She closed her eyes.
The earth below my feet, she thought, bringing her mind to focus. The molecules of air I’m breathing. She drew in a deep, steadying breath. Focus on the purpose. The wind picked up, whistling a sad tune as the full moon shone its cold light.
“I’m going to use you as the conduit,” she breathed out. “My magic will flow through you and into the totem. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
He nodded mutely.
“At the exact moment my magic goes through you and into the totem, I’m going to use the last vestiges to destroy the brush. And the totem will be channeled into the earth where Julian is buried.”
“Won’t it drain you?” Seth demanded. For the first time in as long as she could remember, he sounded scared.
“We’ll be linked. You’ll have double the magic, but we’ll be united as one. All of our magic—together. And when my magic separates and leaves you, the curse won’t know the difference between magic and life. The debt will be fulfilled.”
“That didn’t really answer my question,” Seth said in a shaky voice.
“I’ll be fine.”
The shadows looming from Old Bailer seemed to turn corporeal and loom over them. The towering birches that surrounded the property shimmered silver in the moonlight and rattled their leaves in the ever-growing wind. She closed her eyes again. Smelled the fresh paint from Old Bailer; the grass beneath her feet; and there, Seth. She breathed him in. The comfort of him. Her brother. Her twin. Around them, Florence, Kay, Tava, Anne, and Brian all nodded to each other. A dozen feet back, Sage stood encircled in Raquel’s arms.
The well deep inside of Sadie had been building for what seemed like her whole life. And she tapped into it. Drawing it out. Directing it down the bond between her and Seth. And then she heard the voices.
They were coming from Seth. It was a cacophony. A symphony. She opened her eyes and his face was a mask of pain. The magic was pushing him through his own personal hell. His face was twisted in agony, eyes shut tight, and even in the dark, she could see his skin had turned a ghoulish white.
The breeze picked up and corralled into a wind so strong it whipped Sadie’s hair against her face, stinging her cheeks. And then she felt the darkness seeping from Seth into her. She pushed back. He was the conduit. He had to hold all the magic, or it wouldn’t work.
But the voices kept coming and they were hers now. The horrors, her own. The living, waking hell sitting on her chest, suffocating. The void called to her. The blackness. The demons of despair and depression.
“Sadie,” she heard her mother shout her name, but it was an echo in the mist, eaten up by the endless abyss.
Kay was praying, tears streaming silently down her cheeks.
The air grew savage, and shadowy talons sliced at their ankles, trying to break through the circle they formed. The siblings closed rank, drawing closer to the twins, and then they heard the voices too. Felt the wretched weight of misery that Seth had been plagued by.
Was this what he had been dealing with? No wonder he’d left.
She couldn’t fight it. She had never been strong like he was. The pit beckoned, and she longed to crawl into it.
“Sadie,” Seth screamed her name, and her eyes, half glazed, turned to her twin. Her brother. Her best friend. This wasn’t for her. It was for him. Family was strength.
“We’re here,” Anne shouted.
“We’re with you,” Brian echoed. His features were hard, but they did nothing to hide the panic burning in his eyes.
And she felt them. She could taste their fear, feel their pain, and sense their secrets. They beckoned her to look, whispered what power it would give her. The pull was too much. But with Seth’s magic flowing through her, she also knew what they needed. And that was for Sadie to be strong. To use them. Lean on them.
She focused on their combined energy and used every ounce of willpower to fight through the darkness with her own light. She poured that light into Seth. Every last speck of her magic. Her skin grew clammy, her hands shook, her knees trembled. The ground between them ignited with green flames, and Sadie, in her haze, felt the same malicious presence she had at the edge of the woods. Not her grandfather, but the other spirit. And the fire licked closer, and sweat dripped down Sadie’s face.
It was almost gone. She could feel it evaporating, and it left her cold and shivering uncontrollably. The chasm yawned before her, and she pushed harder, drawing strength from the circle outside the salt. Her family.
She could feel the curse. Dark and rough and violent, it was trying to keep her out. And there, just as the last of her magic tore from her, she directed it through Seth, into the totem on the ground and the decades-old grave beneath.