The Spell Realm (26 page)

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
.”

The message seemed to reverberate in his mind, repeating over and over again as he slowly began to digest its meaning. Recalling Augusta and her spell, Blaise realized that Augusta had done something to him, causing him to black out.

As awareness came back, Blaise became cognizant of his body lying still on the floor. His limbs felt weak and heavy, drained of all energy. A wave of helpless fury surged through him as the full meaning of Gala’s words dawned on him.

She was gone.

The woman he loved more than life itself was gone from this world.

He didn’t know how Augusta had accomplished that task, but that didn’t matter right now. He couldn’t let himself give in to the grief and hatred choking him from the inside; he needed to be able to think, to plan his revenge.

He could hear someone in the room with him, and he did his best to lie still, to pretend to be unconscious. Opening his eyes to a narrow slit, he saw his Interpreter Stone and a few cards lying spilled on the floor a few feet away. If he could only reach them quickly . . . but those few feet might as well have been miles, given the paralyzing weakness still gripping his body.

There was a sound of light footsteps and a rustle of skirts—and then the familiar scent of jasmine enveloped him as Augusta knelt next to him.

“I know you’re awake,” she said softly, her hand brushing lightly against his cheek. “You don’t have to pretend with me. I’ve seen you wake up plenty of times.”

Blaise opened his eyes, not bothering to hide the hatred burning within him. “What did you do?” he asked, his voice low and hoarse. “What did you do, Augusta?”

She stared at him, her gaze hardening. “It’s dead,” she said curtly, and he could see her hand tightening around her Interpreter Stone. “I know because I had a locator spell on it, and the locator shows nothing. Also, you are very much alive and not losing your life’s essence—which I tied to that creature.”

Blaise’s hatred intensified. So that was how she’d done it: Augusta had used Gala’s feelings for Blaise against her.

Something of what he was feeling must’ve shown on his face because she grabbed a couple of cards and held them close to her Stone. “Don’t even think about it,” she said quietly. “You won’t make it.”

Cursing the aftereffects of the draining spell, Blaise let his body relax, as though accepting the truth of her words. Half-closing his eyelids, he glanced toward the cards on the floor, spotting a paralyzing spell that would have come in handy.

At the same time, he heard Augusta let out a weary sigh. “Listen, Blaise . . .” Her tone was conciliatory now. “I had to do it, don’t you see? It was too dangerous . . . If you had only seen what this creature did—”

Shutting out Augusta’s words, Blaise gathered all of his remaining strength. He would get only one attempt at this, and he had to make it count. Ignoring the screaming weakness in his muscles, he swiftly rolled toward the Stone, his hands scrambling frantically for the cards.

And as he blindly slotted one into the Stone, Augusta’s spell hit him in full force.

It was like being struck by lightning. Every cell in his body exploded in agony, his body jerking under the lash of the energy blast. The pain was so intense that he lost consciousness again, his mind going blank.

* * *

When Blaise woke up again, he first became aware of the heavy, slow beat of his heart. His body was one big ball of pain, and every breath he dragged into his aching lungs required massive effort. Groaning, Blaise tried to move—an attempt that sent waves of agony through him again.

Nauseous, he forced himself to lie still, willing the spinning in his head to subside. Whatever spell Augusta hit him with had been just short of lethal.

After a few minutes, he managed to open his eyes. Ignoring the pain in his neck, he slowly turned his head and surveyed the hallway.

Augusta lay on the floor beside him, her body unmoving. He had managed to hit her with the paralysis spell after all, he realized with relief. Her eyes were closed, and there was a small pool of blood spreading out from a wound on the side of her head. She must’ve hit her head when she fell. Probably a mercy, Blaise thought with uncharacteristic coldness; otherwise, the spell would’ve left her conscious, but unable to move at all—a feeling that was likely worse than mere unconsciousness.

Painfully rolling over onto his side, Blaise reached for the Stone that lay next to him. The simple movement sent his stomach roiling, but he managed to close his hand around it and grab a few cards before he had to close his eyes to combat the nauseating dizziness. After a few moments, he forced his lids open again to study what he was holding.

There was only one card that was even remotely related to a healing spell. Cursing, Blaise spied his pencil lying on the floor and reached for it, his hand shaking from the effort it took to grab the object. Then, ignoring the churning sickness in his stomach, he began to slowly write the appropriate spell.

Knowing that he was not in his best mental shape, Blaise took extra time to accomplish his task, making sure the spell would be safe. If he accidentally killed himself, he would never see Gala again. Anger surged through him again at the thought, and as soon as the spell healed him, he jumped to his feet, every cell in his body clamoring for vengeance.

Walking over to Augusta, he stared at her prone figure, a vengeful plan forming in his mind. His former lover had tried to make him an unwilling instrument of Gala’s destruction, and Blaise would make certain she regretted it.

Going down to his storage room, he carefully selected a few droplets. The first was a Life Capture of what Blaise had felt during the vote on the day Louie had been sentenced.
Let her experience what it’s like to learn that your brother is condemned to death.
The next one was of Blaise’s conversation with Augusta about the vote, when he learned that she had voted in favor of his brother’s punishment.
Let her experience the betrayal of the woman you love.

Then, reaching for the bottle that had the skull-and-bones label, Blaise paused, wondering if this one would be too cruel of a punishment. Then Gala’s words flashed across his mind again, and his resolve solidified.
Let Augusta experience Louie’s death through his own eyes.
Let her see the consequences of her actions.

Grimly decided, Blaise walked back to his study to write the appropriate spell. When it was done, he loaded the cards into his Stone and went downstairs to see if it had worked.

The spell was simple, yet beautifully complex. The fact that the droplets could be reused was what made it possible. It was a loop—a loop of the Life Captures he’d chosen, playing over and over in Augusta’s mind.

Standing over her, he watched it happen.

A needle flew up to Augusta’s finger first. The Life Capture Sphere then floated next to the little bit of blood, beginning the recording process. After that, the first Life Capture droplet Blaise had chosen flew into Augusta’s mouth.

He didn’t watch the rest—he knew that after a time, a new droplet would be formed in the Stone and join the queue that was waiting its turn to be consumed by Augusta. This would go on and on, until either the paralysis spell or the looping spell lost its potency. Which would be a very long time, if Blaise had done his job properly. With each subsequent recording, Augusta would experience a bit of her own reaction as well. It would be an endless loop of despair and regret—or so Blaise hoped, at least.

“Maybe you will learn something from this,” he told her, even though he knew Augusta couldn’t hear him right now. Steeling his heart against any hint of weakness or remorse, Blaise walked back to his study.

He couldn’t afford to think about Augusta anymore. He needed to figure out how he could reunite with Gala.

* * *

Blaise spent the next few hours reviewing everything related to the Spell Realm.

He wished he could simply bring Gala back, but he couldn’t think of a way to do it. During her creation, the spells to make her mind and to have her manifest in the Physical Realm had been intertwined. As far as he knew, there was no way to simply reach into the Spell Realm and bring her back here. It would require a thorough understanding of the Spell Realm, and the only person who might even attempt something of that complexity would be Gala herself.

However, he had once succeeded in sending an object to the Spell Realm, Blaise realized, thinking of the needle that had come back as that strange sword. It was a crazy idea, but it was the only way he could think of to reach Gala. The thought of her alone out there was unbearable to him.

Reworking and scaling up the needle spell, Blaise made himself the target, trying to perfect the spell along the way to the best of his ability. When he was done, he still wasn’t certain of the result. It would take months of careful testing and experimentation to ensure the spell’s safety, but he didn’t have the luxury of time.