Page 37 of Taken By the Blood God

He glanced over his shoulder but sped up again. Why was he like this? I needed to stay close to him. It was safer. He was two steps from the door when I realized he wasn’t going to stop or even slow down.

I opened my mouth to warn him that the door might be boobytrapped, but it was too late. He burst through the door of the building. Nothing happened, so I followed right on his heels. The building seemed to be one room, and it was completely empty. There were sconces on the wall, each holding a thick candle, tipped in a flickering flame.

These warlocks must have assumed that no one could make it through their ward because they hadn’t done anything to protect the entrance of the structure. There were no wards, spells, or traps. Not even a minion or familiar to raise the alarm of our entry.

Arrogant assholes. They were in for a nasty surprise.

The sound of chanting voices drifted into the room, quiet but growing louder. Magic swelled, thickening the air until it was difficult to breathe.

They were preparing to set their circle, calling up the magic.

I could sense the power building below us, but how did we get down there. My eyes scanned the dark space. The candlelight didn’t reach every corner of the large room, so I couldn’t see clearly.

“There,” Talant said, pointing to a spot in the center of the space.

I couldn’t see what he was pointing at, but I followed him as he ran forward. As we drew closer, I saw the hole gaping in the middle of the floor. It was pitch black, so I conjured a light to help me see, cupping the small ball in my hand. A spiral staircase descended from the floor. The steps were narrow and steep, made of roughly cut stone. Each step was nearly two feet tall.

Talant had already vanished into the darkness as I made my way down the steps. He could see in the dark, but I couldn’t. I wanted to run, but I knew I wouldn’t survive a fall from this height.

A faint glow appeared to my left, and I knew I was getting closer to the bottom. As I drew closer to the light, I heard a scuffle.

Then the first screams began. The piercing sounds of agony echoed in the stairwell, stabbing into my eardrums. I resisted the urge to cover my ears with my hands. I needed them both free. One shriek rose higher until it was cut off with a thick, wet gurgle. I winced, knowing that some warlock had died in a great deal of pain.

While I agreed that they had to die, I didn’t intend to make them suffer. It seemed Talant didn’t share my thoughts on the matter.

As soon as I could see without the orb in my palm, I let the light spell fade and focused on getting down the rest of the steps as quickly as I could.

By the time I jumped down from the last step, the magic that had been building dissipated, but different kinds of power had taken its place. Flares of raw magic, fire, electricity, and other sorts of spells were sizzling in the air.

I ducked when a bolt of lightning shot out of the room at the opposite end of the short hall. I dashed into the room and stopped short. It was utter chaos.

Two warlocks were face down on the floor unmoving. The other eight were scattered around the huge room. Several of them crouched behind the huge stone dais twenty feet from the arched doorway. The rest were hidden behind the outcropping of rocks jutting from the rough walls.

It was a cave like the one where Talant had slept.

A ball of fire jetted across the room straight for me. I waved a hand, throwing up a shield. The fireball crashed against the invisible barrier, fizzling into a puff of noxious smoke.

I looked around, wondering where in the hell Talant had gone. Malevolent magic was flying around the room, but none of that power belonged to a certain blood god.

More spells crashed into my shield—curses, lightning, fire, and even what appeared to be venom. The barrage was nearly overwhelming. If I had to fight them by myself, it wouldn’t take long for me to wear myself out and lose my ability to shield.

I dug deep within myself, reaching out and searching for that frigid power—the power that Talant claimed I had. An icy sensation crept through my veins, unfurling from my heart and outward toward my limbs. I could feel it. It was right there. But I couldn’t quite touch it. I couldn’t push through whatever was blocking me from it.

Still, the small trickle of cold magic that spread within me bolstered my ability to shield myself while I searched for Talant in the shadows.

Where was he? I couldn’t see him or feel his power. Between the effort to sustain my shield and the dark magic flying around the cavern, I couldn’t focus. It was as if he’d disappeared completely.

The warlocks seemed to be focused on a spot a few feet in front of me, the bulk of their curses and spells aimed toward that area.

I inched forward until my toes brushed the edge of a ward. I jumped back at the sharp nip of pain that encompassed my entire body. At the touch of my foot, the magic shimmered in front of me, revealing an egg-shaped dome draped in shimmering black oil. It writhed and dripped, the thick liquid covering the spell falling to the dirt floor with dull splats.

It wasn’t a ward. It was a trap. And it had been tripped.

I immediately knew that Talant was inside. Whatever it was had to be insanely powerful to contain him. In my study of ancient texts, I’d read about spells strong enough to trap a god, but I’d never seen actual instruction on how to construct one.

I walked a few feet around the edge of the circle, lightly touching the magic with mine, testing it. The oily residue wanted to cling to me, to suck me into the trap with Talant. It was strong and hungry, almost sentient. It was the darkest of magic, which meant that it had a will of its own, and a desire to create death and destruction wherever it existed.

Still, Talant was fighting to free himself. I could feel the heat of his magic leaking from the trap, as though he was burning it from the inside out.

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