Atone: A Fairytale (Fairytale Trilogy) (27 page)

“...broken the power of the protection spell. By loving her you change who you are and sever the spell’s hold on what used to be weakness inside of you. By offering to remain a beast you prove your love. It cannot be undone.”

“No.” It sounded like he was crying. Becca didn’t want him to cry for her. “Let me take her place. Let me—” he stumbled over the word, as if he could somehow stop Becca from dying if he didn’t say it. “Let me break instead.”

The pain again. It felt as if she was being split in two. She kept her body as still as possible, trying not to give away to Nicholas that she was in agony. Her foggy mind had made the connection. He was trying to find a way to help her, but every time he professed love for her, the spell shattered a bit more. And that meant that she was shattering along with it.

It also meant that with each profession he was becoming less beast and more man. As soon as the latest onslaught faded enough that she could steady her breathing, she focused on the sensation of his arms against her body. They were smaller, the muscles more compact, less sinewy than they had been. The fur was almost entirely gone. Nicholas was becoming a man again, and yet he didn’t seem to notice. He was so focused on finding a way to stop what was happening to her that he hadn’t realized what was happening to him.

Becca forced her eyes open and stared up at his jawline. Her vision was wavy, but she could tell that the transformation was close to being complete. He looked back down at her, and she could tell the moment he saw his almost human arms that the truth had dawned on him.

“Oh god, I’m killing her. Every time it hurts her, it’s my fault.” His eyes were wild, more wild than they’d ever been when he was a beast. “I take it back. I don’t love her. I-I- hate her.”

The pain burned through her again, but Becca didn’t close her eyes, didn’t take them off his face. He was still changing. Tears were running down his face. He was almost completely Nicholas now.

“I am so sorry,” Violet spoke again, softly. “I am sorry we did not see this coming. I truly wish that you could unlove her. I wish I could
make
you unlove her. But no magic is that strong.”

Becca knew it was close to being done. Soon she would stop hurting. She didn’t regret anything. Well, almost anything. She regretted with her entire being that she hadn’t ever kissed Nicholas. That was what she wanted. She was going to die, and she wanted her last moments to be with his lips on hers.

She reached up and put her hand at the back of his neck. She was surprised she’d managed it, but she wanted this more than her next breath. “Kiss me,” it wasn’t even a whisper—no sound came out at all, but he seemed to be able to read her lips.

Nicholas bent his head. Her fingers tightened in the dark hair—the human hair—at his nape, and then his mouth covered hers. Her eyelids drifted shut again. His lips were warm, and Becca’s entire concentration narrowed on them. It was if she could feel the magic that remained in him. The magic that had been holding him as a beast sparked against the pieces of magic that were in her.

Nicholas deepened the kiss; she knew it was his last goodbye to her. She would have given up happily then, the sweetness of this kiss enough to make up for a lifetime, but that magic flare-up had fascinated her. She tried to reach out for it, for the magic, the fera magic that was still inside Nicholas. It was wild and unpredictable, just like the magic she’d sensed around Talon and the other fera.

Her own magic was unsteady and weak, the golden-violet flame of it sputtered inside of her. She gave the very last bit of her strength to it, sending every reserve of energy her body had left as kindling into the fire. She felt dizzy, the blood rushing from every part of her body, her very life leaving her as she pumped it into the reservoir of magic.

Nicholas could tell she was drifting away and tried to lift his mouth from hers. Becca had given enough of herself to her magic. It flared to life, and she used the strength from it to hold his head in place. She poured as much of her love for him through that kiss as she could. She wanted...she wasn’t sure what she wanted. Him to remember it forever. That kiss to last forever. That love to sustain him forever.

This time when she reached out she was able to grab hold of the fera magic. Her magic flamed like molten gold shooting off lavender sparks as it tangled around the fera power. Wrapping, twisting, and finally pulling the beast magic completely out of Nicholas and through their joined lips into her.

