Page 21 of King’s Kismet

“I’m worried I’ll fuck up,” I amended. “I’m concerned that I’ll hurt them, and that isn’t my wish.”

“What is a little pain when they can be themselves again?” he challenged.

I crossed my arms over my chest, though it felt silly while I was upside down. “What if I make it worse? What if I try to fix the magic and end up killing them?”

“That is an outcome they’ll happily accept for a chance at freedom.”

“I don’t accept it, Pete,” I snapped, then whispered, “I won’t hurt them.”

He shook me a bit before setting me on my feet, like he wanted to rattle the sense back into me. “Then don’t.”

I took a deep breath, rolled my shoulders back, and nodded. “Then I won’t.”

“You can do this,” he encouraged.

“And if I can’t?” I countered, admittedly sounding stubborn.

Pete ruffled my hair once more before resting his trunk on my shoulder. “We will still be thankful that you tried. Do not dismiss how grateful they will feel.”

“Okay,” I mumbled. “I can do it. It’ll be simple. Just reverse the magic, untie the knots, and—”

“Sloane,” he interrupted.

“What?”

“We both know you won’t follow the rules you set. Stop trying to make a plan,” he advised. “Just do it.”

I huffed at him. “Fine. Stand behind me. And open your mind. I need to see the magic one more time.”

The pedmar stepped around me, a slight breeze of magic hitting my back before his gigantic human-ish hand draped over my shoulder. His deep, rumbling voice ruffled strands of my hair the same way his shifted form did when he blew breath from his trunk.

“Take what you need.”

So, I did.

I recalled the horizontal spray of dark purple magic from his memory. The moment it hit his back, knocking him onto the forest floor... His determination to return to his village.

I pulled the last vestiges from his reservoir inside me, the tiny fragments my fae and I weren’t able to dig out. And I bundled the volatile curse into a tight sphere in my mind’s eye.

Pete’s recovery had as much to do with mine and Vaughn’s magical influence as it did with the environment... But I knew I wouldn’t be able to bring the Giant’s Causeway to the pedmar, or vice versa.

Which was why I had prepared for this moment a few days ago.

I hadn’t let Alric play inside my mind for so long because I wanted to be a courteous host and show him around my circus.

No.

I’d needed him frazzled so I could leech his memories and magical signature.

I needed that to free the pedmars.

It was why I stood in this field with them, with Pete, and no one else. I couldn’t predict how risky this Save the Pedmars operation would be, so I came alone.

But now that I was here, I refused to hurt them, refused to have a trial-and-error experiment on each one until I got the magical recipe right.

This was a one-and-done kind of deal.

I spun and warped my magic, mixing the darkest purples I possessed with some of the black angelic essence and the pinkish demonic power, until I created something that ate away at the sphere in my mind’s eye.