Words drifted through the black velvet veiling Marga’s mind. Murmurs, spoken in hushed tones, the voices familiar. Something about them should have alerted her. If only she could remember what… If only her head didn’t feel as if it were about to split from the inside out, as if weighed down by a hundred tons of concrete and still pulsating painfully with every slow beat of her heart.

It was always like this after giving back to the Powers That Be.

Giving back… Yes, that was what had happened. A sliver of a memory pierced the haze inside her mind. A car. Pain. Magic, bleeding from her body. Strong arms,...