayed she had the same strength as Laurella, or else she’d doomed the world.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The box felt light in her grip. Lighter than the weight of her decision at any rate.
Remove the ring.
She hesitated. It glowed and tingled fiercely, doing its best to protect, but that wouldn’t save Kormac whose shallow breathing showed he neared the end.
The ring dropped to the floor with barely a sound. She flipped open the lid of the box and from it boiled darkness. A roiling mass of threads that engulfed her, leading her to open her mouth wide in a silent scream.
Alien thoughts entered her mind, images of things she’d never seen or experienced. Death, blood, terror. Koschei’s memories were vile, and his hatred for all things living a bottomless well.
As he exulted in his freedom, she forced herself to remain focused, her mind still her own, if crowded.
Through stiff lips she muttered, “You promised to help him.”
Her own mouth replied, “It’s so easy you could have done it yourself.”
She didn’t control her hands as they hovered over Kormac, twisting and plucking the strands of sickly green threading hisaura. It bundled them until only one thick stalk remained, one that connected to his heart.
“A little bit of blood,” Koschei murmured, her voice deeper when he used it. The wound in her palm was squeezed for some drops, and she watched in fascination as he shaped the blood strands, made them into an esoteric dagger. A dagger that plunged into Kormac’s chest.
She gasped. Kormac grunted and went rigid.
“You killed him!” she exclaimed.
“Killed the poison,” Koschei corrected.
It took her a moment to realize Kormac wasn’t bleeding and the green poison turned dark before fading away. Immediately, he breathed easier, the pallor in his face already diminishing.
He’d live, and knowing that, time for her to be as brave as Laurella. She tried to reach for the dagger in her ankle sheathe only her hands wouldn’t cooperate.
