Magic to the Bone by Annie Bellet Read Free Book Online Page B

again. Him being fully in the real world would be one dragon too many, apparently.
    “Holding this pocket has been tiring enough,” Ash said. He shook his head. “The Seal weakens. I cannot leave the Veil again. I’ve played chicken enough with the Oath for one lifetime, I think.”
    It was interesting to have my very existence referred to as playing chicken,but I let it go. Things were tense now that I was leaving. He’d accepted my promise not to kill Samir, but I had a suspicion that Ash was perfectly aware how thin that promise was, and that if push came to dying horribly, I’d break it in a heartbeat.
    A person. Not a place.
    “I can do this,” I muttered. “Good-bye, Ash. Thank you,” I added. He didn’t offer a hug and I didn’t ask. Ash nodded atme and smiled. I decided to pretend his smile was less sad than it looked.
    There was only one person I wanted to be with if I got right to the core of it all. I closed my eyes and let all awareness of the field and my father slip away. Instead I pictured Alek. Tall, strong, ice-blue eyes, soft, pale skin, lips curving in a smirk that said he could see through all my bullshit. My tiger, my rock,my mate. I let my magic flow through me and focused all my will on being with Alek, on feeling his arms curling around me again, on the wild, musky scent of him.
    Then I clicked my heels, because why not.
    “There’s no place like home,” I whispered.
    Turned out there was no place like home. There was fucking cold air, shitloads of snow, and my damn friends about to get themselves killed.

    I popped out of the Veil and ended up standing on the roof of an SUV in the middle of a big clearing. There was snow everywhere and my thin flannel shirt felt like nothing against the below-freezing air. I gasped for breath and squinted to look around in the dimming light. I barely had a moment to register that Harper was here and alive. The damn fox was about to get herself killed. Samir’smagic coated this place like sugar on Frosted Flakes. It was writhing all around a paddock formed of silvered barbed wire, and radiated out in a spiral from there. I couldn’t tell what the spell would do once triggered, but I couldn’t imagine it was anything good.
    There was a two-story farmhouse to my right with a huge white tiger crouched by the porch. Alek. Alive, for the moment. His blue eyesmet mine and I held up my hands in a stay-put gesture.
    “It’s a trap, stop!” I called out to both of them. How the hell Harper hadn’t triggered it yet I didn’t know, but I could puzzle that out later. Provided later wasn’t too late, of course.
    The fox turned and looked at me. Her mouth opened and then shut. It was almost comical except for the dire circumstances. I gave her a thumbs-up. Fox-Harperdidn’t move, staying frozen in place. Tiger-Alek shifted to human, but also stayed where he was.
    “Jade,” he called out. “What is it?”
    I rubbed my thumb over my talisman, using my newfound skills to examine Samir’s spell. His power smelled honey sweet and sickened me. I forced myself to remain calm. Destructive magic. Coming into the area hadn’t triggered it. The spiral looked like a whirlpoolof power, pulling in toward the center. It encompassed the house, the paddock, even the area I was in.
    “Jade?”
    I turned my head as Ezee shouted from across the field, his voice another balm on my worried soul. He and Levi stood at the edge of the clearing, just outside the spell’s range.
    “Stay back,” I yelled to them. “Stay at the tree line.” The last thing I needed was for two more of us tobe caught in this.
    “What about the unicorn?” Levi yelled. “We’re here for it.”
    I looked back at the dome of glowing wires over the paddock. For a moment I saw the white horse, but something about it seemed off. Samir’s magic colored it as well. I summoned more of my power into myself and really stared. The unicorn seemed to melt away, leaving a grotesque construction of silver