Pretty Spelled by K.A Knight
Atlas
Idon’t tell them how I have been reaching Lilith, since it would only make them worry—worry I’m falling into the same darkness that possesses her, worry that I’m becoming nothing more than a corrupt dark magic user.
Blood magic is a fine line between evil and necessity, but I’ll do it every single fucking day if it’s what gets my mate back to me. I will blacken my soul, corrupt my body, and drain every last drop of my blood just for a chance to hold her again.
To see those blue eyes one more time.
When Khalid and Remi have gone to bed, I head to my altar in the basement where I conduct all my magic. I can do it outside of here, but this is my power zone, where I feel the safest, where I can unleash myself and be vulnerable without anyone knowing.
I don’t bother with the light. I send my magic into the room, and the candles instantly flicker to life. The flames reach to the ceiling before they settle down. Walking through the door, I kneel on my cushion before the altar as I arrange my crystals, candles, and tools. Once ready, I grab the dagger and silver bowl and close my eyes, the words of intent leaving my lips as I slice down my hand and then fist it, letting my blood drip into the bowl. Each drop sizzles as I repeat the incantation, again and again, my intent impossible to ignore.
To track her.
Find her.
Always her.
I send my magic out into the world, like an arrow, the end of it tied to me with a string. It follows the tug that leads me to my mate, which is obscured and half frayed from the possession. We circle the world, homing in on her, and I have to cut again. I add more and more blood, over and over. I would bleed myself dry. After hours, I have only narrowed it down to one side of the world, and I know I need to stop before I have what magic users call shortage—where we use too much magic and it leaves us in a cold, empty, tired state. Pulling back, I slump in disappointment before blowing out the candles.
Tomorrow, I will do it again.
I lie in the darkness, not wanting to move. I feel closer to her here. As sleep takes me, I am sucked into a dream, a memory.
We are sitting at the dining table. My parents are away, celebrating our recent success in battle. Lilith is at my side. It’s a familiar memory. It’s the night I realised I would love this woman forever. She is the light in our family, the one thing that keeps us humble and human. But the memory morphs, changing. Her face stretches, her eyes turn black, and blood runs down her cheeks like tears, and I jerk back and get to my feet.
“Wildflower?” I murmur. The room spins before filling with mist, and my brothers’ laughter echoes before the sound disappears altogether, and then Lilith walks towards me through the vapour.
“Attie, save me,” Lilith screams, the fog opening before she, the necromancer, suddenly appears, laughing as she circles me. “She showed me this memory, you know. I made her a deal to spare a life for it. Poor little Lilith, so gullible.”
“Necromancer,” I hiss as she trails her fingers across my back. Unlike when my mate does it, her touch sends shivers of terror down my back, as if icicles have just slithered along my spine.
“The one and only. I see your obsession with her. You are quite powerful and not bad looking. I wonder…” She appears before me. “If I promised to free your mate, to take another body in exchange for your servitude, would you do it?” She cocks her head. “I know she would to save you.”
Before I can reply, she steps away with a laugh and the room changes until we are seated again, those familiar blue eyes blinking at me before Lilith wipes food across my face. The necromancer appears behind her, using Lilith’s skin, but the eyes are wrong and her face is pale. Black veins crawl along her body. The rest of the scene freezes with Lilith smiling widely at me, her eyes sparkling with love and mirth.
“Look at her, so innocent, so in love…” She leans in, stroking along Lilith’s frozen face, and I snarl, but I’m locked in place and I can’t stop her. “If only she knew what was coming for her. Did you even know how much she suffered while you were off fighting some war?” She snorts and leans closer, pressing her face against Lilith’s until they are both staring at me. My eyes dart around, trying to conjure my magic to defeat this. I won’t let her ruin this memory or corrupt it like she has my mate’s soul and body.
“You were gone for so long. That’s when her powers appeared. Did you know? She struggled with them. Some townsfolk saw and called her a witch. It got back to your parents, of course, and they interrogated her. She ran into the forest and screamed. The pain was too much as she tried to control the power. She doesn’t even remember that she saw so far into the future and into the past. She knows how this will end, always did, even if her human mind broke under the pressure.” Her eyes widen as I gasp. “Yes, god, that’s why she was different. Her mind warped from travelling so far. No one should ever have so much power. To see so much, to see how they die.”
“Get out of her!” I snarl through gritted teeth. I won’t listen to her lies. Who knows what the truth is? She will say whatever will hurt me most.
“You thought she had grown sad, pulling away because she did not love you anymore.” She strokes Lilith’s face. “In fact, she was screaming for help, losing herself with each passing day. The magic burned through her like acid. She struggled to hold it back at all times… What your parents did was a mercy. They freed her from that struggle.”
“Stop!” I roar.
“And you didn’t see because you were too busy, too self involv—”
“Trying to hold my family together!” I yell.
“Trying not to love her!” she screams in my face before sitting back and smiling. “Look how that turned out for you. Not to worry, she is mine now, and I will show her the great pleasures this world has to offer before she dies.”
She kisses Lilith’s cheek. “Think of this as my gift to you, your last chance to say goodbye.”
“Why?” I whisper.
“Because it hurts and I like the pain, and it will wither her soul further no matter what you say.” She laughs and then disappears. The table and my brothers stay frozen, but Lilith blinks and slowly unfreezes, the smile dropping as she looks around in confusion before her eyes dart to mine in panic.
