Silver Moon (Colors of the Moon #3)

Chapter 36

My heart gave an erratic thump as I lowered the doorknob and entered my home. The moment I set my foot inside the living room, I froze. And so did Theo.

Not because we were surprised by anything inside the house. We froze quite literary. Our muscles turned into unmoving stone; a sensation both of us had experienced before.

Darlene keeping a freezing spell on the house wasn't too surprising. It was, after all, an effective way to prevent other supernatural creatures from reaching her.

In the position I froze in, my eyes landed on two figures seated on the couch.

Vivian and Kasey.

If my every muscle hadn't been turned to stone, I would have exhaled a deep breath right now. Both of them were still alive.

Kasey was sitting closer to the door, with her eyes focused straight forward. The absence of even a single blink told me she was under the same spell as Theo and I. Vivian, on the other hand, was a human, so the freezing spell didn't work on her. This was probably why she had a kitchen cloth stuffed inside her mouth and her wrists bound with a thick rope. The moment her eyes landed on the two of us, a muffled shout exploded from her, and she began to wiggled around.

I tried to send her a warning glare to keep quiet while I quickly tuned into my inner magical senses. Within seconds, I reached Kasey's magic and lured it into my own body. It was almost ironic how the only reason I was able to swiftly break out of the freezing spell was because my mother had used it on me five years ago. It had been my first brush with the spell and it was all because of Darlene.

Once Kasey's magic was inside me, I broke the freezing spell first on me and then on Theo. 

The living room in front of me swayed and hot blood rushed through my ears. I grabbed onto the nearest solid object, which turned out to be Theo's arm. The bile rising up my throat was telling me to stop, but I fought against the nausea. I couldn't stop now.

"Gab—" Theo began.

Before he could even finish my name, I dug my nails into his arm. The act of hurting him probably hurt me more than him, but it still did the trick. And when a second later the world stopped spinning, I rushed over to the couch and knelt in front of Kasey.

From up close she didn't look like the Kasey I had left inside the dining room only hours ago. Her cheeks were carved into her skull, while deep black bags colored the undersides of her eyes. There was only one explanation for her deteriorating state.

Darlene was channeling her life magic.

The nausea returned at the thought of Darlene doing this to her own sister. Her own flesh and blood. Then I realized what I had just done to break out of the freezing spell and the pit in my stomach expanded. The signs on her body were screaming at me, telling me she wasn't strong enough for anyone to channel her magic. But I didn't have another choice. None of us did.

I swallowed the pungent taste in my mouth and coxed Kasey's magic back over to me. In one quick motion I freed her from the freezing spell, just as Theo tore the last bit of rope off Vivian's body.

Kasey's eyes fluttered, but before she could do anything more than that, the room began to sway again. A warm sensation tickled the underside of my nose and for a second everything turned dark.

I would have landed head first on the floor, if it weren't for Theo's quick reflexes. He caught me just in time and leaned my upper body against him. The room surrounding us refused to stop spinning, so I had to close my eyes to keep me from hurling out the contents of my stomach.

"Stupid." Despite the ragged croak, I still recognized Kasey's voice. "How much magic," a loud cough interrupted her, "have you used? Your magic isn't unlimited."