Cursed: St. Croix Falls #2
Page 17
Mia shot her a glare over her shoulder and trudged over to the water. She knew what to do now. Will it to happen and it will happen. Rhett should have told her that to begin with... but she probably still wouldn’t have understood it. She had needed that memory for the power to click into place.
Mia closed her eyes and focused inwardly. She felt the power there inside her. She willed the door to open, for the spell she had put over it to split apart and fall away. It fought against her, pushing against her power. Mia ground her teeth and dug her hands deeper into the water. This was her spell. She had control over it. Only she could open the door and the spell would only listen to her. It would take more magic. It had been in place for ten years, of course it was going to be strong and stubborn.
Mia fueled her hands with more power, surging the spell into the water. She squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, feeling the spell fighting against her, trying to push her magic away. Mia ground her teeth and pushed harder. She almost had it, at least had a tear in the spell when someone shouted and there was a crashing sound. Mia gasped, her eyes flying open and her concentrating breaking for a minute as she glanced over her shoulder. Her eyes went wide when she saw Rhett and a goblin grappling with each other on the ground. Ryker and Joelin were running toward her.
If she lost her concentration now, it would be ten times harder to shatter the spell later on. Mia turned back around and plunged her arms elbow-deep into the water. Mia felt a surge of power behind her and heard a growling noise, but she just kept her eyes closed and tuned them all out. Focus. This was her job. This was what she had been training to do for five weeks.
She was more powerful than she knew. Stronger than she had ever imagined. She could do this. Her past self wouldn’t have broken a sweat and Mia needed to channel that part of her to do this. Mia concentrated, letting her power surge out of her finger tips and into the water, searching out the spell until it found it in the water tumbling from the rocks and into the lake.
A tear ripped into the spell as Mia fed her power more and more energy. She could feel her own energy draining away. Her head felt faint and her limbs grew weak, but she gritted her teeth and stuck it out. She was so close. Mia could feel it. One more surge of power and the spell would shatter.
Sweat dripped down her forehead and the back of her neck. Mia summoned up every ounce of energy and power she had left inside of her, channeling what she could gather from the earth beneath her and the wind around her. With a scream she shoved it all out through her finger tips and into the water, slamming into the spell with such a force that the water shuttered beneath her. Mia’s eyes flew open in time to see the waterfall shutter and explode. She shrieked and covered her head with her arms as water sprayed all over the place.
Seconds passed and Mia lifted her head, an odd quiet settling over the whole lake and forest. Not a noise was made as she glanced up and her mouth fell open when she saw Faerie as clear as day before her. She could reach into the waterfall and touch Faerie. Smell it... feel it... She had done it. Excitement and pride swelled inside her. Mia’s lips broke into a massive, tired smile as she stumbled to her feet. She swayed and would have fallen if someone hadn’t been there to hold her up. Mia glanced up to find Joelin there, keeping her steady. “Good job,” he said, grinning down at her.
Mia beamed and leaned against him, resting her head against his side. “Thanks...”
She turned her attention to Ryker who had Lilac with her hands behind her back. She screamed and fought but it didn’t get her very far as she glared at Mia. Her goblin bodyguards were lying on the ground in crumbled heaps.
Mia’s eyes drifted to where Rhett stood. His lip was bleeding, and he had a bruise on his jaw, but he looked OK. “Rhett,” she murmured, holding her hand out for him.
Rhett strode to her and pulled her into his arms. Joelin stepped away to give them space. “What happened?” he breathed and then shook his head. “Never mind I don’t care. I’m just glad you’re safe.”
Mia held him tight, tears brimming in her eyes as she buried her face in his shoulder. “How did you find me? Lilac grabbed me out of nowhere.”
“Cade and I were talking, and I glanced around and didn’t find you anywhere. And then Cade sort of tried to... knock me out,” Rhett said as they parted, a weird look on his face. “It didn’t work obviously. I got him to tell me what was going on. Turns out he was working with Lilac, trying to distract me. I had no idea Lilac would try something so drastic. But I’m just glad you’re OK.”
They stood like that for what felt like several minutes. Mia was only on her feet because Rhett held her so tightly. Someone cleared their throat behind them, and Mia opened her eyes in time to see Ryker open his mouth to ask something right as Lilac’s elbow came up and jabbed him in the face. Ryker groaned and stumbled backward, losing his grip on Lilac.
She pulled a wicked dagger from his belt and lunged for them. Joelin jumped into her way, but Lilac was stronger than she looked. She threw the bulky Fae out of the way like he was nothing. Mia screamed and tried to shove Rhett out of her path just as Lilac’s dagger came forward. It plunged into Rhett’s side. Mia screamed as Rhett’s eyes widened. He stumbled back a step, his hands clutching the dagger stuck in his side now.
Lilac shot them both a nasty grin and grabbed Mia by the arm before she could run to Rhett. “This way Mia. Your father’s waiting for us.”
Mia lost her footing, shocked by the turn of events. Lilac used her surprise to her advantage and shoved Mia into the waterfall. The last thing Mia saw before plunging into the water was Rhett dying on the ground as he tried to get to his feet to save her. And then Mia blinked, and she was in Faerie with Lilac at her side, no friends to be seen and not knowing if Rhett was alive or dead.
To Be Continued...
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Thank you so much for reading!! Sorry about that cliffhanger. ;) (Don’t worry, I’m working on book 3 as quickly as possible! Promise!!) If you’d like to be the first to hear about new books and updates, you can sign up for my newsletter at www.melodypersonette.com. You can also find all my books on Amazon.
If you enjoyed this book, it would be super helpful to me if you could leave a review. Reviews have a big impact on the life of a book (and a series) and allow me to keep writing stories you love!
(Book 3 will be out July 2020!)
Acknowledgements
I have to start out my acknowledgements, of course, with thanking my amazing Mom! She managed to make this entire cover in one night and surprising me with it in the morning. I’m so grateful to have such a talented artist as my mom, who supports my writing through making all my beautiful covers.
Thanks to my beta readers, who flew through Cursed and were so, so helpful in the final round of edits for this book. They pointed out a few plot holes I hadn’t noticed and, seriously, went above and beyond in helping me with edits.
Thanks to everyone who supported me and continued to encourage me as I wrote and revised and edited Cursed. Thanks, Gabriella Slade, for being so encouraging and a great writer friend, I can’t wait for Mark of Genesis to come out! And, of course, thanks Noah for always being supportive and encouraging, and for being one of my two alpha readers. You’re pretty awesome. ;):)
Most of all though, thank you to my God for giving me the gift of writing. I wouldn’t be able to do any of this without You. You’re my one and only and I can’t wait to see what new stories you have in store for me.
About the Author
Melody Personette is an author of YA contemporary fantasy and science fiction full of redemption, hope and magic. She’s a tea lover, Jesus follower, big sister to four younger brothers and TV show addict (TVD, Teen Wolf and The 100 are some of her faves). When she’s not writing she’s blogging, taking pictures of books for her bookstagram, plotting or thinking about writing (she’s never not thinking about writing #writerproblems).
She also has four books published. A YA science fiction duology, a fantasy short story collectio
n and a children’s book and is working on a YA contemporary fantasy series called St. Croix Falls. Find out more about her books at www.melodypersonette.com.
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