But he slapped me across the face again.
Then he kicked me to the ground, his eyes dropping to the designer clothes on my back.
"Damn it. You still won't come clean?"
"You must've burned through plenty of the Pruitts' money these past three years. Aria's my fiancée. Everything the Pruitts own will be mine. You don't get to walk off with a single cent!"
"Since you won't talk, don't blame me for what comes next!"
"Strip him. The clothes, the watch, all of it. He doesn't deserve any of it!"
In the struggle, a small red wooden tablet fell out of my clothes.
The moment I saw it, something in me jolted.
Back then, the master who worked the rite on Aria and me had made two soul tablets.
He'd used them as a bridge, fusing the breath of our lives together. Only that way could my soul and spirit mend the broken life she'd been born with.
The tablet still held the fused breath of our two souls. As long as it stayed whole, she still had a chance to live.
And it was exactly because of that—
if I reached for it carefully, I could still feel a faint thread of Aria's breath on it.
Faint, but it was there.
Hope flared in me and I reached to grab it, but a foot got there first and pinned it down.
"You care this much about it. Don't tell me this is the source of the sorcery you used to con the Pruitts?"
Ernest's mouth curled. "Tell me—if I destroy this, doesn't your little sorcery just fall apart on its own?"
"When we get back, Aria's going to thank me."
With that, his foot ground down hard.
My eyes went red. If this thing was destroyed, Aria's life could never be brought back.
I shouted:
"Don't! Don't step on it!"
At that, Ernest's foot paused, and his lips curved into a smile.
"You don't want me to step on it? Then beg me."
In that moment, the girl who used to call me her brother rose up in my mind.
"Please. Please don't step on it."
"Fine, you want me to leave it alone? Then kneel in front of the camera and admit you used sorcery to swindle everyone."
I clenched my jaw. "Fine. I'll say it."
Ernest's lips curved as he opened his phone and started recording.
"All right. Go ahead."
I knelt slowly, spacing out every word.
"I, Zachery Dickerson, admit that I used sorcery to deceive the Pruitt family and profit from it."
Satisfied, Ernest put his phone away.
I stared at him, hard.
"You can give it back to me now, can't you?"
But he gave a mocking laugh.
"That's not enough. You still have to crawl under me."
Rage filled my whole chest, but for that girl whose life was slipping away, I couldn't let it out. "Fine. I'll crawl. You'd better keep your word."
I lowered my head and crawled slowly under Ernest.
"Now give me the—"
Before I could finish, I heard a sharp crack.
I turned my head, and the soul tablet had already snapped in two!
Somewhere deep inside, I felt that last thread of Aria's breath vanish completely in that instant.
My eyes split with fury.
"Ernest!"
He burst out laughing.
"Idiot. I already broke your sorcery. That last part was just me messing with you."
"And you actually believed it. You didn't really think I'd give this thing back to you, did you?"
I lunged at him in a rage, and a bodyguard kicked me down.
Ernest looked at me on the ground like I was garbage and waved a careless hand.
"All right, I've had my fun. Throw him into the forest and let the beasts have him."
At that, the bodyguards hauled my barely breathing body up and started toward the depths of the trees.
But just then, the roar of a helicopter cut across the sky.
From the cabin door, a voice rang out, shaking with fury.
"The one the beasts should be eating is you!"
