Emma’s POV
Sophia woke up as soon as I entered the room.
“Mom?” she mumbled sleepily. “What are you doing?”
“Taking it away, honey,” I said as I approached the bed.
Her eyes widened a little. She opened her mouth to speak, but I used my magic to put her back to sleep.
I couldn’t risk her mind-linking anyone.
I sat on the bed next to her and leaned in to kiss her cheek.
“I love you, honey,” I said quietly. “I will make it go away. I promise.”
I moved a strand of hair from her forehead. I smiled a little. I loved her so much.
I stood up and kneeled next to the bed. I wanted to spend more time with Sophie, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have time to. I had to hurry up.
I pulled out a box of everything I needed to extract darkness from her and put it inside me.
I pulled out three candles and walked away. I placed the candles on the ground in front of the room. I needed to do the spell outside of the room. I had no idea how would I react once the darkness was inside me. I needed to work fast and lock myself inside before I did something stupid.
I went back and used my magic to move Sophia from her bed to the ground outside the room. I grabbed her blanket from the room and covered her up. I kneeled next to her and kissed her forehead.
“I love you, my little girl,” I said softly. “I love you more than anything in the world. I am sorry I put you through all of that. I should have done this a lot sooner. I should have taken it from you when you were still a child. I am so sorry, Sophia.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced myself to stand up.
I really didn’t have time to waste. I needed to hurry up. Hunter could be back at any second.
I placed the candles around Sophia and used my magic to light them. I stepped back into the room and took a deep breath.
The first thing I had to do was transfer the power to control the magic in the room to Anna. I knew that she wouldn’t let me out. If I gave that power to Sophia, she could try to open the doors and I couldn’t let that happen.
I knew that Anna would feel my power being transferred to her and I knew that I didn’t have much time before she and Logan barged inside.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“By the flame of this candle’s glow, I seek to transfer power’s flow,” I mumbled quietly. “From my essence, let it depart, to Anna, with an open heart.”
I felt my power and my magic leave the cabin. A soft breeze touched my skin and I opened my eyes.
I looked at the candles, making sure that the breeze didn’t blow them out.
I took another deep breath and closed my eyes. Anna now knew what I was doing and I was sure that she was on her way to find Logan.
I raised my hands forward, with my palms turned outward. I focused on Sophia and the darkness inside her.
“Shadows encased, darkness untold, I invoke the light, bright and bold,” I said loudly. “From within, this brilliance shall rise, illuminating hearts and clearing skies.”
A second later I could feel the coldness seeping inside my body. I could feel the darkness leaving Sophia’s body end entering mine. It entered through my fingertips and it traveled through the rest of my body. I could feel it in my blood. I could feel it in my arms.
My whole body started shaking. An unimaginable pain spread from my hands to the rest of my body. I wanted to scream, but I stopped myself. I wanted to release my claws and stick them inside my chest. I wanted to cry and sob and beg for help.
But I stopped myself from doing all that. I was doing it for my daughter. I was saving my daughter.
The darkness traveled around my body, leaving a cold trail in my veins. My chest and my heart were the last places it traveled toward.
I knew it was time for me to go back into the room while I still had some control over it.
I forced my legs to move and I took a few steps back. I slammed the door shut and used some of my light magic to seal it.
The darkness touched my heart and I couldn’t hold back a scream.
EMMA! Logan screamed through the mind-link. What did you do?! What did you do?!
I ignored him. I couldn’t answer him even if I wanted to. The pain I felt was too strong for me to focus on anything else.
I fell to my knees and tangled my fingers into my hair. I screamed again as I started rocking my body back and forth.
EMMA! Logan screamed again.
I ignored him. I wanted to answer, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the pain.
The darkness took all the air out of my lungs. It made my heart spasm multiple times. I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t feel the rest of my body. All I could feel was my heart spasming, trying to fight against the relentless darkness that was trying to capture it.
I could feel the darkness moving inside me. It felt like a cold, slimy snake was wrapping itself around my heart.
I tried gasping for breath, but I couldn’t even do that. I fell to the ground and started trashing.
The snake gripped my heart tightly, stopping its movements completely.
My eyes rolled to the back of my head.
I was losing consciousness.
I was dying.
“NO!” I heard Logan’s broken scream and I tried to fight against the darkness again.
I wanted to go to my mate. I wanted to tell him that everything would be okay.
I couldn’t fight it, though. It was too strong.
So I used the last bit of my strength and consciousness to mind-link him.
I am sorry. I said through the mind-link. I love you. I will always love you.
