The Golden Apple (The Dark Forest Book 1) by Michelle Diener

Author:Michelle Diener [Diener, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

A whisper of power slithered over the back of Rane’s neck, and he spun round, sure he’d find a ball of wild magic behind him.

There was nothing.

And suddenly, from within the cottage, there was silence. The murmur of conversation between Kayla and Ylana had been too soft for him to hear the words, but now there was no sound at all.

Rane turned back to the shutters and pressed himself hard against them, his eye up against the narrow crack. He could see Ylana, still standing by the table, and Kayla, staring at a shelf. Her hand reached out, hesitated, and then grasped whatever it was she had found.

Rane was thrown back, landing hard on the ground.

As he looked up, the roof came off the cottage, an explosion of purple light blowing it straight up.

Rane scrambled to his feet and saw the purple light was encased, contained, by a filigree of purple green. A net of wild magic.

As suddenly as it had erupted, the light cut off, and the roof came down, thatch falling like golden rain all about him.

He ran for the door, his heart stuttering in his chest, but before he could reach it, it slammed open. Kayla stepped out, her hair wild, her eyes huge in her face. There was a small bundle in her hand, held away from her.

“Are you all right?” He wanted to touch her, reassure himself she was safe, but she held up a shaking hand to stop him, looked over her shoulder, and he saw Ylana still standing at the table. With the roof gone, she was bathed in the full light of late afternoon, her face set in a strangely animated expression of fury.

“This is the gem.” Kayla lifted the wrapped stone, but did not offer it to him. He reached forward for it anyway and she jerked it back. “Don’t touch. Not with your bare hands. I don’t know how I . . .” She looked down at her fingers. “I used wild magic instinctively, forced the power up, instead of out.” She spoke slowly. “If you had been the one to take it, you’d be dead.”

Rane took the rag bundle from her hand, carefully drew aside the corners, and peered at the huge lavender gem within. “Eric doesn’t know how dangerous it is, or he’d have warned us.” He covered it over again, dropped it carefully into his pouch. “It does him no good if we’re dead.”

“Perhaps he won’t be as fast as I was. Perhaps he’ll kill himself with it.” She spoke as if detached from herself, still shocked. Then she twisted her arm, lifted it, and he saw a tiny pattern at the base of her wrist, five balls set in an upward spiral.

“What is that?” He caught her hand and drew it toward him, ran a thumb over the pattern, his finger gliding over the velvet smoothness of her skin.

“The wild magic.” Her other hand covered his, stilled his fingers. “Every time I call it, it marks me.

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