“Attie!” she yells. “Run! It’s a trap.”
Closing my eyes in agony, I lean closer, knowing this is my mate. I press my head to hers, cupping her cheek. “Shh, Wildflower—”
“No, she took my memory, she is going to use it to hurt yo—”
“I know,” I murmur. “Don’t worry about it, I can handle anything as long as I get to see you, even for a stolen moment.”
“Attie,” she whispers, and I am unable to look away from those bright eyes. “I’m scared.”
“I know,” I reply. “But I’m coming. Hold on, okay?”
She shakes her head, trying to pull away. “Don’t come after me, let me go. Let me die. It’s the only way. I’m losing myself, Atlas, with each day that passes. I can’t hold her back for too long.” She swallows and licks her lips, and I see an intelligence, an age in her eyes that wasn’t there the last time I saw her alive. “You have to let me go, Atlas, you have to stop this. I know you can do it, my god. You can do anything…but to do it, you must let go to save the world.”
“I can’t,” I rasp, my voice shaking. “I n-need you—” I stutter over the words. “I love you.”
She smiles sadly, tears dripping from her eyes as she leans in and kisses my scarred, worn face. “I know, my love, I love you too. Always have. But this world has other plans for us. I remember it now. Please, Atlas, I need you to stop this. To save the world, you have to. I have seen what will happen if you don’t. I can’t let that happen, and if I have to let myself fade away for you to stop it, I will.”
“You come first, always!” I snap.
She grins. “What I’ve always wanted to hear.” She glances down at her hand before meeting my eyes. “But this time, I can’t. Do you hear me? Trust in your family, trust in yourself. Save the world.”
“You’re my family,” I whisper brokenly, my heart cracking.
“And you’re mine, Attie, always have been, always will be,” she vows, leaning in and kissing my lips softly. A goodbye. The warmth chases away the pain for a moment. “But sometimes, the thing we want most is the thing we can never have. Don’t be sad, Attie, we had so much fun.” She giggles. “Like this.” She looks at the others, and I follow her gaze. “Look at their happiness, their laughter. They can’t be whole like this without you. They need you.”
“They need you too—”
“No, my love. They have their mates now, their souls are full.” She sighs.
“But mine is not,” I whisper.
She blinks sadly. “I know. That is your burden to bear. Always has been, Atlas.” Her eyes go far away for a moment, and she panics. “She’s coming back to take me away. I need you to know, Attie, I love you. Love you all so much. I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough—stop looking for me—go to—” She fades as I try to hold onto the mist, and then the memory dissipates, and I wake up screaming her name.
My heart is breaking.
My magic explodes.
* * *
Slipping away, I head to the basement to try again, knowing every moment counts. Every minute, every hour that passes, is another moment she slips further from me. Is it not enough that my family believes we have lost her? I had breakfast with my brother and his mate, remaining silent. They found me coming from the basement last night, and I didn’t even need to explain why I screamed, they saw it in my eyes. This morning, I’m silent, unable to talk. She wants me to give up, but she should know better.
A god never backs down.
They watch me go. I see them share a look, but I ignore it as I lock the door and complete the ritual again. This time I get closer. It’s like seeing a map being revealed one piece at a time.
When I’m spent, I head upstairs to find it’s late afternoon. We eat again, and they try to engage me in conversation, but I ignore them. After, I go back down and do it once more, draining myself to see those last few pieces. I will never stop looking for Wildflower. Everyone else might give up on her—the Fates, my brothers—but Lilith is mine, always has been, and if this world has to burn for me to save her, so be it.
When I lay on the sofa, they both stop before me, looking concerned and angry. “Go away,” I snarl. The darkness fills me, so does exhaustion, causing me to take my frustration out on them. Once I do, I feel guilty, knowing I’m falling too much into the seductive darkness of the magic.
They watch me worriedly as I blink and rub my face. “I didn’t mean to yell, I apologise.”
“The blood magic is messing with your emotions, brother,” Khalid warns and sighs. I don’t question how he knows, my exhaustion making my mind slow. “Maybe stop—”
“Stop?” I yell. “I can’t stop. I have to find her before we lose her altogether.”
“Then let us help,” Remi pleads. “If we lose you, the world doesn’t stand a chance. This is not your burden to bear alone. Let us in, let us help you.”
I stare at them, unsure what to say.
“It’s changing you, brother, you don’t even see it. I feel your anger, your hatred. Do not become like her. Let us ground you, let us help you,” Khalid pleads.
“How?” I query, wondering if it’s possible. If it is, maybe I can do more magic faster, find her quicker, and they are right—I need their help. I can’t win this war alone. That’s what it is, after all. A war. One as old as time itself. Good versus evil. I know it takes getting your hands dirty, plugging them into the darkness, the evil, to stop it.
You can’t fight black with bright white. You have to fade it to grey.
“By working together,” Khalid suggests.
“You know what I do on hunts when I can’t find them?” Remi says with a frown. “I stop chasing and let them come to me. She attacked all of us, so she wants us for something, even if it’s to kill us. Why not make ourselves an easy target?” She grins.
“Like a trap?” I frown at her, focused, and she grins wider before winking at me.
“Exactly like a trap, magic man. It takes the meaning of kidnapping your love to a whole new level.” She laughs.
A trap… Could it work?
