I swing around with the girl and rush us toward the tunnel I was eyeing.
The girl is tripping over her feet, and I’m dragging her more than anything, and if something doesn’t change fast, those witches and that…that…monstrosity are going to catch us.
With that panicked thought, I funnel my magic into my hand.
“Explode,” I whisper, and then I toss the magical grenade behind me.
BOOM!
The girl and I are thrown forward as the earth bucks, and the blast hits our back. Screams sound from behind me, and I grunt as I take on the full weight of the shifter, the two of us slamming into the ground.
Empress, what is happening!
That…didn’t go as planned.
I scramble back to my feet, hauling the girl up with me. I knock away my skewed mask, finally able to see my surroundings better. Singed wisps of peach-colored smoke waft through the air.
I glance down at my companion. One look at her dazed expression, and I know she’s not going to be able to run. And I don’t stand a chance fighting over a dozen people and a monster.
Only one option left.
I close my eyes, calling on my power. “Magic, magic, make me strong. Help me carry this girl far…and long.”
All right, not my best rhyme, but fuck it, it’ll do.
Power rushes down my arms and legs. I feel it winding about my lungs and pumping through my heart.
I sweep the girl off her feet, and cradling her in my arms, I run.
CHAPTER 27
The tunnel we enter is small and dank. The walls here are bare earth, and the marble gives way to flagstone. There are lit candles—probably from when the others passed through, and I just go off the assumption that if I follow the candlelight, it’ll lead me out. I have to assume that’s what’ll happen. If I’m wrong…
Can’t think about that.
As I’m running, I second-guess myself again. Maybe I overreacted back there. Maybe I saw a little blood and dark magic and blew everything out of proportion.
But my intuition is telling me I read the situation correctly. That something violent and bad was going on. Something I almost got duped into completing.
That spell the priestess had been uttering, why did it sound so familiar…?
Behind me, I hear the distant footfalls of my pursuers. Crap, they’re truly giving chase.
They haven’t caught up to me yet, but who knows how long that will last. I’m carrying another entire human being, and despite the power boost my magic is giving me, I don’t think I’ll have an edge for long.
Can’t think about that either.
In front of me, the tunnel branches off. Following the light, I turn right.
My black robe keeps tangling around my legs, and in my arms, the girl’s head lolls.
I hope she’s all right.
My eyes fix on the smear of blood on the shifter’s forehead, and the priestess’s incantation comes back to me.
With blood I bind. With bone I break. Only through death shall I at last forsake.
A chill snakes down my spine.
A binding spell.
That’s why the priestess’s incantation sounded familiar. She was performing a binding spell. The horror of it is only now hitting me.
There are natural bonds, like those of soul mates and familiars. Those require no spells. Their magic is innate; it initiates and executes the binding all on its own.
Other types of bonds require spells, and they can be consensual or—the shifter whimpers in my arms again—not.
“I see her!” a feminine voice shouts from behind me. I hear what sounds like a whole stampede of witches pounding down the hallway after us.
I pour more power into my limbs, aware that I’ll probably spend tomorrow sleeping off the magical use and bracing against the killer headache the exertion is going to give me.
Even with the added power, I can hear them closing in on me.
I hear one of them whisper a spell, and instinctively, I twist away toward the wall to my left. A ball of acid-green magic whizzes by me.
I right myself and continue. As I run, I call on magic from the earth beneath my bare feet. I feel it sift through the stones and touch my skin, and I yank desperately on it, hauling the gathered power up through my body like water from a well. I funnel it down my arm and into my palm.
“Immobilize!” I don’t even bother whispering the one-word spell before twisting around and awkwardly tossing it while still balancing the girl in my arms.
Awkward or not, it does its job. I hear a cry as my magic hits someone.
As fast as I can, I face forward and draw more magic into my palm.
Selene, are you okay? I nearly trip at hearing Memnon’s voice in my ear. Now he sounds more than just alarmed. What is going on?
I can’t talk to him and get myself out of this situation, so I ignore his call.
“Immobilize,” I say again. That’s literally the only spell I can think of beyond the screaming in my head.
Again, I turn and awkwardly throw it at my pursuers. The spell smashes into the group. I face forward again, hearing one of them curse behind me, followed by the sound of people falling. I don’t allow myself to rejoice before I’m calling on more power.
My muscles are trembling, my lungs are heaving, and I can’t think about anything beyond drawing up another spell.
The ones I’m making are crude, and as a result, I’m burning through an alarming amount of magic, but it’s the best I got.
I hear the whisper on the wind a second before a spell slams into my shoulder.
I cry out as the magic burns through my clothes and sears my flesh. It’s hot as fire, but it feels like acid on my skin, eating away at it.
Another spell is lobbed at me. The violet orb whizzes past my head, and I have a moment’s relief as it hits the ground ahead of me, the magic flaring on impact.
I barrel onward, ready to run past it when—
Bam!
The shifter and I slam into a magically erected wall.
I stumble back, then fall on my ass. The shifter girl moans in my arms.
I don’t even have time to assess how badly she’s hurt; our assailants are closing in on us.
I call forth my next spell.
“Explode.” I twist my torso and throw my magic as well as I can at the incoming cluster of supernaturals. It hits the closest pursuer in the shins—
BOOM!
I cover the shifter’s face and my own against the fiery heat of the explosion. I can hear the witches’ screams as they’re thrown back.
Before they can retaliate, I lift my hand, palm facing them. “I erect a wall from floor to ceiling.” The words come out in Sarmatian. “Protect me and the shifter from those who would harm us.”
Soft orange magic shimmers in front of me, thinning and stretching until it’s formed a transparent wall of sorts. On the other side of it, robed witches are getting up, though they sway and stumble, and I remember all over again that they were given something to drink.
My heart falls when I see there are at least ten of them. So many. And they’re all so determined to get this girl and help bind her to that priestess.
The thought sends a fresh bolt of terror through me.
Empress! Memnon’s voice is demanding and laced with panic.
I’m busy. I force the message down that river between us.