Page 90 of Wicked Thirst
“Ominous.”
The second their powers mixed with mine, I felt it. It was like having my insides pulled at. It was so strong I almost fell forward onto my knees. I wobbled back and forth but managed to keep my feet under me. A buzzing sounded between my ears, and it drowned out Zinnia’s words.
The wind kicked up in the cell, and I felt my hair whipping around my head. The power swirled together in an array of colors and shapes, but it started to form a man out of magic. It flashed like lightning, slowly forming and disintegrating. For a moment, Grayson flashed into the cell. He curled his fists in front of his body as he hunched slightly and bellowed in agony, then he disappeared, his scream trailing him as an echo.
“He’s fighting it!” Zinnia yelled over the howling wind. “Push harder!”
I felt my blood magic being sucked from my body. It pulled at my insides and ripped at my lungs. My breath left me, and my throat closed around a scream. I would endure, I would hold this, I would do whatever it took. The others all stood with their arms spread wide and their eyes closed. Zinnia screamed the words, and as one, our feet lifted up off the ground and power swirled around us in a sphere of magic. It grew impossibly brighter, and Grayson flashed back into the center of the symbol. This time he was solid. He snarled in Zinnia’s direction and blood magic poured from him out toward her.
“No!” I forced my power to meet his and stop it before it touched her.
The sphere around us shrank toward him. I felt it melt over my body and move toward Grayson. It surrounded him like a fish in a bowl. Magical white chains shot from the ground and wrapped around his wrist and ankles. They wove like a snake around his body, up his neck, and down over his shoulders. They grew so bright I could hardly look at them. Grayson struggled against their hold, but it was futile. When his power snapped back inside him, he threw his head back and bellowed.Magic exploded out of him, and we all soared back from the circle on the ground. My body slammed into the bars and I slipped to the ground. The others too were thrown back, but they landed on their feet and skidded to a halt.
Those white chains burned into his skin and smoke drifted up toward the ceiling. Grayson fell to his knees, his shoulders hunched over. All at once the magic stopped and the magical chains faded into his skin, letting us know that magic would hold him there.
I scrambled to my feet and sucked in a deep breath. “We did it!”Elation ran through my body. “We really did it!”
The others all stood there looking like we’d just run a marathon.
Grayson’s face snapped up to mine. His voice was deep and rough with an edge of aggression to it. “Hello, Piper.”
It sounded like him but didn’t. My brow furrowed. “Gray?”
“Let me out, Piper.” He looked manic with wild black eyes and red veins all over his face. His tongue darted over his lips, and he snarled at me.
The others moved to my side, and Ophelia gave me two awkward pats on the shoulder. “Want me to sew his mouth shut?”
“Dare you,” Gray hissed in her direction.
Ophelia met that hiss with a wide, psychotic smile.She reached into her potion pouch and pulled a vial with a needle and thread in it. “With pleasure.”
“O, no.” Zinnia held her hand out, stopping us from getting closer to him. “No one goes near him. Beck, get us out of her. Now.”
A blue portal opened up on the other side of the cell, and we all hurried toward it. Grayson leaned forward, but the circle under him illuminated and he was thrown back into place. We hurried through and ended up on the other side of the bars. Beckett quickly closed the portal, and we all stood there just staring at Gray. He was a shadow of himself. His movements were jerky as he turned his head from side to side, talking to himself incoherently. He rocked back and forth with his arms wrapped around his body. I hated seeing him like this. The others all just stared at him in silence.
The dungeon door creaked open, and Moira walked in with Maze and Tilly right behind her. The others all followed her in, and Brax slid the dungeon door shut behind them. Moira moved to my side, looking like she was fighting to keep her face passive, but when her lip started to quiver and unshed tears glistened in her eyes, I felt myself almost wanting to cry with her.
She dabbed her finger under her eyes. “What now?”
Zinnia cleared her throat. “Now we try to get the damn thing out of him.”
“What about what the voice said? Bring him Dracinda and he will free Grayson.” I didn’t know why those words kept lingering in my mind, but I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about them.
“Dracinda?” Moira’s eyebrows shot up.
“You know her?”
“Yes but,” She paused and glanced around at us. “She’s dead.”
“What? How?” That couldn’t be possible. I wanted all the details and why this voice was obsessed with this Dracinda person. It had to mean something.
“I doubt whatever he’s hearing could be trusted. We need to focus on what’s in front of us now.” Zinnia sounded so confident.
“How?” Moira tried to sound confident, I could tell that she did, but her voice quivered ever so slightly. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to watch her child in this state and know that she’d lost her soulmate to this very same thing. The threat of death was very real to her, much more real than it was to any of us.
“Like this.” Zinnia opened her hand and her power flowed from her body. It drifted over the floor and wrapped around Grayson. “I’ll siphon it out of him now that we’ve got him.”
“No!” But it was too late she already surrounded him with her silvery power.
