A Thousand Year Obsession ✔

50. Don't Forget To Plan

50. Don't Forget To Plan

The torches lining the walls of the room flickered, but I didn't cast them a single glance, my gaze locked on Eliza, my thoughts thundering over the words she could not possibly have just said.

"Morgana." My name was barely a breath of air on her lips. "He didn't just betray you to keep you out of danger. It was some kind of spell. Apparently when you betray someone's trust, a piece of them sticks inside you and vise versa. He tethered that piece to him so that when he dies, some of you dies with him and all the Immortals will perish. But you'll still live. Morgana, he's going to kill himself!"

"No," I cried softly, my voice raising. "No, he can't do that! We have to stop him, Elli. There has to be some other way!"

She didn't move, didn't blink, didn't breath, terror shown all over her features.

No-nothing-banquet-tower-whisper-wind-dove-call-warn.

"My friend." I whispered. "My friend! Oh gosh, it's Merlin! It's been Merlin. All this time!"

"He will call out to you, and if you do not answer, he will die."

"The call. The call! We still have time, Eliza. We have to go!"

I grabbed her wrist and dragged her back up the stairs and towards the door, but there I stopped suddenly.

"Where even is he?!"

Eliza jerked her arm back with a scowl. "I don't know. Now, if you'd stop rambling about friends and calls or whatever, maybe we could find out." She snapped.

I blinked. "Oh, yeah, sorry. It's just, Alaric told me a prophecy once that there'd be a banquet and a tower and a dove and when my friend called out, if I didn't answer he'd die. Of course, then I didn't know what friend he was talking about, but now that I realize it's too late!"

Eliza swallowed dryly. "No, no it's not too late. He didn't call out yet, right? That's what you meant earlier? So we still have time. We can save him. We must. We have to."

I nodded. "But first we have to find him."

I closed my eyes again, picturing Merlin and whispering what I wanted to know to the magic whirling just beneath my skin. It churned restlessly, but no location rose up before my eyes.

I exhaled harshly, my eyes snapping open.

"I can't find him. Something's stopping me."

"Something's stopping you? You're the most powerful Sorceress ever seen since the Great Sorcerers. Nothing can stop you!" Eliza cried.

I just shook my head. "No, you don't understand. It's not a barrier or block, or spell. It's like nothing can locate him, like he's . . . like he's not even on Earth."

"Well, I sincerely hope that that's just another silly magic trick, because no way are we going to find a way to get to space."

I sat down slowly. "Wait . . . Merlin spelled me with blood magic so no one could find me . . . what if--what if he did the same to himself . . ."

Eliza's eyes lit up. "Of course!"

"But it already didn't work." I murmured. "How else does blood magic work?"

"You two bound each other through physical blood, blood touched by air. That's the way you'll be able to find him. You have to touch red blood."

I glanced down at my hand, then my gaze flit to a glass shard. I picked it up and slid it across my finger, biting my lip harshly to hide the pain. A little bubble of blood formed on the tip and ran down the side, leaving a red trail in its wake. I let it drop down onto the back of my other hand and closed my eyes once more.