Sweet & Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley (best ereader for textbooks .txt) 📕

do something unforgivable. She didn’t blame Marlena for her hatred. In fact she understood it. Tamsin had spent so many years telling herself she had done what was best for Marlena. Instead it was clear that Tamsin had only done what was best for herself.

Now she was faced with making another decision—what was best for Marlena, or what was best for the world.

She was afraid of getting the answer wrong a second time.

In her hand was enough magic to stop her sister. But Tamsin had already almost killed Marlena once. She didn’t know if she could do it again. Didn’t know if her twisted, useless heart would allow it.

“Please don’t make me do this.”

“Do what?” Marlena’s smile was mocking. It was still strange, seeing her face.

“You don’t know what this connection between us has done to the world.” Tamsin took a hesitant step forward, her hand slipping from Wren’s. “Mountains are crumbling. People are forgetting who they are. If we keep this up, the earth won’t be able to hold you, and what good will your power be then?”

“What would you have me do?” Marlena snarled, looking for all the world like a wild animal instead of a girl. Tamsin wondered at the beauty of her. She was so raw, so alive—perhaps even more so for having cheated death.

“Help me,” Tamsin said, reaching out a hand to touch her sister’s cheek. “I’m so sorry, Marlena. I never meant for things to turn out like this. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you now.”

Marlena recoiled from Tamsin’s touch. “But what if I want to hurt you? You never think about what other people want, do you?”

“Are you telling me there’s nothing I can do to repent? There’s not a single, tiny part of you that is happy to see me?” Tamsin hated the way her voice shook. She was again a little girl locked out of her sister’s tower, wanting nothing more than to be let in.

“Oh, Tamsin.” Marlena’s voice filled the room. “Surely it’s clear by now this isn’t going to be a teary-eyed reunion.” She took a step forward, the candlelight catching on the glint in her brown eyes. “No, you’re here to take my place as the sleeping sister.”

Marlena moved about the room with a strange grace, shooting sparks forward that splintered the wooden floor beneath their feet. A sharp smack shuddered through the air, and the room shook with a violent quake. Dust floated down, streaking Wren’s hair gray and coating Tamsin’s lungs. She coughed, a deep hacking sound that left her throat sore.

“If you’re asleep, our bond will not break.” Marlena grinned cruelly, stepping lightly as the room continued to shake. “I’ll leave you here to slumber, and escape this miserable place for good. Then I will finally, finally be free.”

There was nothing left in her sister’s eyes that Tamsin recognized. The Marlena she had known might have been sharp, but she wasn’t cruel. She didn’t hurt others for the fun of it. Tamsin gathered her hold on Wren’s magic, its warmth swimming in her fingers and sparking in her toes.

She reveled in the raw power. This was who she was, who she was meant to be. She could stop everything now with the flick of her wrist. Command her enemy. Prove her prowess. She aimed a stream of light toward her sister. Yet at the last second, Marlena turned to face her. Tamsin wavered, changing her magic’s course so that it hit the wall instead. Her sister was alive. She couldn’t be the one to change that.

Marlena’s eyes lingered on the ruined wall. “Come now. It isn’t fun if it isn’t a fair fight.”

But nothing between the two of them had ever been fair. Tamsin sent a flash of light through the room toward her sister, bright enough to shock the eyes. She wanted to disorient Marlena, to get her to pause just long enough to catch her and restrain her. But Marlena merely let out an odd giggle, brighter than the light emanating throughout the room. She easily dodged the stunning spell Tamsin sent her way.

Tamsin felt the spell between her shoulder blades. She was out of practice, had overcompensated, let out too much of her reserve. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to run through Wren’s magic too quickly. Marlena sent a jolt through Tamsin’s arm that pushed her backward onto a broken chair. Tamsin swore, her shoulder and tailbone now aching in equal measure. She threw up a hand to defend herself, casting a wall of resistance around her as she extracted herself from the wreckage.

Marlena shot a rapid succession of sparks and charms her way, the magic burrowing into Tamsin’s flimsy shield. It was growing weaker by the minute, the twinge in her back sharper the longer she held the spell.

Tamsin grimaced through her magic’s toll, staring enviously at Marlena, who was issuing her spells almost lazily. Thoughtlessly.

The room gave another threatening quake. It was not until Marlena glanced nervously at the quivering beams above that Tamsin understood that the shaking was not of Marlena’s design but a consequence of her power. Her sister was not used to the enormity of the magic she possessed. Were she more comfortable, Tamsin and Wren would not have stood a chance against her. But the magic was still unfamiliar to her.

Tamsin let down her shield and found only the slightest bit of warmth clinging to the tips of her fingers. She had too little of Wren’s magic to draw from. The next spell was going to have to come from her alone. Tamsin whispered several soft words, and a wave of water crashed over Marlena, throwing her back and leaving her exposed.

It was the perfect moment to shoot off a disarming spell, but Tamsin, too, crumpled to the floor, her bones screaming with the effort. Wren, who had been huddled near the empty shelves, rushed to her, wrapping her clammy hands around Tamsin’s shaking ones.

“What are you doing?”