The Witch Born to Smoulder (Inferno Book 4) by Tanya Milne

Author:Tanya Milne [Milne, Tanya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ asked Jet for what felt like the hundredth time.

All day, he’d been trying to talk me out of learning dark magic. All day, I’d been telling him I’d made up my mind and that I had to harness every power I could before my family’s trial in six days.

I rolled my eyes and clamped my lips together.

‘Okay,’ said Jet, holding his hands up in defeat.

Excitement and dread mixed together inside me in equal measure.

We stood in a round clearing deep in the bush, and above us the waning moon shone down weakly. Jet looked around the space and his gaze landed on Boy, who sat on the boundary, his eyes fixed on his master.

‘Learning black magic is about harnessing the powers of the dead,’ he said.

I gasped, remembering the dead sailors who’d poisoned me with their dark magic.

‘Most people, when they die, they move on, past our world. But some, some get stuck. Perhaps they couldn’t let go, or perhaps others held onto them too tightly. Whatever the reason, their souls linger. It’s these souls that search for…you – their leader.’

My skin prickled. I zipped up my jacket, but it did nothing to remove the chill that hovered around us.

‘It’s these souls – the dead – who can be summoned,’ said Jet.

I gazed around myself, the shadows holding shapes where only moments ago there were only trees.

‘Do you feel that?’ he asked.

I nodded, no longer trusting my voice.

‘Talking about them draws them closer. You…you draw them.’

My heart started racing. Jet stepped closer and took my hand.

‘Tonight, I’m going to teach you how to summon the dead and how to send them away again. If you don’t send them away…they won’t go.’

I shivered and rubbed my arms, but the night around us was too cold to fend off.

‘If last week was anything to go by, the dark creatures will try and harm you again. So you’ll need to send them away quickly.’

I pictured them attacking me, filling me with their poison.

‘Still sure you want to do this?’ asked Jet.

No!

‘Sure,’ I said, my voice cracking.

‘It’s critical you send the dead away quickly…to stop them from hurting you.’

I reminded myself that I wanted to learn this, needed to learn this.

I nodded. ‘What do I do?’

Jet stood taller, his breath white in the cold night air.

‘It’s simple, but difficult at the same time. To call the dead, you cast a spell. And then you make yourself feel as you do in your darkest moments.’

Suddenly, it made sense – why they came for me when I was feeling the most vulnerable, the most threatened.

‘How do you just make yourself feel like that when you’re not in danger?’ I asked.

‘You remember how you felt in those darkest moments. Once you feel these memories, really feel them, as though they were happening, the dead will come.’

My stomach flipped, but I made myself speak, ask the most important question of all. ‘How do you get rid of them?’

‘To get rid of them, you have to do the opposite.

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