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

“I can’t hurt her.” Tears mingled with the sweat dripping down her cheeks. Wren brushed Tamsin’s face, her hands warm. The longer she held on, the duller the pain in Tamsin’s body became. The shrieking of her bones turned to whispers, then to silence.

Tamsin’s eyes searched for Marlena’s shivering form, but her sister wasn’t there. Tamsin swore. The room was small. There was nowhere for Marlena to hide. Yet she had all but vanished.

“Wren.” Tamsin breathed her name so softly her lips barely moved. Wren frowned, leaning closer to Tamsin, but before Tamsin could whisper a warning, pale fingers were tangled in Wren’s hair, pulling her up and away from Tamsin. Her absence set Tamsin to shivering again.

Marlena wrapped her hand around Wren’s neck. Wren gasped for air, tears swimming in her eyes. Marlena flung Wren away with a force too terrible to be her own. Wren’s body slammed into the far wall. She shuddered and went still.

Tamsin reacted before her mind caught up. She threw herself forward, scrambling for her sister, but Marlena vanished again. Tamsin stumbled, catching herself on a leg of the overturned side table.

Wren’s head had lolled to one side, her eyes closed. A thin trickle of blood ran from her temple. Tamsin wanted to scream at Wren to wake up, that she couldn’t die, not now. Wren couldn’t leave Tamsin. Not before Tamsin understood her feelings. Not before she figured out why she felt anything at all.

“Marlena, you can’t…” Tamsin didn’t know how to put her pain into words.

“Yes, I can.” Marlena was suddenly there, eyes sharp even as her voice wavered. “You did.” She stared at Tamsin, accusation swimming in her eyes. “Were you so jealous? You hated that I had someone who cared for me because, not despite, so you took her from me.”

Tamsin did not know what to say. Her spell had killed Amma inadvertently, and for that she was sorrier than she could ever express. But she did not want her sister to have to carry that same level of guilt. She couldn’t bear for Marlena’s heart to have another mar on its already bruised and battered surface.

“I’m sorry,” she said, knowing the words were useless.

Sparks shot from Marlena’s fingers, but they were nothing compared to the fire behind her eyes. “Why won’t you fight?” She let out a shriek, unrestrained and wild, like the howl of a hungry wolf. “I can’t win if you won’t try.” She pushed hair from her eyes with the back of her arm. “You’re the one who made me like this.” She flung her arms out wide. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Tamsin shook her head sadly. “I never wanted this.”

There was a groan behind her. Wren was starting to stir. Tamsin turned toward Wren’s limp body, but even as she started forward, she was stopped in her tracks by an invisible barrier.

Wren’s body jerked and jolted with tiny shocks. She writhed and flailed, her red hair falling from its plait and sticking to her sweaty forehead. Tamsin watched helplessly as Wren shuddered, pain written clearly on her face.

“Stop it.” Tamsin clawed at the shield, her fingers finding nothing to hold. There was nothing to tear down, no wall to break through. All she could do was watch Wren scream as her sister laughed, low and sharp. “Stop it.”

Marlena did not stop. Her spell did not waver. But the room did. A crack, deeper than before, forced its way through the floor, dividing the sisters so that they stood firmly on opposite sides.

“It seems that a line has been drawn.” Marlena’s tone was wry. It set Tamsin shaking with fury, the rage creeping through her, fueling her in a way that she had never felt before. Now that Marlena had hurt Wren once, she would do it again. Next time Marlena might even kill her.

Wren’s life was in Tamsin’s hands, had belonged to her since their lips had first met, sealing their pact. Tamsin had put Wren in danger by bringing her Within. She had not considered the consequences, much in the same way she had not considered the consequences of saving her sister all those years ago.

Tamsin sliced at the air, sending the shards of a broken teacup soaring toward Marlena, who darted easily away, shooting bursts of lightning back. Tamsin tried to keep Marlena’s attention solely on her, to buy Wren some time.

She narrowed her eyes, focusing on Marlena’s knees as she sent a stunning spell toward her sister. Marlena stumbled, swearing darkly as she nearly fell face-first. Tamsin’s stomach twisted with guilt, watching her sister suffer at her hand. But on the other side of the room, Wren had gone still, covered with a sheen of sweat, her fair skin ghostly pale in the darkening room.

Marlena sent black ribbons flying through the air. Tamsin shot back a stream of spells, but Marlena’s ribbons snaked their way past Tamsin’s defenses. One slithered around her ankle, sending a jolt of exhaustion through her. Commanding her limbs became nearly impossible. Though Tamsin’s brain screamed for her legs to move, for her lips to form the shape of her next spell, her body would not obey. A heaviness weighed her down, exhaustion rippling through her limbs. Tamsin wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and sleep amid the remains of Marlena’s broken furniture.

Focusing her waning energy on the sharp shards of wood at her feet, Tamsin sent a chair leg hurtling across the room. Marlena brushed it away without a second thought. Tamsin fought against her drooping eyelids, but it was no use. The pounding in her head had returned. The magic was taking a toll on her body, while Marlena remained unscathed.

“Go to sleep, Tamsin.” Marlena’s voice was far, then very near. Tamsin forced her eyes open. Her sister’s face swam before her. “Sleep now.” Marlena’s hand brushed against Tamsin’s cheek almost tenderly. “Without you, I’ll finally be free.”

Tamsin’s body screamed for her to