Annihilation - Book Three

Chapter 41

 Corina's hand hovers over the cover of the book, exactly where I'd left it in plain sight. I'd been otherwise occupied this morning, love drunk and in a stupor, I'd not thought to hide it before leaving for breakfast. 

 The book hums, reaching out when it feels my presence, but the fingers of its grasp feel hesitant this time. It's chosen me, but the hunger for dark magic seems to have piqued its interest. My mouth feels dry as my heart pounds in my ears. If she gets the book, it's over, but there's always the chance she will have the reaction I did.

 What if she dies? Can I take that risk?

"Fancy seeing you here, I wondered if you would catch on soon enough. The waves of the diseased follow me around, I really can't turn it off at this point. Funny, hmm?"

 Trying to recall any of my training, I scramble to think of any spell that could come to me that could stop her, but with one movement, her hand would be on the book. 

Could I be fast enough? 

Corina's eyes watch the cover as her fingers draw imaginary lines in the aura emanating from its pages.

 "When you play with dark magic, it rots away at you, though I'm sure you have realized this by now. There has to be some darkness in you if you can hold onto this thing. Daddy always thought you were the purest." She sighs as she reminisces about our childhood, tapping her nails on the air as if there were some sort of barrier preventing her from slamming her hand down on the cover of the very book she'd been after. 

Her eyes flick up, locking on my own as she closes her palm. My heart pounds in my ears; I test my fingertips but know that I'm far too drained to take her on again; even with the book, I might not be able to overcome the backlash. 

 "Nikki, what am I going to do with you? I didn't think you'd side with them, this has put me in quite a spot. I didn't think you'd be sick... no, this wasn't in the plan at all." 

I can hear the manic people outside scratching at the door, coupled with the clang of a sword. Verando was trying to get to me, but if he came in here, she might panic and move faster. I needed time to think.

Corina seemed to understand that the cards were in her hands, for she was in no hurry to get on with her plan. "It's getting more and more difficult for me to travel. While obedience is nice, there is an awful lot of them to control. While I obviously don't mind taking life, wasting it is rather frustrating. The human virus is new, do you like it? I heard you playing with my friends." She giggles, childlike, as the wide gaze rolls to glare at the door. 

The string of the harp that is her mind has snapped. 

I can't help but dwell on the fate I see before me. Was this my future if I kept using the book? I've been trying to put it out of my mind but it's hard not to question whether I will end up this way in the end. Fear that I'd buried down deep in my core begins to worm to the surface, playing a chant on repeat that I owed these people nothing; I'd given plenty, and there was no shame in bowing out now. 

"Sure aren't playing nice though, bashing in their sweet heads. You must, of course, or they just circle and circle, and then they die. They're not nearly as hardy as the lycans." She twiddles her fingers, dusting off her tattered dress. The dark circles under her eyes look off compared to her sickly olive skin. Pale, just as I had been when I'd come home, and there were strange hints of her original skin tone. She'd been out of the sun, out of the light, for far too long. 

I hear the commotion outside, the sound of a sword cutting its way through bodies, and the screeches of the crazed beings in the marble halls echo like a phantom opera. My hair stands on edge; please come for me. I need help.