Chapter 15

Twisted spell.




Jasper was so good to me. I didn’t know why I ever wanted to run away from him in the first place. I fell asleep in his arms later on while he healed my wounds, kissed them, making them all better. It didn't matter that it was cold and windy. We were finally together, away from civilisation.
"Julia, why did you choose him, tell me?" he asked me, later at dawn, when we were lying next to each other. I felt so calm around him. Waves of magic flickered around us, nibbling my skin gently, connecting with my own energy. A tiny voice in my head reminded me that something wasn't right, that I was supposed to be somewhere, but I silenced it quickly enough.
"I thought I loved him. It was stupid, because for months and months I was certain he was helping Elvira," I explained, hearing the steady beat of his heart. He pushed me away, got up and started circling around the fire. He seemed agitated and angry about something all of a sudden. Maybe this wasn't the answer he was expecting from me. Nathaniel wasn't toxic, but he hurt me.
The sun was slowly rising, and I hoped we would go back to London. It was cold and windy in the forest. We were together, but this wasn't the way. People needed to know how much he’d changed.
“You're powerful, Julia, more so than you can imagine. You betrayed me and now I have to do what is needed. You didn't give me any other choice," he said, moving his magic wand around my head, using his charms to push away any doubts. I loved him—that was what mattered the most.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart, please forgive me. We can be together now. Nathaniel doesn't mean anything anymore. Kiss me now, before he comes for you. I need to remember how it feels," he asked me. I sensed desperation and longing in his voice.
I smiled, got up and walked up to him, feeling a slow stinging around my chest. The power was warning me, and I didn't understand it, because this was what I wanted. Jasper was the one for me, now and always.
The hair on the back of my neck shot up, and slow waves of electricity sent tingles all over my body.
He touched my cheek and brought me to his lips. The kiss was soft, and I liked it, wanting more, parting my mouth for him to taste me. I moaned into his mouth when he intensified the kiss, remembering how much I enjoyed it in the past.
"He has so much power, Julia, and he promised to strip part of it and gift it to me. I risked my life for you. In the end it was for nothing, because you chose the leech instead of me."
I was listening to him, knowing that he had been right about me all along. He was waiting for someone, an ally who could help him to fulfil whatever he was planning. When his voice faded that dull pain deepened. I touched my face, remembering I wasn't supposed to be here with him. I started fighting with his gripping spell, and I began to understand that Jasper was keeping me here against my will. My own power alerted me, stinging my skin. Compulsion wasn't one of Jasper’s strongest talents. I began waking up from this nightmare. Jasper sat under the tree, his eyes closed. Part of me still wanted to go to him and kiss him.
My friends were waiting for me. The murderer, my grandmother’s killer was still out there. In a few minutes he was going to use the compulsion spell again and I needed to be ready.
"Tell me that we’ll be together after this whole thing is over," I said.
He opened his eyes but didn't smile. I swallowed hard.
“He's coming. It's just a matter of hours. Things would have been different if I had known sooner. I'm sorry."
I bit my lip, fighting with the spell running through my veins. Sweat covered my body. I had no idea what Jasper meant. This whole thing was about me and the fact that I loved someone else.
I couldn't remember much from last night and I didn't think we slept together. Chilling shivers passed down my spine as I tried to remember how he knew that I would be at the festival. My family and friends wouldn't betray me. He must have followed me from the agency. Michael and Kelsie hadn’t been careful enough.
I kept thinking about the plan, wondering if there was a way for me to escape. Maybe he realised that I would never be with him, and he wanted to use my magic for his own gain. Jasper had mastered black magic, and he taught himself well, but I kept thinking he was planning something else, something worse than a simple spell.
He used his wand to keep the fire going and then told me he was going to get us some food. We hadn't eaten anything since last night. He tied me to the tree and then fed me with another spell. Later I awakened abruptly, unsure how much time had passed, but his compulsion spell was fading.
He kept coming back, then disappearing again for minutes, sometimes longer. Every time he came back, he kept forgetting to use the spell. The pure magic had weakened him, making him sloppy. The hours were passing by, and every so often I awoke from that hazy feeling, knowing I needed to escape. Jasper was relaxing, thinking he had full control over my mind. He wasn't experienced with white charms. I knew this was my only chance before sunset.
"Sit by the fire. It's an important night for you and probably the last one we’ll have together," he told me when I was lucid again. I obeyed him, making sure I appeared to be under his full control. My fingertips were tingling like crazy, and the energy vibrated, fighting with his magic. I didn't know how long he was planning to keep me in the forest.
Then we both heard it. Something or someone moved behind the trees. Jasper shot back to his feet and lit his wand. His eyes shifted back into focus, looking around. I had a moment to make a decision, to run. Jasper threw a ball of light that travelled around the forest. We both spotted a deer in the distance. I could barely make out the form, but it was an animal, for sure. I saw a heavy wooden branch lying next to my leg.
My ex-boyfriend’s eyes were glued to the forest. He wasn't paying much attention to me. I leaned down and picked up the branch, and when he used his wand to send his magic between the trees, probably to kill the deer for our dinner, I swung my arm and hit him in the back of his head as hard as I could.
Jasper was too slow to react, and never saw it coming. He crashed to the ground and I stood there paralysed for a good few seconds. My stomach revolted when I saw blood. His energy flooded away. I threw the branch to the side and started running.
There was a strange voice in my head that kept telling me to come back, that Jasper needed me, and I couldn't leave him. I heard noises all around me, but I kept moving my feet, jumping around the trees to get away from him. The further I ran, the weaker the bond became.
Slowly I started thinking for myself. I was almost out of the compulsion spell. I was petrified that I may have killed him, but I knew I had to keep moving. I had no sense of direction, and no idea how far I was from the main camp, from civilisation.
At least a day must have passed. Maybe everyone had already left, and I was alone. My breathing was heavy, my legs were tired from running, but I didn't want to stop. Jasper could wake up and heal himself. I hit him pretty hard. Still, what guarantee did I have?
Adrenaline was pumping through me, my heart pounding behind my rib cage. I stopped for a brief moment, catching my breath in the process. Another wave of power slammed into me and I stopped.
I started running again, until I reached a hill, losing all sense of direction. Rain began falling from the sky. My legs were aching so much, and my stomach was empty. I started to climb the hill, gasping for oxygen. It was getting dark fast and I couldn't feel my magic anymore. It was like someone had cut off my circulation, the source of my power. I stopped and tried to concentrate—to bring my energy forth—but nothing happened.
I tripped on the way down from the hill and started rolling down. I must have blacked out for a moment or two, because when I opened my eyes the pain in my ankle was unreal. I reached down to touch it and cried out when I was hit with stabbing pain.
"Julia, you have to get up," a voice said. "Jasper’s clever. There’s someone after you and he’s close. I can feel the magic. It's lethal and powerful."
It was my grandma telling me to move. I was still in the forest, but I was too exhausted to lift my limbs. She looked so beautiful in her white dress, kneeling down and touching my face. I tried to speak, but my voice was muted.
I was shivering, my teeth chattering, and the rain was pouring down. The ground was so cold; it was just a matter of time before Jasper would find me. My grandma was trying to protect me, but from who?
Then, moments later, something wet and sticky touched me, and I stirred back to reality. Someone was licking my face. I opened my eyes, seeing a large wolf with the most terrifying gold eyes filled with gleaming superiority. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was petrified and tried to move away.
The wolf moved back and then I saw another one, smaller and leaner. My head hurt and for a moment I thought I was hallucinating when the wolf started to transform itself into a man, the fur changing into a human skin, his paws into legs and arms.
"Julia, Julia. Calm down. It's just me. Michael."
Then I remembered my werewolf friends. I still felt the pressure in my chest and my ankle was hurting like hell, but I finally realised I was safe. Michael had found me.
"Is she all right? What’s wrong? Julia, why are you crying?"
That voice. It was Kelsie.
"Oh, thank God. I thought I was dead. I'm so glad to see you," I said, trying to get up, but pain blinded me for a moment.
"Julia!"
It was Kate, she screamed running towards me with her crazy purple hair.
"Christ, Kelsie, cover yourself," Kate muttered, throwing some clothes at them. I was so happy to see them but still anxious being here alone. Maybe Jasper was watching us from a distance. "Julia? Are you all right? Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine, but my ankle is sprained. We need to get out of here," I said and tried to take a step, but the shattering pain crushed through my leg. It turned out that I didn't just sprain my angle—my leg was fucking broken. I didn't know what happened after that because as the adrenaline drained from me I passed out again.

