Page 52 of Deadly Little Games

Mistral looked at me, showing me the full weight of the pain in his eyes. Gabriel was his closest friend—I had no idea how long they had been together, but I sensed it was averylong time.

“Wehaveto do something,” I repeated. “If it is the land that must heal him, then we willmakeit heal him. We controlled it before.”

“It doesn’t work like that, Eva.”

He was probably right. He surely knew much more about it than anyone else. But… I had felt it. When we controlled the vines, I had felt his connection to the land. And I knew I could take part of it, if I wanted. The Bogs had far more magic than either of us. We just had to figure out how to use it.

I took Mistral’s hand, then placed his palm against the earth, laying my hand over his. I met his gray eyes solidly. “We’re going to try.”

“You care that much if he lives or dies?” He seemed almost shocked by the notion.

“He’s not going to die. Now call up that wild magic. I know you’re connected to it.”

He continued watching me. “We barely controlled it before. If it overwhelms us, I will die, and you may end up coming with me.”

I felt a flash of fear but I shoved it back down. The cut across my throat still stung. I had already faced death once this night—had barely evaded it. I looked down at Gabriel, his chest hardly rising and falling with breath. “Do it.”

Mistral’s hand flexed beneath mine, then I felt it, like a massive feral beast rising up beneath us. The magic of the land came to his call, wild, uncontrollable, andhungry.

I kissed him, and some of that magic jumped to me, searing through my veins like molten metal. With one hand still on the earth, he slid the other behind my neck, pulling my lips against his almost painfully. He fed at my mouth, passing the magic between us, making it unfurl inside my gut like a blooming rose.

Not knowing what I was doing, I gripped Gabriel’s limp hand, his skin far too cold.

Mistral pulled back slightly, our lips still almost touching. Magic thrummed in my throat like a second heartbeat. “We must direct it. Before, we were only trying to contain it, to shove it back down.”

My breathing grew ragged as the magic quickly overwhelmed me. What had I been thinking? Why did I think I could control this? Sweat beaded across my brow, stinging my eyes. “Tell me what to do,” I rasped.

He kissed me again, more lightly this time, though I could tell he was teetering on the brink. The land’s magic was entirely overwhelming, and I was only feeling a portion of it. He broke the kiss to say, “Close your eyes.”

It was difficult to obey. I felt like if I closed them, everything was going to disappear. Him, Gabriel, and the ground beneath us. If I closed my eyes, that dark, hungry thing swarming upward would swallow me whole.

I squeezed Gabriel’s limp hand and closed my eyes.

“If you fight it, it will destroy you.”

His words were far too close to my thoughts. I needed to pull away. I needed to run. I—

Gabriel’s hand spasmed in mine. That big, strong hand. He had protected me. He barely even knew me, not really. And yet, he had been willing to give his life tonight to keep the fae from chasing after me. He had wanted me to run, to leave him behind.

And that simply wasn’t an option.

I took a deep breath, stilled my thoughts, pushed down my fears, and I let the magic take over. I opened myself to it—because that’s what it really wanted. An outlet. It was wild magic, and it had been kept under control for too long.

“Gabriel is a part of this land, Eva. Will the magic into him. Show it how to save him.”

I shook my head in sharp, jerky movements. I could barely keep my thoughts straight, let alone control something so powerful. “Why can’t you do it?” My words were so soft I wasn’t sure he heard me.

Then, he answered, “I am a servant of this land, bound to it, but not its master. I maintain balance, nothing more. But you—you’re celestial. You can shift the very stars. The fates themselves. Shift his fate, Eva.”

Tears dripped down my hot cheeks. I felt something slithering over my leg, and fought every instinct I had to not pull away. I knew it was a vine. We couldn’t hold the magic forever. We were going to lose control.

I had never hated my mom more than I did in that moment, for leaving me to figure things out on my own. For never teaching me. I had only known other night runners, most with less celestial blood than me. None of them could have prepared me for this. I cried as more vines started swarming over us.

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to fight it, let alone control it. The magic choked me, filled me up to bursting.

I could feel Mistral’s resignation. He knew it wasn’t going to work.

I finally opened my eyes, taking in the same resignation in his expression that I had already sensed. I looked down at Gabriel, who had gone far too still. I remembered him impossibly strong, pulling me up onto his horse, keeping me steady. I remembered our kiss, and how I had slunk away, embarrassed. But he never gave me a hard time over it.