Stakes

"What do you mean? I was sure I died." I said to Elijah who was relaxing back into his chair. "Aurora sai-"

"Aurora was wrong." Elijah rolled his eyes at me. "This is magic we are talking about and it is not ordinary magic either. Are you going to listen to me or not?" 

"Fine," I said, to him. "Tell me."

"The process requires you to be in a life or death situation." He said, "You need to be very close to death in order for something like this to happen and … you need to have your heart ripped out and placed somewhere dear to you." 

We all stared at the box in front of us and Jude as well as Ethan suddenly started to blush uncontrollably. 

"What? What happened?" I asked, looking at the two as they covered their faces as quickly as they could with their hands. 

"Meraki. You player." Elijah laughed, taking the box in his hands. "This feels really odd with the warmth and the beating of the heart. But … the box feels handmade."