Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic by Meghan Ciana Doidge

Author:Meghan Ciana Doidge [Doidge, Meghan Ciana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Romance
ISBN: 9781927850886
Amazon: B07K667THG
Goodreads: 42645657
Publisher: Meghan Ciana Doidge
Published: 2018-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

Rochelle shifted to the love seat, perching beside me to flip through the second sketchbook — and revealing pages upon pages of elves and swords and bloody mayhem. I saw scenes with my father and me, swords flashing. I saw the gateway practically vomiting forth dozens of elves at a time.

Then more sketches of me, looking … well, half-dead, and tearing through the magic I’d helped erect. Destroying the gateway. And apparently, as it was all laid out for me in black and white and accompanied by a helpful narration from the oracle, that gateway was going to collapse and swallow us all.

Yeah, not just me or my father.

The entire city.

Destroyed.

Consumed by a magical backlash. Because of me. My choice. My decision.

My future.

My destiny?

Despite my resolve, I practically inhaled the rest of the bar, smothering my terror in smooth chocolate, candied nuts, and sweet-and-sour fruit.

“Okay, Jade?” Rochelle asked, laying her hand gently on my forearm.

I carefully folded the now-empty plastic wrapper, ignoring my almost desperate desire to rip it open and lick off any tiny slivers of chocolate still stuck to it. “I assume you’ve figured out a way to …” I waved my hand over the sketchbook.

“I’ve figured out a beginning. We’re still taking steps, so … I can’t tell you if it works. I can’t tell you if we’ve thwarted what’s going to happen until we have thwarted it. Until I see a different future.”

“Or until I kill you. Along with the rest of the city.”

Rochelle sighed softly. “Not me.” She lifted her hand from my arm, pressing her palm lightly against her rounded belly.

Right. The girl and the demon. Rochelle would survive the destruction. For long enough to give birth, at least.

The oracle shook her head. “So … the only thing I can tell you for certain is that you can’t be the one to close the gate. But it must be closed. It has to be closed. And … logically, that has to happen after the elves have retreated back through it. So they can’t just go into hiding until they get an opportunity to reopen the gate.”

I stared at her in horror. “You want me to talk the elves into retreating?”

“They don’t seem like big talkers.”

“They aren’t.” Unbidden, a fissure of pain for the lovely elf who’d washed away in the rain opened up in my chest. Mira. Mira didn’t mind trying to communicate. “Mira wanted to go home,” I murmured. “After I killed her brother.”

“The illusionist?”

“Yes.”

“So … what about the others? What if they had the option?”

A ping of hope bloomed within the pain that I seemed to be constantly recalling, constantly holding, constantly fighting through.

Rochelle was watching me closely. This was part of it, part of her magic, part of constructing the plan. She needed me to move in some specific way, but neither of us knew what direction that was yet.

Then I remembered the gemstone that had been embedded in my forehead.

“Even if they did want to go home, Reggie controls them,” I said.

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