***

It was probably the third time I’d woken up in the past forty-eight hours, escaping death. For a change, I realised that I was in a comfortable bed in an oddly shaped room. The sheet smelled of lavender and I felt warm, less anxious.
"Kate?" I asked, lifting myself on my elbow, looking at my friend who had her eyes glued to her phone. She jumped, and her mobile went flying. Crap, I didn't expect to startle her that much.
"Julia, you’re awake. Thank God. I was sure I screwed up your leg."
The memories slammed into me. Jasper had used a compulsion spell, tampered with my free will.
I touched my head, remembering that I kissed him. I needed to forget about this forever.
"What happened? How did you find me?" I asked, looking at her.
"We lost you in the camp. Someone must have used the jigsaw spell to distract me. Five minutes later, when Michael noticed you were gone, I was myself again," Kate explained, sitting next to me on the bed. "We looked for you everywhere. Michael was trying to find the tent of that wizard, but no one wanted to help us. Kelsie nearly killed one of the witches who tried to sell us a snake potion. Then we heard someone’s tent was vandalised and it was the one that we’d been looking for all along. God Julia, I don't know how to tell you this, but that wizard—"
“He's dead, isn't he?" I asked, already knowing what happened.
"He was just lying there—someone had stabbed him. There was a woman there with purple hair like mine. Kelsie sensed your magic, but the witch was just screaming, howling and hugging his body. We couldn't get anything out of her."
"Some trolls showed up when Anthony was just about to tell me who my grandma was protecting me from," I said, looking at my perfectly healed leg.
"What? You were there? With that wizard?" she asked, shocked. It didn't take me long to run through what happened in the tent and what Anthony revealed to me. Kate nearly broke her wand when I told her that Jasper must have followed me, and that he kept me in the forest for at least twenty-four hours using a compulsion spell to make me want him again.
Kelsie and Michael showed up in my room several minutes later and I had to start over. My ex-boyfriend had gone to a lot of effort to get me away and hold me prisoner. I could tell he was waiting for someone. He had lost his mind.
"We have to be more careful next time, Julia. Jasper crossed the line. Again. He’s disturbing and dangerous," Kate said shaking her head.
I swallowed hard, remembering bits and pieces from that night, knowing I’d hit him pretty hard.
"What if I killed him? What if he’s lying there dead?"
"We went through the forest after we found you, but we didn't find anyone," Michael told me. "He must have run away when he sensed us nearby."
"Are you sure? We had a camp with a fire. There was blood everywhere."
"We did track the place where you two stayed, but he wasn't there, Julia. Kelsie recognised your scent, but we didn't find his body. Jasper must still be alive."