Page 146 of Revenant

But we don’t.

I pull back just a little bit, staring up into his onyx and amber eyes. “Let’s put a pin in this. Focus on tonight and tomorrow we’ll…figure all this out.” I offer him a soft smile, and to my relief, he does the same and places a kiss on my forehead.

Thankfully the room is just how I left it hours ago. Seemingly untouched and the grimoire hasn’t been moved, still tucked safely behind the pipe. Elias stacks a few abandoned crates together, creating a makeshift table for me to place the book and mirror on.

Elias checks his watch anxiously. “It’s almost time. Where are the others?” There is only a short window of time we have to do this. Each eclipse time is different, but there’s only about an hour when it’s at its peak.

In the grand scheme of things, it seems like plenty of time. But I’ve never done a spell to this magnitude, and for all I know, I’ll need every minute.

“Zara and Azalea have the alumni locked in the banquet hall?” I confirm, wanting to double check nothing’s been missed.

“Yes. I made sure before we came down to find you. They came at the perfect time, considering we all needed to get out of there anyway.”

I give him a curt nod, unable to respond as the anxiety sets in. Their freedom is solely in my hands. If I can’t pull this off…I don’t know how they’ll ever look at me without thinking I’m a failure. They’ve been let down far too many times in the centuries since they’ve turned.

I hope the lessons with Eldritch were enough. I hope I’m strong enough.

“We can just start without them,” Elias says, nearly bouncing as the reality of what’s to come sets in.

It’s odd they’re not here. I have a sinking feeling in my stomach that something happened. Maybe it wasn’t the best decision to leave them all there? For all I know, Bastian held Eryx down while the others beat him to a bloody pulp.

Why does that image make me want to hurl?

Shaking my head, I push the image and these unresolved feelings away, focusing on the task at hand. I open the grimoire to the page I bookmarked and pull the mirror out of my clutch. My finger traces over the golden frame, wishing I could talk to Mom right now, wanting her to give me one of her famous pep talks I used to hate.

Lost in thought, I don’t hear Elias cross the room before his hand gently grazes my arm. “We have to start, kitten.” The corner of my lip upturns at the nickname. Blowing out a nervous breath, I put the mirror beside the book, silently willing them to just connect like magnets and make this thing a hell of a lot easier.

Using the corner of the crate, I push my palm deep into it, swiping down quickly to break the skin. I hiss from the sting and immediately whip my gaze to Elias, whose eyes are trained on the blood pooling in my palm.

My hand hovers over the glass and I make a fist, watching as the blood drips onto the surface, igniting the iridescent hue I’ve only seen once before. I grab the scarf that was wrapped around the mirror and tie it around my hand, applying pressure to stop the bleeding.

I close my eyes and tilt my head back, murmuring the words from the grimoire I’ve spent countless hours memorizing.

Exsolvere e vaso, flectere ad voluntatem meam.

It starts off slow, a steady warmth deep within my core. I chant the spell like a mantra, breathing through the heaviness as the magic from the alumni witches above starts to trickle to me. Their magic feels foreign, as if I shouldn’t be taking what isn’t mine.

My chest heaves as screams sound through the ceiling. My brows pinch together in concern. “I thought nobody was going to get hurt?”

“They’ll be fine, just focus. You’re doing great.” Elias’s voice is like an anchor in the storm. Power floods my veins, rushing in and out of me like a tidal wave.

“Something’s wrong,” I tell him, my hands flying to my head as the pressure builds to intolerable levels. Dust and debris cascade from the ceiling, as though my ancestors are warning me to stop.

Chaos erupts, pounding echoes from above as the people in the ballroom beg to be set free. But they won’t. The Hollowed is powerful, ruthless to a fault, and will stop at nothing to ensure everything goes as planned.

We made sure of it.

I peel my eyes open, forcing them to read the second half of the spell.

Solvite maledictum sanguine meo effuso.

I fight each word, pushing them through clenched teeth. As the last word leaves me, I fall to my knees in agony, screaming as the last drop of power enters my being.

Then it explodes from me like hellfire.

I fall to the side, eyes slowly blinking as I watch the magic pulse out in waves. Suddenly, it all stops. The screaming, the burning in my stomach, the pounding in my head. And finally, everything goes black.

“Alicent. Alicent, you have to wake up.” Elias’s voice filters in as I come back to consciousness. My eyes flutter open, his face blurry at first, before finally coming into focus.