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Darkness enshrouded her.

The sound of the battlefield died away.

The scent of the blood and sweat neutralized to nothing.

Shewas slowly turning into nothing.

She felt the tendrils of fear entwine their way into her soul.

She wanted to curl up into a ball as visions of where the staff had been and what people had done with its power crept in, trying to eat away her own memories.

A vision of a woman sobbing for mercy and being sliced apart by a faceless body burned away the memory of the moment her father had first extended his hand with a plate full of cake and a pouch of juice.

The first time she’d bested Axel in a spar, and her sister had cheered in admiration for her cunning instead of getting angry at being bested shattered. A vision of burning buildings, the sharp stench of flesh in those flames assaulting her, took its place.

No!

She tried to hold on helplessly to a vision of Louisa singing karaoke on a bar’s table top. Rowan herself had been taking part in a brawl that had broken out on the dance floor, singing along with her best friend. But it slipped from her fingers, replaced by a memory of someone being held face down in the water of a pristine marble fountain. A slice of air magic shredding the skin of the assaulter.

Rowan’s fear hit a plateau at the sight of the spell work.

This was her bread and butter.

Curses, at the base of their being, were just bundles of magic.

Though there were no scrolls on how to cleanse curses, there were plenty concentrating on what they were.

The laughter was back again, wrapping around her, dropping bundles of energy as Rowan pushed the darkness away from her arms, legs, and soul.

The divine energy the ghost was leaving at her disposal was the hint she had needed. She could now see what she couldn’t believe had always lived within her. Her own brand of divine magic, eager to be used. It was much smaller than the pools of her demonic and elven inheritance, but it certainly wasn’t anything to scoff at.

At their core, curses were nothing more than parasitic dark magic, and now that she knew she had the opposing force under her control, she could neutralize it.

Recalling Alessandro’s instructions of returning to basics, and the notes from the Elder’s grimoire, she pulled the energy from the ley line overhead, filtering it through every single gate at once. She pushed out a spell of healing, interweaving her divinity as she overtook the particles of darkness. They receded as Rowan claimed every single atom as hers.

The world became visible, and she focused her attention on imbuing the memories it tried to take from her with power. They worked as a restraint when the curse energy bucked in rebellion and tried to spill out to find purchase on any of the onlookers around her.

The moment the last bit became neutralized, heat surged through the weapon. The power woven through the grain of the wood was overwhelming. It needed a wielder. It wasn’t an everyday object. Created with a purpose, it needed somewhere to point its power, or it would fall into darkness again.

“Mine.” The words held power and the splinters and nicks on the staff began repairing themselves, leaving nothing behind but words of an unfamiliar language.

It was over.

Her eyes sought him out. Alessandro stood with his arms crossed over his chest so tightly that he was digging his claws into his forearms, trying to keep from reaching out to her.

She gave the barest hint of a smile before the ghost touched down beside her. The being had its attention turned to Lucifer, a small smile on the beautiful, haunting face before it burst into millions of fragments of light.

Rowan’s hands shook and her eyes burned as she took in what she had just accomplished.

Behind her, a sound of pain made her back straighten. Shock was clear in Alessandro’s golden eyes as they locked on the source.

Lucifer let out a soft curse and Rowan slowly turned to take in the rebuilt body of Antoni Barros. Bruised, unconscious and lightly bleeding, but totally whole once more.

The murmurs of the audience they’d had to the first ever successful cleansing made Rowan’s eyes snap back up. She slid Whisper into the scabbard on her back, and after checking where Kin, Louisa and Axel were, she sent her mate a silent nod before phasing out.

Chapter 33

The first time Lucifer overrode one of Rowan’s spells, Rowan had been so discombobulated that she threw up.