Page 92 of A Kiss of Flame

Wren dropped her chin a little and looked up at him through the fall of her long black hair.

‘I can save him,’ she murmured, her voice softening. And it wasn’t Wren anymore. Not really. ‘But I have a price.’

She was beautiful. She had always been beautiful. And so very dangerous. Right from the start she had enchanted him, her magic coming close to enslaving him from the very first time they met. She was everything to him, and part of him – that deep, dark and secret part of him – wanted nothing more than to be hers, to obey her every command, to do anything for her. Anything at all. Even to die, if she wished it. He would suffer tortures for her sake. Gladly.

He felt that familiar sense of submission sweeping through him.

But not the beckoning call of the Nox, promising him his every desire. This was a demand.

She knelt beside him and her hands trailed over Leander’s still form. The bracelet still constrained her shadowy magic but this was something else.

Something impossible.

Light flared beneath her touch. Wren could work both powers, Finn had realised that. He didn’t know how, and there was no sign of pain when she did it now.

And he wasn’t even sure that this was Wren, not anymore.

But it wasn’t the Nox either. He wasn’t sure what he was looking at.

Leander gave a low groan and his breath rattled. But he kept breathing. Barely. Wren turned her face to look at Finn, studying him with other eyes.

‘Your price?’ he asked. ‘My obedience.’

The smile that played over her lips was a stranger to him as well. ‘You are always mine, my prince.’

Wren rose, and now he saw the light in her as well as the dark. Balance… Hestia was on her knees but Finn got to his feet. The bracelet was meant to contain the dark magic of the Nox, but now she channelled something else. Wren could access the magic of the Aurum as well. Normally it hurt her, burned her from within. Something had changed, something fundamental. As if… as if the Nox was infecting the light as well, the way it had stained the flames of the Aurum… It was cunning and ancient and it knew magic better than any of them. And now, the two powers twisted together, and filled Wren.

Wren’s hands spread wide and the wind whipped around her. Long dark tendrils of her hair snaked around his arms and legs, teased at the bare skin of his face and neck. He might drown in her if he let himself.

And all it would take was a moment.

Even now.

Light save him, he wanted to.

Finn framed her face with his shaking hands and she leaned into him like a cat, a slow smile spreading over her sensuous mouth. But this wasn’t Wren. He knew it wasn’t her.

And at the same time it was.

She still wore the bracelet. If he released her the Nox would finally be complete. He would serve her without a will of his own, and all doubt and fear would be swept away. He would be whole, and have a purpose, and she would love him.

She did love him…

It would be so easy to let go, to do as she said.

Not Wren. This was not Wren.

The Nox… and the Aurum… both of them tangled together perhaps. He didn’t know. He didn’t know what she was anymore or what he was talking to. He couldn’t begin to understand the magic she could embody. But he had to reach Wren, just Wren. Nothing else mattered.

‘Listen to me,’ he whispered and lowered his mouth towards hers. Wren had to know how he felt. That he would do anything for her. She had to know. He brushed his lips against hers and pulled back, searching her eyes for a sign she was still there. Anything. ‘I can get away, get you to safety. We can find a way to help Elodie and the others. Someone did this, attacked us, sent Carlotta.’

‘Carlotta?’ The voice faltered. For a moment it sounded like her again, like Wren. One brief spark of hope flared up in the darkness. ‘Someone used her, Finn. Enchanted her. Forced her…’ She glanced at Leander. Then at Hestia and seemed to shake herself awake. ‘Elodie is trapped and the Aurum with her. But it’s trying to reach out to me as well, to use me instead. It forgot the truth of what we are, and what Elodie is. She’s mortal. She’s dying. And if that happens it will come to me. It wants me…’

How could she know that? He dreaded asking, dreaded hearing what the answer was. Wren knew too much. And if Elodie was mortal so was Wren. Wasn’t she?

‘How do we release her?’

‘There is no release,’ the voice that was not Wren’s voice whispered again, cold and implacable. Light filled her, flaring like fireworks in her eyes, light flowing beneath her skin, tangling with the shadows, tracing lines in her flesh. Wren’s eyes widened and she struggled back to herself, the shock of it breaking the spell surging through her. A battle, he realised, and her body was the battleground. ‘What’s happening? Help me. What… what am I, Finn?’