The Spell Realm (The Sorcery Code #2)(61)

Plummeting to the ground, Gala somehow knew she was about to leave the bird’s body. With all her willpower, she tried to get the bird to fly again, but before she knew if her desperate attempt succeeded, she was brought back into her own body.

The pain was excruciating. Her flesh had disintegrated, ripped apart by the terrible forces of the fusion reaction, yet it was reforming again, somehow being fixed by the directive of her subconscious mind—a mind that seemed to reside elsewhere for now.

Crippled by the stunning agony, Gala lost connection with the mind of the bird completely. The creature was dead. Overwhelmed, she began to lose the remaining portion of her conscious control to one overwhelming emotion—anger.

Then, in a flash, she felt Blaise’s mind go blank, just like the bird’s.





Chapter 45: Augusta





Even with the protective vision spell, Augusta felt a blinding pain in her eyes. The sound of the explosion reverberated through her body, rupturing her eardrums, and the ground under her feet shook with such force that she was thrown to the ground, painfully twisting her ankle on the way. Stunned and gasping for air, she scrambled for a healing spell, her trembling fingers barely managing to load it into her Stone.

When the healing effect began, she could feel the pain in her ankle subside first. She was not sure yet, but her hearing appeared to be returning too, and she could hear some kind of shuffling inside Blaise’s house. Her eyes were healing slowly, however, and she could barely tell light from darkness. She had to hurry, so she used another healing spell to aid the vision repair.

When Augusta could finally see, the first thing she looked at was the other side of the Canyon—and her stomach churned at what she saw.

With a human being, the forces unleashed would have made them disintegrate into ash, leaving the shimmering sphere empty. This creature, however, was still there. Though it was no longer floating serenely, it still existed—and was lying on its side at the bottom of the bubble, curled into a fetal position.

At best, it was maybe injured, Augusta realized with dismay. It was definitely alive, though—she knew that thanks to a hidden locator spell she’d embedded within her fusion spell. She’d hoped she wouldn’t need it, but she took precautions anyway. This locator spell would allow Augusta to know where the creature was at all times, and, more importantly, whether it was alive.

She needed that location spell for her plan C—a plan she’d hoped she wouldn’t need to implement.

Now, however, there was no choice.

Slowly getting up, Augusta forced herself to walk into Blaise’s house.



*



Inside, she found Blaise lying on the floor in the hallway. It appeared that the explosion had knocked him off his feet as well. A thin trickle of blood ran down his forehead, and he looked dazed, as if he had just regained consciousness. For a moment, she had a strange impulse to heal him, to take away his pain, but that was absurd, given what she was about to do.

“You,” he whispered, propping himself up on one elbow and glaring at her. “What have you done?”

Augusta could see him reaching for his Interpreter Stone and the cards, and she quickly grabbed her own spell—the one she’d specifically prepared for this occasion.

It was too late, though. Blaise’s spell hit her first. Immediately, Augusta’s thoughts scrambled, her mind turning to mush. A confusion spell, she realized with the small corner of her brain that remained unaffected. A confusion spell that had gotten through her weakened defenses.

Everything felt slow, every thought, every decision, requiring major effort. Why hadn’t he just tried to kill her? she wondered hazily. Her eyes landed on Jandison’s bloody corpse, and her vision swam for a moment. Why hadn’t Blaise used a lethal spell on her as well? Did he still have feelings for her? No, that was stupid, Augusta told herself. He loved his creature now. She couldn’t forget that, couldn’t soften for even a moment—not if she wanted to survive.

Gathering all her strength, Augusta focused on what she needed to accomplish—the simple task of loading the prepared card into her Stone. It seemed to take hours, but finally she managed to slot it in.

Blaise slumped on the floor, his eyes closing as her spell took effect. Paradoxically, Augusta felt relieved that he hadn’t been standing, that he didn’t fall and injure himself further. It was ridiculous to feel that way in light of what she was about to do next.

Nonetheless, he looked still. Too still.

I didn’t kill him, Augusta reminded herself, shaking off the remnants of her confusion. Like Ganir, Blaise was merely in a coma that she had induced.

Her next set of spells, however, could end up killing him—if the creature didn’t act as Augusta hoped.





Chapter 46: Gala





No longer able to sense her connection with Blaise, Gala felt her anger turning into blinding fury.

Hardly conscious of what she was doing, she sent Blaise’s house back to its usual place in Turingrad. If he was somehow still alive, he would not be safe here, not with what was about to happen.

Once that was done, she closed her eyes and focused on the most powerful force she had known prior to this explosion: the horrifying ocean storms. Mentally reaching out far beyond the mountains, Gala took a precisely measured chunk of space from the air above the ocean and teleported it into the canyon.