Becca felt the rush, like a wave crashing over her and through her body. She was felt strangely full—too full of magic, as if she was going to explode.

And then she did explode. Or at least that’s how it seemed to her. She shot straight up in the air, her entire body torn out of Nicholas’s now human arms. Her body suspended above the field, light radiating out of her as if she was a human torch, burning with power from the inside.

The light burned brighter and brighter, and then there was nothing but light. No air to breathe, no lungs to breathe it with. She was only light.

The light shot out across the field, withering the grass. Just as quickly as it had shot out it sucked back into Becca.

She fell back to earth—fell back into Nicholas’s arms but she didn’t need them to support her. She felt stronger than she’d ever felt before. Magic raced through her like a current through a wire, but she was completely in control of it. She could sense it, the separate strands of magic—her metal magic, her emblem flower, and the newer, animal magic—separate but somehow intertwined and working as one.

She wasn’t going to die. She was alive. More alive than she’d ever been before.

Becca opened her eyes and looked up into the face of the man she loved.

~ Chapter Nineteen ~

“
H
EY,” SHE SAID.
“That was—”

Nicholas’s kiss cut off the rest of her sentence. She wasn’t even sure what she’d been about to say. That was scary? Amazing? Mind-blowing? Nicholas’s mouth moving over hers with frantic fervor was all of those things and more. She twined her arms around his neck, holding on for all she was worth. She savored the feeling of his arms around her. It felt like a dream, but she knew it was real.

“Thank God you’re okay,” he gasped, finally breaking the kiss. “You’re okay, right?” He gently set her down on the grass in front of him and ran his hands over her hair and face.

“Yeah, I’m good,” she grinned at him. He was still kneeling in the grass. And he was human. One hundred percent Nicholas. She reached out in turn and ran her hands through his dark hair, over his strong brow and aquiline nose, and trailed a finger over his full lips. “It’s you.”

He kissed the tip of her finger. “Seems like you broke the spell, or something.”

“Or something.” She placed her palm on his chest. He was wearing some kind of leather vest over a white shirt. “What in the world are you wearing?”

“I have no idea. Becca, I know you’re saying you’re okay, but—“

“Hmm?” Becca wasn’t paying much attention. She leaned forward and frowned at the front of the vest. “What is that?” Her fingers traced out the pattern on his chest. “Is that a lion? It is! And it’s got something weird going on with its mane…”

“Becca,” Nicholas repeated more insistently. “There’s something interesting happening with your eyes.”

She glanced up at him. “There is? Interesting how?”

“Well, um, they’re, uh…”

She narrowed her eyes. “Spit it out.”

“Gold. They’re almost glowing. And the pupil is…wrong. Like a cat’s.”

“Are you kidding me right now?” she asked severely.

“No. I swear.” He looked over her head with a “help me out here” expression, and Becca belatedly remembered the three sisters.

She felt her face heating.
Am I blushing again?
Images of how she’d really wanted to kiss Nicholas were flashing through her mind with alarming clarity. She’d completely forgotten the three sisters were there. She jumped to her feet and spun around. “Are they really like that?” she demanded. “Like those fera’s eyes were? Like Beorn’s?”

Violet nodded. “Yes. It is a sign of mature fera power.”

Becca felt her eyes widen as realization hit her. She’d pulled the magic—the fera magic—out of Nicholas and into herself. “Oh my god. Have I somehow become a fera?”

“Not fully. Your terre and your verde powers are still there, are they not?” Bryony answered her this time, stepping forward as she ran her eyes critically over Becca.

Becca nodded. The new power was there, growling and champing at the bit. It pulsed so much faster than she was used to, just like the magic that flowed through the fera land. But alongside it, twisting and curling and twining like a living thing, was the violet-gold energy she recognized as her own. “Yes. It’s still there. The other power, it’s different, it feels like—Oh!” She turned back to NIcholas, placing a hand over the emblem on his chest—the rampant lion. She could tell now what was curled into its mane. Violets.

