The Spell Realm (The Sorcery Code #2)(62)
The sky exploded with lightning, hail, and tornados. The storm filled every inch of the canyon, with deadly lightning bolts striking every second, turning the rocky ground into glass. The howling roar of the tornados and the pounding hail combined into a deafening cacophony, sheets of rain turning the bottom of the canyon into a lake within seconds.
It was a nightmare—one from which Gala was protected by the very bubble they had used against her.
The storm lasted at peak intensity for only a few minutes and then began to dissipate, no longer sustained by the weather conditions that brought it about in the ocean. As the sky began to clear again, Gala’s own fury slowly faded, replaced by the horrified recognition of what she’d done.
The canyon was all but destroyed. She had lost control again—and in doing so, she might’ve killed people. The Council had intended to hurt her, likely kill her, but she hadn’t wanted them dead. She should’ve found another way.
Before bitter regret could consume her again, Gala focused on what she still had to do: find Blaise. Closing her eyes, she concentrated and teleported herself into Blaise’s house—which was now back in Turingrad.
*
A beautiful dark-haired woman was crouched over Blaise’s prone body. At Gala’s appearance, she swiftly looked up, clutching her Interpreter Stone. The expression on her face was full of fear and hatred.
“If you do anything to me, he’ll die,” she said, staring at Gala with striking amber-colored eyes. “He’s merely unconscious now, but I joined his life to mine—and to yours.”
“What do you mean?” Gala whispered, her heart pounding with a mixture of fury and dread. This had to be Augusta, Blaise’s former fiancée—the woman he had loved once. The woman who betrayed him and his brother.
The woman who set the Council on Gala and Blaise.
“I used a spell on him that’s tied to you,” Augusta said evenly. “His life is being drained as we speak—drained by your very existence. He’s dying because of you now—because you are here alive, instead of dead, like you were supposed to be.”
Gala gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to lash out at Augusta. She could feel the truth of the woman’s words. There was a complex spell woven around Blaise, one that indeed connected him to both Gala and Augusta. The threads that joined him to Gala seemed to be leaching something from him, killing him slowly but surely.
Examining herself, Gala realized that she’d felt something earlier—that some spell had been interwoven into that terrible explosion. The changes were subtle but noticeable, especially now that she was focusing on them. The spell ensured that she could be located anywhere; as long as Gala existed, the leaching would continue.
Gala could potentially unweave this spell, but it would take too long—and she didn’t know how long Blaise could last like this, with his life being drained by the second.
“There’s only one way you can save him,” Augusta said, her eyes glittering with something suspiciously resembling tears. “Your life for his—that’s the only way. I know you’re too powerful for me to destroy—and I know you can destroy me in a moment. But by doing that, you’ll be killing him. He created you; he gave you everything, even his heart. Are you going to let him die like this?”
Gala stared at Augusta, a sick sensation curdling low in her stomach. The woman wanted her to kill herself, to snuff out her own existence. It was unthinkable—but so was the thought of Blaise dying.
Torn, she stared at Augusta, her mind running through all the possible scenarios. With the spell Augusta put on her, merely teleporting away would not help . . . and she could sense that Blaise would not survive much longer. There was no choice: Gala had to figure out a way to kill herself if she wanted to save Blaise.
She considered one morbid scenario after the next—setting herself on fire, drowning at the bottom of the ocean, cutting her flesh to ribbons with a sword—but all these had a flaw: she had no idea if she could be killed that way. She had no idea if her subconscious would end up in control, saving Gala at the ultimate cost to Blaise.
There was only one alternative she could see.
Closing her eyes, Gala remembered the spell her mind had performed when the terrible explosion was used against her. She knew that the energy of that calamity had been channeled into the Spell Realm. Analyzing it, she realized that she could replicate that spell with one difference: she would be the one to go to the Spell Realm this time.
Gala opened her eyes to look at Blaise for the last time, and then she closed them again. Taking a deep breath, she sent Blaise a brief Contact message . . . and put her plan into action.
By the time she became conscious again, she was unable to hear, see, touch, or smell.
She was back in the Spell Realm.
Chapter 47: Blaise
Drifting in a strange blankness, Blaise suddenly became aware of an intrusion in his mind—of words that seemed to appear out of nothingness.
Gala’s words, he realized, his thinking slow and sluggish.
“Blaise, my love, Augusta made it impossible for me to stay in the Physical Realm, so I had to depart this world and take a chance by going to the Spell Realm. I am not sure what awaits me there, and I wanted you to know that the last days that we spent together were the most wonderful days of my existence so far. Gala.”