Page 94 of My Faire Lady

There’s a faint halo around her, and she lifts her hand, cupping my cheek. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

My lips move, struggling to piece words together. “Why are you here? You should be with dad, and⁠—”

“I am,” she says, smiling. “And I’m with you, all the time, even if you can’t see me. But I left a piece of myself here, for when you’d finally find out the truth.” Her gaze flicks over my shoulder. “When I found out, I tried to break the consecration, but I didn’t have enough magic. It swallowed me. That’s how I died, here, at the fountain, trying to free everyone.”

My jaw quivers, and it’s like I’m six again, clinging to her and believing that as long as she’s around, I’ll be okay. But the world turned on me when I lost her.

“But you?” she continues, wiping a tear from my cheek. “You’re the strongest Murrell witch to ever live, and you made it this far. You can free them all.” Her eyes harden. “Scarlet, you can free yourself.”

My pulse skitters. “How?”

Chants and incantations fill the air behind me, and a slight vibration shakes the ground. My mother’s eyes widen slightly, and she tightens her hold on my arms, the ends of her hair hovering off her shoulders.

“You need your blood—the blood of every Murrell witch before you. Trace it on the fountain’s runes counterclockwise, before the moon reaches its crest in the sky.”

I nod, repeating the instructions to myself. Screams pierce the air at my back, and I squeeze my eyes shut as a thud follows. The witches are dying, sacrificing their magic to the land.

“I’ll do it,” I say, nodding as tears stream down my face and blur my vision.

The memory ripples, fading in and out of focus as another witch wails and falls to the ground. My mother tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and traces her finger over my scar, the twin to hers.

She gave me mine, and my grandmother gave hers. It’s been like that for thousands of years—a transfer of magic, a transfer of scars, a transfer of secrets.

“And Scarlet,” she says. The outline of her body blurs—her voice a whisper on the wind.

I cling to what’s left of her, as her feet lift off the ground.

“Yes?”

“The magic was stable when she was here because you loved her. She couldn’t give it to the land, but she could give it to you. They are the same, love and magic, when it’s the right person. And she is. She’s your twin flame.”

My breath catches. A hand yanks me backward. My mother and the witches and the memory disappear, swept into the past.

I slam against the ground. Rocks dig into my spine, and I swallow gulps of air as my vision focuses on the sky overhead, the moon creeping closer to the center.

“Scarlet!” a voice screams. Hands grip my shoulders, shaking me. “Scarlet, wake up!”

I jackknife upright, and the world swims. Fresh air wafts over the back of my neck, and Boden’s face appears.

“You weren’t breathing! What the hell happened?”

Frankie hovers behind him, tears streaming down her pale face as she clutches the pendant of her necklace.

I grip the edge of the fountain and heave myself up. “It was all a lie, Boden. All of it.”

He steadies me, and his eyes widen. “You figured it out, didn’t you? How to save the magic.”

A lump forms in my throat as I splay open my hand and trace a rune onto my palm. I bite back the sting as a cut spreads over my skin and blood blooms to the surface. “My ancestors didn’t consecrate the land to keep creatures safe.” I dip my finger into the blood and trace over the first rune on the marble, working counterclockwise like my mother said. “They did it because their power was waning, and they trapped everyone here to feed off their magic.”

Boden’s hand falls from my arm, and Frankie inhales a sharp breath.

“So your magic?” she whispers.

I can’t look at her, not when the guilt of what my ancestors did will weigh on me for the rest of my life. “Has been draining the life from the creatures.”

Boden follows me around the curve of the fountain as I scribble my blood into the carved runes.

“But Scarlet, what will happen to you?” Boden says.