DARJA
“Aggie?”
Her name was a whisper on my lips, hushed like a prayer. But there was no soul inside me left to pray, and nothing to pray to. There never would be again.
It was all wrong. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew that much. The spell Aggie and Mirtel had cast seemed to break something loose inside me. My bond with Sofi was still there, but I felt suddenly unmoored, like a ship tossed around on a roiling sea.
There was magic sizzling around us, crackling through the air. Though my eyes were fixed only on Aggie, I caught Stephen out of my peripheral vision, sprinting toward us with horror etched across his face. When he got close, he pulled up short, and I could see his hair standing on end.
My fingertips hummed with electricity. This was magic, deep and wild and unfathomable.
And it had done something to Aggie.
I went to her in what felt like slow motion, my whole being moving as if through molasses. After what felt like an eternity, she turned her head and looked at me. She was smiling, but there was pain—pain so strong it threatened to consume me—in her eyes.
“It worked,” she said, and her voice was both relieved and disbelieving. “It actually worked.”
I shook my head. “What worked? Aggie, what are you—” She slumped then, and I caught her in my arms, her spirit light as a feather.
“Oh, Aggie,” I said, as I lowered us gently over the grass. “Aggie, what did you do?”
She smiled again, but it was weaker. In my arms, what once had felt warm and soft and almost alive felt more like porcelain—cool, unyielding, and so, so fragile.
Behind me, I heard raised voices, hysterical and frantic. It was Sofi, screaming at Stephen to tell her what had happened. What was happening.
I turned my head in time to see Stephen shake his head, his face stricken. “The spell,” he said, running a hand through his hair, the static around us making it cling to his fingers. “The spell…”
“What spell?” Sofi demanded. “What did they do?”
“I thought it was too dangerous,” Stephen said, almost as if talking to himself. “That’s why I took it out of the book. I don’t know how she—”
“What. Spell,” Sofi ground out.
Stephen looked at her, his eyes brimming with tears. “The Spell of Sacrifice. It was in the old text. I translated it, but I never showed it to anyone. I didn’t think anyone should be able to…to do that.”
Sacrifice.
The words sent ice through my veins, and I let out a sound that was more animal than human.
“No,” I said, “Aggie, no.”
“It’s too late, Darja,” she said, raising a hand to my cheek. “We had to. There was no choice.”
I wanted to cry. I wanted to pour out an ocean of tears and drown in it, with Aggie by my side. The bitterness I felt at not even being able to grieve threatened to consume me. But it couldn’t, not yet. Not while I still had Aggie here with me. Not while I could still cradle her in my arms.
“You knew?” I whispered. “You knew this would happen?”
Slowly, almost painfully, Aggie nodded. “Mirtel explained it all. It was our last resort. I don’t—I don’t want to leave you, but—”
“So don’t,” I said, my voice almost a growl. “I just found you. I didn’t even know…I didn’t think it could be like this—”
My words were cut off by Sofi’s scream. “Mirtel!”
I had been so focused on Aggie I hadn’t even spared a glance for the older woman. I looked at her then, and swallowed down a scream of my own.
Mirtel’s face was gray, ashen and nearly lifeless. She was swaying on her feet, the velvet of her skirt rustling softly against the ground. I didn’t know what Sofi saw, but what I could see…
I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t understand it. And I couldn’t stop it.
As the life literally drained from Mirtel’s body, I could see something soft and wispy, like an exhale of smoke, twisting its way out of her chest. It clung to her at first, like a mist, then, as it grew larger, it whirled around her like a shroud.
My eyes darted back to Sofi, who was frozen in terror. Just as Mirtel’s body began to collapse, Stephen jumped behind her and caught her, moving her carefully to the ground.
The white mist stayed where it was, hovering above the body it had once been chained to. As I watched, Aggie gripped my hand tighter, and the mist slowly took form—arms, legs, a pile of wild, flyaway hair, and finally a face, recognizable, but unlined and carefree in a way I’d never seen.
“Mirtel,” I said softly. “Oh, Mirtel…”
Sofi ran to Mirtel’s body and dropped to her side, apparently not seeing the apparition of Mirtel’s spirit. I couldn’t find the words to tell her there was no one left in there anymore; it was just a shell.
The spirit smiled gently at me. It was tremulous, sad…but also relieved. “I’m so sorry, Darja. I wouldn’t have done this if there’d been another choice.”
I shook my head fiercely, refusing to comprehend what she was saying. “No. No…”
“Aggie,” she said then, looking lovingly at the spirit growing ever colder in my arms. “Aggie, my darling girl, you’re free now.”
“NO!” I roared, clutching Aggie to my chest. “Not like this. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
Aggie put a single finger to my lips. “Shh,” she whispered. “It’s okay. I didn’t want to leave you. I don’t want to leave you…”
“So don’t,” I choked out over my tears.
Aggie smiled, a genuine smile that seemed to light her eyes from within. “I have to, Darja. Whatever is supposed to come after life…this wasn’t it. It was never meant to be this way. Now I can move on, knowing that it wasn’t in vain. Knowing that it brought me to you.”
“Aggie, please.”
“It’s going to be okay,” she said. Her eyes flickered, then suddenly grew lighter, a pale shade of gray, like the sky just before a breaking dawn.
“No,” I said, though I knew it was too late for that. The spell couldn’t be undone. Her spirit grew lighter, until I could see the green grass through her tremulous form.
“I’ll wait for you,” she said, her voice thin and faraway. “Wherever I go, I’ll wait for you there.”
“I love you,” I said frantically, pleadingly, desperately wanting her to hear it, to know it.
“I know,” she said, echoing my thoughts. “I know you do. I love you, too.”
I leaned down and placed a kiss on her lips. I could barely feel them beneath mine, but I stayed like that for a long moment, feeling her against me, memorizing every line, every curve, every inch of her.
When I opened my eyes, she was gone.
I looked up to see Mirtel’s spirit, still hovering above us, but she was fading, too.
“Goodbye, my friend,” she said. “Take care of the others. They will need you.”
Through my pain, I choked out a raspy, “Goodbye.” As Mirtel’s spirit seemed to dissolve into nothing, I looked over to Sofi and Stephen, still crouched around her body.
Sofi’s eyes met mine, and a surge of magic arced through the air. I could feel it building inside me, charging up through the earth and into me, buzzing all through me.
Vaikesti had done this. All of this. Every person in this town was culpable. My father chief among them.
I could hear the whine and hum of the magic as I slowly stood up, splaying my hands and feeling the power dart between my fingers.
They’d killed me. They’d killed Aggie. Twice. They’d brought her to me, and then they’d taken her away.
They were all going to pay. Every last one of them.