Free Two Halves Series by Marta Szemik

her dark locks meshed in webs twined with debris, her hazel eyes sunken in gray hollows, her body coated in dirt and scum. Soon, the hourglass figure replaced with a lump for a body. She no longer looked like my black witch. There was nothing about her I would have loved. Even the heart I thought I knew began beating differently, the rhythm strangling each pulse.
    “What did you do to her?” I squeezed the words between my grinding teeth, my hands clenched into fists.
    “Thisss is who she isss, Xander. The only way to have herrr back isss to join me.”
    “Turn her back, and I’ll join you,” I blurted.
    “Come forrrward,” Aseret ordered.
    The hall fell silent. I saw no one except Aseret. His eyes rolled back in their sockets as he chanted again. The pull inside my body returned.
    Aseret’s voice resonated in my head: “Join the underworld and you will have everrrything you’ve ever wanted. You will not be lost in an endless oblivion. I will return Xela to the form you love. She will be yours and only yoursss. You will feel no pain. You will rrrule at my ssside. Spare yourrr soul mate, Xander. Isn’t she worth sssaving?”
    There was nothing I wanted more than to have her back. I was ready to give up my life for her. Would that be so bad to give up your life for someone you loved? The other shifters and demons didn’t matter. Xela had her soul wrapped around my heart.
    I looked toward my witch, trying to find that spark in her eyes that drew me before, but her eyes were blank, flatter than a can of opened soda. What did he do to you? I desperately wondered.
    The walls of the grand hall seemed to close in. My feet were hovering above the ground. Aseret’s gaze pulled me toward him, and I let my arms fall to my sides and my head loll back. As I floated closer to him, the heat from the fire pit wrapped itself around my body, as if the flames were fabrics preparing me for mummification. Ready to be taken by the underworld, I looked at my left wrist where the mark of the sphere would soon be visible.
    A memory flashed through my mind from when I was an infant—I’d imagined this moment and how it would feel to have either of the two marks.
    The memory reminded me of who I was. I thought about my sister, about Eric and the keepers, remembering what they’d said. If I chose the sphere, Mira’s fate would be decided. Humans would have no protection. The future of all three species would be at risk. Even if I wasn’t sure how I was going to help them, I couldn’t let their destiny be decided by my personal choice.
    Aseret’s pull suddenly stopped, and I faced the warlock from less than three feet, bound by blue magic light at my feet, no longer hovering. Aseret held his arms palm-down in front of him; they streamed orange light. The rock floor below them glowed, then split open. Within the gap, white shadows floated like feathers in a gentle mist.
    “What is he doing?” I instinctively moved to stop him, but my feet were glued to the rock. A freezer laughed as I strained to break his spell.
    “He’s opening the hereafter,” Xela replied in a voice devoid of care or passion. Any strength she’d muster, she used to open her mouth.
    The chasm released a white spirit. It slammed into Xela’s body. Treachery and pain brimmed in her eyes.
    “Can’t you do something?” I asked.
    She laughed. Aseret had not only changed her appearance, he’d changed her soul. Or did he? Was all that had transpired in her lair an act? Was she merely luring me to the underworld, as she had others? Aseret had no intention of changing Xela back, I realized. He would not allow the cohort who brought shape-shifters to the underworld to leave his side.
    My left wrist burned.
    “Ssilly shifterrr.” Aseret cackled as he focused on the opening to the hereafter.
    My choice had been made, willingly, and I hadn’t accomplished anything. Soon, my fate and my sister’s would be decided. Aseret was a liar—but I already knew that. I’d