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“Well, there’s something I need to tell you,” she said, turning to Cyrus.

“Now?” Cyrus swiped across a bigger rat’s exposed belly. Its dead body thumped to the ground.

“I think now is actually the perfect time.”

“Saige,” Cyrus said, unamused.

Evelyn pulled her bone staff free, her obsidian hair unraveling. She twirled the staff through her fingers until she gripped it in her palm, the dragon bone matte against her skin. With a surge of magic, it transformed to its full size, and she slammed the staff into the grand hall’s floor, magic shuddering through the stone. It sent a wave of opal energy at the rats, ricocheting them back.

“I’m a witch.”

Chapter Sixteen

Evelyn

Evelyn’s heart hammered, her insides jumbled with jitters, waiting for Cyrus’s reaction.

Time stopped in the grand hall as she waited, the rats unable to break past the waves her staff sent out.

Yet, Cyrus only blinked and . . . didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised. Instead, his lips twitched into a smile and his eyes twinkled in triumph.

“Magic sounds like an amazing idea,” he said.

Evelyn controlled the magic from the staff, knocking back rats as she and Cyrus advanced toward the exit. Cyrus continued to cut down any rats that scurried past Evelyn’s wave of magic, fighting off the bigger ones and annihilating the small ones.

A rat as round and massive as Maxie pounced and clung to Evelyn’s forearm, sinking its teeth into her flesh, attempting to compromise the mighty grip on her staff.

Metal slicing through the air rang in Evelyn’s ears, and then the rat’s hold on her arm loosened. Cyrus caught her before she fell to her knees, blood streaming down her hand.

“Can you heal?” he asked, peering down with unfaltering concern lacing his beautiful eyes.

“Yes,” she breathed.

Castle Connacht shook. Debris and dust fell from above, and the bellow of a larger, fiercer demon echoed. The stone wall covered by the tapestry crumbled, and a rat-like creature twice the size of Bleu, with the talons and tail of a reptile, burst into the grand hall.

Evelyn and Cyrus stood back-to-back as the rats around them retreated, and the demon sized them up. Darkness rolled off it, and the smaller rats hissed, waiting for the leader to charge. Evelyn drove her staff down, casting out stronger magic, and Cyrus tightened his grip on his sword.

“Do you think it’s pissed we stepped on the offerings?” she asked.

Cyrus raised a single brow, the hint of a smile on his lips. “You’re unbelievable.”

Together they charged the demon. Evelyn sent out a flare of magic, bringing up debris and hitting the demon. It screeched in pain, distracted long enough for Cyrus to cut its forearm, sending black blood spraying into the grand hall. Back and forth they went, Evelyn assaulting the demon and Cyrus injuring it further.

Yet, the demon caught on to their plan and bucked, swishing its tail at them, hitting them. Evelyn fell with a deafening thump, her staff clattering across the stone and out of reach.

Cyrus had been knocked through her barrier and into the horde of smaller rats. He growled, fiercely and in pain, and gritted his teeth as a rat latched on to his shoulder. He swatted and fought, but there were too many of them as they crawled and overcame him. He rose and fell, killing one only to have two more run him over.

Not again.

Evelyn tamped down her fear and shook away the doubt. She had to protect him, had to get them out of this mess.

She swooshed magic behind her, and the rats fell away, giving her distance to reach her staff. She gripped the ancient bone, her magic humming through her veins. It soared. She hammered it into the grand hall and screamed.

And instead of an opal white, red and orange flame ascended from her staff, cascading its power through the grand hall and scorching the rats in its wake.

A feathery warm lightness overtook Evelyn’s muscles and hollowed her bones. Her heart soared. Her mind reeled.

Elated. Awakened. Light.