“You’ve got this.” Ember’s power flowed into me, bringing everything back into focus.
“Confess, expose my magic sleuth. I call on you to reveal your truth.” My knees buckled, and Ember helped me to the ground.
“I’m sorry. I held back as long as I could.” My mouth formed the words. They filled the room with my voice. But I wasn’t the one talking.
“Chaos?” I asked, but my mouth didn’t work.
“We don’t have much time.” My body rose, a newfound strength running through my limbs, yet I had lost control.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“You are now the voice in my head,” he said.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Well, wasn’t that freaking fantabulous? I tried to take a step back, but the command from my brain didn’t reach my legs. In fact, the idea didn’t even seem to register in my brain or anywhere else in my body.
“What the hell, Chaos? You said we had more time than this.”
“Obviously, I was wrong.” He made my voice say the words, and it was the freakiest thing I’d ever heard. Kinda like when you hear yourself on a recording, only way worse.
“Wrong about what?” Ember asked, but she didn’t wait for an answer. She stepped into the room and headed straight for the niche in the far right corner where sparkles clung to a shape like glitter on a drag queen.
“Tell her.” I tried again to control something on my body, but it was pointless. I couldn’t even make my pinkie finger twitch.
“There’s no skull here.” We walked into the room and stood behind her while she stooped to examine a wooden box hidden by shadows.
“How do you know?” She waved her hand over the top of the box, thankfully not touching it. “It’s sealed with magic. Maybe there’s a cloaking spell on it too. Do your thing, and let’s see.”
Chaos inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly like he was fighting to hold in a growl. “We’re wasting time here. We should move on to the next point of the star.”
Ember looked over her shoulder at us. “What’s gotten into you? Just do the spell so we can see. Skull or not, I want to know what’s inside.”
I started to recite the spell in my head, but Chaos cut me off and said it aloud himself. Nothing happened.
Ember narrowed her eyes. “Cast it for real.”
“I can’t use my magic unless I have control of my body. Give it back.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?” Ember asked.
“Why not?” I echoed her question. “I was able to give you control for short times.”
“And that is what sped up the possession process. If I release control, we will bond even faster.”
Ember blinked and tilted her head. “Is that what Chaos is saying?”
“Tell her.”
He didn’t.
Now it was my turn to growl. “She needs to know.”
She stood, a look of worry creasing her brow. “Ash?”
Chaos tightened our right hand into a fist. “This body doesn’t belong to Ash anymore.”
“The hell it doesn’t.” She drew her sword, and flames erupted on the blade. “Bring her back now, or I’ll…”
He crossed his…my…our arms. “Or you’ll what? Stab your sister? Behead her?” He stepped toward her, and her hands trembled, the fire on the blade rolling back into her.
“Tell her I’m still here. You’re scaring the bejeezus out of her.”
He gripped the hilt of her sword and drew it from her grasp. She let him have it. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she backed into the wall. “Ash,” she whispered.
“Dammit, Chaos, if you don’t tell her now, I’ll…”
He chuckled. “You’ll what?”
Friktity frak, he had a point. The demon was in complete control. Ember couldn’t vanquish him without killing me. I couldn’t control my body, so I was about as useful as mammaries on a man. Things just went from bad to the absolute worst they could be.
“Please tell her. I can’t stand to see her cry.”
He huffed, and the feeling in his bo…in my body—it was still mine, dammit, and I would regain control—went from bwahahaha I’m finally free to wait, what am I doing? “Ash is still alive for now.”
Ember snapped her head toward him. “What do you mean, for now?”
