Finally, I couldn’t even scream anymore, and I slumped forward, sweat streaming down my face. The only thing keeping me on my feet were the men propping me up, and the ropes tying me to the meat hook above my head. Still, more and more pain thrummed through my side, spreading to every single nerve ending in my body. The pain warred with the magic inside me, trying to snuff it out. So I concentrated on that faint, cold chill of power, trying to focus on it, instead of the red-hot pain of the stab wound in my side.
“Don’t worry,” Grant cooed. “I didn’t hit anything vital. Not yet, anyway. We need to get more of that blood pumping out of you first so I can take your power.”
In a way, black blades—bloodiron—were eerily similar to my own transference power. I soaked up magic from people, and so did they. The more you cut someone with a black blade, the hungrier the metal became, until it actually pulled the blood out of a person’s body—along with their magic—sucking them dry like a leech.
It could be a slow, torturous process, with dozens of wounds inflicted, or you could stab someone through the heart and take all their blood and magic at once. Either way, when the black blade was brimming with blood and magic, the person wielding it could turn it on himself, stab the point into his own heart like a needle full of adrenaline, and inject all of that stolen blood and power into his veins and fully make it his own.
Apparently, Grant was in favor of the slow, torturous method because he stabbed me again, this time driving the dagger deep into my left thigh. More blood spilled out, and he laughed again. I was getting real sick of hearing that sound. But before I could brace myself against this new wave of pain, he brought the dagger up again.
I hissed and arched my neck back, but blood dripped down my face from the shallow cut he’d opened up on my right cheek.
“Don’t worry, Lila,” Grant said. “I’ll leave your pretty face intact. More or less.”
“Lucky me.”
“We’ll see if you still have that smart mouth on you after I cut you some more.”
He looked over his shoulder at Devon, who was still trying to shout through the tape and get free of his ropes. But his struggles were useless.
“What do you say, Devon?” he cooed again. “Looking forward to round two on Lila? Because I sure am.”
Grant turned back toward me and studied me with a critical eye, trying to decide where to stab me next. All the while, blood oozed out of the wounds he’d already inflicted, spattering onto the floor, rolling toward the concrete drain beneath my feet, and disappearing into the darkness below.
And still, I was waiting for my transference Talent to kick in, for the pain to melt into something else, something that I could use to break free of the bonds that held me tight. But all I felt was that faint chill and not the one, big, sweeping, cold surge of power I desperately needed in order to have a fighting chance. No, there was just wave after wave of pain, pulsing through my body.
“Okay,” Grant said. “I think that’s enough blood. Don’t you guys?”
The men shrugged. They weren’t getting my Talent so they didn’t care.
“Yeah,” Grant said, answering his own question. “I think one more cut will do to finish her off. Grab her arms again.”
This was my last chance.
So I sucked down a breath, and I bucked and heaved and thrashed like I never had before, forcing the men to use more and more of their strength to hold me still. I even snapped out with my teeth, trying to bite them, even though there was no way I could do that, given the awkward position I was in. But one of the men slammed his fist into my face, momentarily stunning me.
“What am I paying you idiots for? Hold her still!” Grant snapped.
The men finally wrenched me back into place. Grant raised the dagger high into the air, ready to drive it into my heart and deliver the final, fatal wound that would let him rip my magic out of me before I died.
And I realized that the red-hot pain of my injuries had faded away, and that all I could feel was that cold burn of magic roaring through my veins, stronger now than ever before.
Grant raised the dagger even higher, then brought it down, the weapon whistling like a scythe of death through the air—
I snapped my wrists apart, breaking the heavy ropes that held them together like they were no thicker than strings of thread. I ducked, and Grant missed me, the dagger slicing into the shoulder of one of the guards instead. The man howled with pain and staggered away, blood spraying out in an arc from his deep wound.
Grant whirled around to face me. I shoved the ropes off my hands and got ready.
“How did you do that?” he hissed.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I mocked him.
He let out an angry roar and charged at me.
I stepped up to meet him, sliding past his defenses and the weapon whistling toward my head. Instead, I drove my fist into Grant’s face and took hold of the dagger at the same time. Even though the edge sliced open my palm, I yanked it out of his grasp. In one smooth motion, I flipped the dagger up into the air, grabbed the hilt, and stabbed him in the shoulder.
Grant screamed, but I paid little attention. I was too busy pulling the dagger out of his shoulder and ramming my fist into his face again. He dropped to the ground. I would have finished him off then, but the second guard charged me, his hands arcing out into claws, as if he wanted to rip me limb from limb.
I lashed out with the dagger again. The guy might be strong, but he wasn’t very quick, and I opened up a wound all the way across his stomach, making him fall to his knees. Not deep enough to kill him, but enough to put him out of the fight for the time being. The other man was still staggering around and clutching at his shoulder.
“Mm! Mm-mmm!” Devon tried to shout through the tape again.
I didn’t think I had enough magic left to finish off the men. Besides, saving Devon was my priority, so I hurried over to him.
“Hold your arms out behind you, your hands as far apart as you can get them.”
He did as I asked, and I went to work, slicing through the ropes with the dagger. I helped Devon shove off the heavy ropes, ripped the tape off his mouth, and pulled him up onto his feet.