Page 149 of Tracking Snow

The treatment never erased her power. It hacked through it, leaving a severed piece buried deep inside her. The edges are rough and scarred, every pathway beyond it shriveled from years without use.

All this time, her magic has been reaching for what was cut away.

I wrap my magic around the broken part of her.

Then I make it grow.

Snow jerks against me with a gasp.

Power pushes through the scar tissue in a bright rush, rebuilding every path the treatment destroyed. It spreads through her chest, down her arms, into the tips of her fingers. Stronger with every beat of her heart.

The lights overhead flicker. Metal instruments lift from the floor. Heat rolls through the room, followed by a burst of cold that turns our breath white between us.

"No! Stop him." Mother's voice comes from behind the row of monitors, pitched for the guards. "Sedate him. Now."

Boots move toward us.

Every light in the ceiling flares white and dies.

Darkness drops over the lab, total and ringing. My power keeps pouring. After so many years held down, it pours past the edges of us and out into the room, and I couldn't call it back if I wanted to.

I don't want to.

The dark fills with sound. A tray goes over. Glass bursts against tile. Boots scatter in every direction, and a man grunts, and a body meets furniture with a heavy thud.

"Lights!" Mother's voice climbs an octave. "Get the lights!" A crash swallows whatever she says next. Somewhere in the black, two men collide and curse each other for it.

Snow grips my hoodie with hands that should still be trapped at her sides.

She phased through the restraints. A laugh breaks from her lips against mine. Shocked and breathless and so completely Snow that my heart pounds harder.

I can feel her newly grown power reach for every trace of magic around her. Speed. Illusion. Dreams. Transformation. All of us reflected back through her, bright and alive in the dark.

The last pathway knits closed. The pressure behind my ribs eases, draining into her, finding its level.

The lights flare back to life row by row.

I pull away far enough to see her. Magic burns in her eyes.

Mother taught me to look at power and see an affliction. Something dirty that spread through the body and ruined everything it touched. She was wrong.

Snow stands before me with her magic restored, blazing with everything stolen from her.

She has never been more beautiful.

"Abra Cadabra," she whispers.

Chapter 46

Welcome Back

SNOW

Seven’s kiss blows through my mind, body, and soul, leaving every part of me lit up.

The fire in my belly roars.

For years, I thought it was hunger. Envy. Some pathetic need to make myself special by getting close to people who were.