“It’s my emblem.” It wasn’t a question. She knew the fera power in her would roar up into a lion if she let it stream out of her.

“Your emblem?” Nicholas asked, laying his large, long-fingered hand over hers. She turned her hand over so that they were palm-to-palm and laced her fingers through his.

“Yeah, check this out.” She grinned in anticipation as she opened her other hand and held it up in the air. Golden power shot up in a stream from her open palm. It shimmered in the air for a moment before coalescing into a semi-transparent lion. It stretched out its front paws, coiling and tensing, and then it fell gracefully to the ground. It raced across the field, mane streaming out in curling, sparkling golden tendrils. Every time its paws touched the ground violets sprang up from the withered grass until the air was sweet with their smell. As it reached the edge of trees on the terre-verde side of the clearing Becca closed her hand into a fist and it flickered out of existence.

“Holy hell.”

“I know, right?” Becca giggled. “I’m a little weirded out that it’s a male lion. I’d think I’d get a lioness, but whatever, the mane thing is cool.”

“That’s what’s weirding you out?” NIcholas asked in disbelief.

“I’m sorry,” she frowned up at him. “I didn’t realize it would freak you out, I shouldn’t have—”

He gripped her hand tighter and leaned down to kiss her. “I’m not freaked out,” he murmured. “Not in the least. I’m merely entertained by your priorities.”

She ducked her head and laughed into the crook of his neck. “So you admit it’s cool?”

“It’s beyond cool.” Nicholas put his hand under her chin, tilting her head up so he could look into her eyes. “You’re hot, lion girl.”

“I’m glad you think so, but…” she turned back to the three sisters. At some point she and Nicholas needed to stop acting like they weren’t there. Or maybe they could go so she could kiss Nicholas all she wanted. Personally, she was leaning toward the second option. “My eyes aren’t going to be like this in the human world, are they? I know those fera’s were. I don’t want to spend my entire life with weird, animal eyes.”

“Likely not. You will not know for sure until you return to the human world.” Bryony answered. “We have not known another fae who had fera and terre-verde powers, so it is hard to know how your power will manifest in your world.”

Becca glanced at Violet, wondering again what the history with her and Beorn was. She didn’t know the rules, didn’t know if a terre-verde could marry a fera. And as much as she liked Violet and wished she could be happy, now wasn’t the time to ask awkward questions. There was a question she did need the answer to, however.

“Speaking of going back to my world. How am I supposed to do that?” She turned to look at where the portal had stood. It was completely gone. Not a trace remained. She wondered if inside Nicholas’s house there was a smoking pile of ashes and debris as there had been at the museum after the bed spell had collapsed, or if there was just nothing there. Maybe when she’d sucked the spell into her she’d completely destroyed any physical remnants of it. “Wait,” she said slowly. “I took the spell into myself. Does that mean…?” she looked back at the sisters.

“There is only one way to find out,” Saffron answered this time. “Be well, child.”

“Thanks,” Becca said sincerely, “for everything.”

She squeezed Nicholas’s hand as he looked at her questioningly. “Let’s go home.” Becca closed her eyes. She wasn’t quite sure what she was doing, but the flare of power inside her chest when she’d first thought of the possibility told her that she’d be able to do it. She thought of the mirror room at Nicholas’s house. She imagined her and Nicholas standing in front of the wall of windows, hands clasped and lips touching. The scene was so perfect, so real in her head, and then she felt the coolness of the air conditioner against her skin. She opened her eyes and looked up at Nicholas, who was standing in front of her, his hand still locked in hers, looking around him with his mouth slightly agape.

He was still wearing the dark pants, leather vest, and white shirt that he’d had on in the Fae Realm. She looked down and frowned. She still had on her lilac colored dress as well. She wiggled her bare toes against the cool wood floor. Where the heck where her jeans, hoodie, and most importantly, her favorite pair of high tops? If she’d somehow lost those shoes in between worlds, she was going to be seriously annoyed.