Page 93 of Wicked Ends

There’s a strange vibration coming from the scroll.

“It recognizes you,” Ash says. “Both of us.”

Drake appears at my other side. “What can we do to help?”

“Create a circle,” Ash says immediately. “Keep everyone back. This is going to get intense.”

I swallow hard. “Define ‘intense.’”

He squeezes my hand. “When we unroll this, our magic will need to merge. Completely. No holding back, no walls.”

The implications of what he’s saying hit me. No walls mean no secrets. He’ll see everything about me, and I’ll see everything about him. Every fear, every desire, every ugly truth we keep hidden.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“It’s the only way,” he says. “Full trust or nothing.”

I look around the room. Drake, Lucien, and Soren have already moved to form a protective circle around us, their backs to us as they face outward, ready to stop anyone who might interfere. Victoria stands frozen, her eyes locked on the scroll in my hand, and I can tell the wheels are turning in her head as she plans her next move.

“What if it doesn’t work?” I ask Ash.

“Then we’re exactly where we started.” His green eyes are serious. “But if it does work.”

“No more blood contracts. No more bound witches.”

“Freedom,” he says. The word sounds strange coming from him, like he’s trying it out for the first time.

I nod, decision made. “Let’s do it.”

Ash releases my hand long enough for me to unroll the scroll.

The mark on my arm burns white-hot. I choke, nearly dropping the scroll, but Ash’s hand clamps over mine, holding it in place.

“Don’t let go,” he warns me. “Whatever happens, don’t let go.”

Magic surges through me, not the gentle flow I’m used to but a torrent that wants to sweep me away, a riptide that wants to pull be under. I struggle to stay present.

“Focus on me,” Ash says, his voice sounding distant. “Look at me, Rose.”

I force my eyes to meet his, anchoring myself in the green of his irises. The world around us fades, the voices of the onlookers becoming muffled and indistinct. It’s just us now, Ash and me, and the contract between us.

“Let me in,” he says softly. “All the way in.”

I take a deep breath and deliberately lower every mental and magical barrier I’ve built since I discovered my powers. It feels like stripping naked in front of a crowd, vulnerable and exposed. But as my defenses fall, I feel Ash doing the same.

And then we’re inside each other’s minds. I see flashes of his life, Ash as a lonely boy desperate to please his father, years that left him bloodied and exhausted, the legacy he never asked for but couldn’t escape. I feel his anger, his ambition, his fear of never being enough, his need to have revenge.

And I know he’s seeing the same from me. A girl constantly on the move, never belonging anywhere, the grief of losing my mother, the new terror of discovering powers I couldn’t control. My anger and my resentfulness. My doubts, my insecurities, my fear of being abandoned.

Our magic merges completely, becoming something new, and the scroll begins to glow between our hands

“Now,” Ash says, though his lips don’t move. I hear him inside my head. “We destroy it.”

I direct everything I can toward the contract, visualizing it as shackles to be broken. The resistance is shocking. The contract fights back, sending waves of pain through both of us.

“It’s too strong!”

“No,” Ash counters. “You’re stronger. You are. Believe me, Rose. Trust me.”