“No!” I screamed.
Lifting both hands, I spread my fingers wide and—palms aimed in his direction—I pushed the air at him, compelling it to blow until it rushed right into him and shoved him off his feet and away from his wife.
Surrendering to my gift of persuasion, the air made a mighty, roaring wall, flowing up and separating him from Aunt Taiki so he couldn’t reach her again after he regained his footing, no matter how much he hollered and fought against it, trying to break through.
In return, Aunt Taiki scrambled from the floor and snatched up her fallen sword with both hands. Screaming a warrior’s cry, she summoned all the strength she could muster and swung the weapon, spinning her body in a full circle before she let go of her hold and threw the blade forward.
The sword sailed through my wall of air and caught Uncle Palmer right in the chest. He choked out his surprise and clutched the metal before tipping over backward, plummeting to the ground, dead.
“Aunt Taiki!” Letting go of my hold on the air, I rushed to her, needing someone to hold me and take care of me before I fell to pieces.
“Quilla.” Opening her arms, she slumped to her knees and pulled me close, hugging my face to her and nuzzling. “You’re still alive. And unaffected. Glory be.”
“I—I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I sobbed, gripping the back of her dress and holding on for dear life. “I didn’t mean to kill him.”
Voice trembling, I pulled my face away from her to glance toward Uncle Palmer’s body. He gaped up at the ceiling of the corridor with his mouth hanging open wide and eyes fixed and glassy with the death stare.
My stomach revolted.
“What? Oh! No, my dear sweet child.” Aunt Taiki smoothed her hand over my hair in a reassuring manner. “You didn’t kill him, baby. I did.”
A shudder worked through me. “But I-I helped,” I argued, feeling wheezy. “I held him back so you could—”
“Did you know what I was going to do when you pushed him away from me?”
I blinked. “Well, n-no.”
I never would’ve guessed she’d do that.
She clasped my face between her hands and looked intently into my eyes. “Then you had no part in his death. Now, come.” Grasping my hand hard, she pushed to her feet, already searching the hall for the best escape route. “We need to get out of here and find—”
“Taiki!”
Aunt Taiki spun toward the call, and a sob rose from her throat. “Lain,” she breathed, her eyes filling with tears. “Thank God.”
Letting go of my hand, she dashed toward the other woman with the long, flaming red hair who was racing toward her, and they met in the middle, hugging and sobbing and then kissing, gripping each other’s cheeks as their lips clung with a panicked but also relieved kind of urgency.
I blinked, dumbfounded, as Aunt Taiki continued to kiss Aunt Melaina. On the mouth. Passionately. When Aunt Melaina pulled away, she swiped her thumb over the cut on Aunt Taiki’s cheek to find that it had been healed.
My mouth fell open in shock, realizing they were soulmates.
I had never known that. I’d just known that both my father’s brothers had not married their wives for love. They bragged about it all the time, in fact. Uncle Palmer and Uncle Pallo had picked women of strong magic who would breed mighty future generations of Graykeys, and then they’d kidnapped them and bound them to our house so they could never leave the family under their own free will.
Uncle Palmer had put a spell on Aunt Taiki that would kill her if she ever tried to abandon him, and Uncle Pallo had done the same, plus used dark, forbidden magic to suppress good emotions like compassion, empathy, and kindness from Aunt Melaina’s soul until she just couldn’t be nice. It caused her great pain when she did manage to feel something sweet and kind.
Which was probably why tears of blood poured down her face when she pulled away from Aunt Taiki. “I thought I’d lost you. I thought—”
“Shh,” Aunt Taiki assured with a gentle smile as she wiped the blood from Aunt Melaina’s eyes with her thumbs. “I’m right here. I’m fine. Now, stop this, my love, before you hurt yourself.”
“Yeah, Mom,” came another urgent voice. “Cut it out. We don’t have time, anyway. Let’s get out of here already. Everyone’s gone flipping crazy.”
Glancing past Aunt Melaina, I realized more had arrived with her. Two of her children—Quailen and Questa—stepped from behind her and tugged on her arm. “Someone could catch us out here any second; we have to go.”
I backed nervously away, eyeing my cousins the entire time. They didn’t look as if they’d been gripped by the urge to kill, but I wasn’t willing to take any chances. It was rare for one person in a family to escape the bloodlust, so it didn’t seem possible for three of us to have avoided it.
Since they were both older than me—already teenagers—they could probably kill me easily, too. If they were infected. But when they glanced my way, they looked just as cautious and uncertain and afraid as I felt about them.
“Quilla,” Aunt Taiki called, turning to me suddenly and waving me forward. “Come.”
“Quilla?” Aunt Melaina repeated in confusion before she spotted me scurrying toward them. Immediately, her eyes narrowed. “No!” Grabbing Aunt Taiki, she yanked her protectively away. Then she lifted her hands toward me, prepared to dispel magic. And probably not the good kind that could make my hair pretty and eyes extra shiny, either.
I squeaked and skidded to a stop. Uncle Palmer might’ve always scared me, but Aunt Melaina downright terrified me.
“Get back!” the red-haired woman ordered.
“No. Stop!” Aunt Taiki leaped forward, dodging in front of me as she grasped Aunt Melaina’s arm and pushed it down. “She’s harmless. Just look. The girl’s immune.”
Aunt Melaina shrugged her off, sniffing. “Impossible.” Her disgusted gaze focused on me yet again as she pushed red curls out of her face. “Two of mine are already immune.”
“Then there are three,” Aunt Taiki reasoned desperately. “Because I’m telling you, Quilla is innocent.” She tugged the other woman back another foot. “Melaina, please. She’s just a child.”
“She’s a Graykey,” Aunt Melaina snarled, her accusation slicing into me until I wanted to drop my face in shame. “And her abilities are insanely powerful. You’ve said so yourself. She’s probably stronger than anyone else in this whole godforsaken realm, which makes her more dangerous than the rest of them.”
“She just saved my life,” Aunt Taiki insisted, causing Melaina to pause and finally turn her critical glare from me so she could glance at the other woman, one eyebrow lifted.
“Did she?”
“Yes. She did.” Aunt Taiki plopped a hand against her hip. “And besides, I think I can determine who’s immune and who’s not. I just watched two of my own children tear each other apart, for God’s sake. And I’m telling you, Quilla is not like them.”
Aunt Melaina shuddered and seemed to relent, only to pierce me with a deep scowl. “Well then, so what? What exactly do you expect us to do with her?”
Relaxing, Aunt Taiki held her hand out to me. “I expect us to bring her along.”