Page 84 of Cast in Shadow
Then Nguyen was there, hooking his big arms beneath hers and hauling her up and back. Not realizing it was him, she yelped and twisted away in surprise. Megan’s hand shot out, wrapping those treacherous fingers around Shay’s ankle.
“No!” I lunged for them both.
Shay kicked out as Nguyen got his hands on her again and pulled. They managed to break the witch’s hold, but when she glared up at them, pulling herself up to all fours with her long dress sliding across the smooth tile, her eyes weren’t black anymore. They were glowing a deep, dangerous crimson.
Dread sat like a stone in my gut. The demon had won, and it had taken all of a few seconds.
Megan’s body rocked back onto her feet, keeping her hands planted on the ground, like an angry cat getting ready to pounce. I pulled as much of my power to the surface as I could and dove for her before she could make her move.
A deafening snap charged the air when I made contact. Megan’s body collapsed beneath me. For a moment, she fell still. The energy drain was quick and violent, but the ribbon went to work refilling the well the next instant.
Then she moved.
Shit.I stayed where I was, pinning her down with my weight and my magic. That pulse should have been enough to incapacitate just about any living thing. Any mortal thing, anyway.
Had I just hallucinated that little twitch?
No, because she twitched again. Then her body bucked hard. She fought to throw me off as I pooled every ounce of powerthe ribbon was feeding me and turned it into a weapon. I didn’t have time to focus it into more than a pea-sized ball of pure light, but when I hit her with that charge, far stronger than the first, her body convulsed violently.
But even before the shuddering stopped, a muffled hiss ripped the short hairs along the back of my neck to full attention.
That isn’t good.I barely had time to think the words before I was thrown backward and collided with the hard terrace floor a few feet away.
There was bad, then there was worse.
The demon figuring out it had access to Megan’s magic definitely fell in the worse category.
I shot a glance to my left in time to see a heavy wooden deck chair smash into Nguyen from behind. He stumbled forward. Shay screamed.
Why the hell hadn’t he already thrown her over his shoulder and hauled her to safety?
I launched to my feet. “Get her out?—”
Something hard crashed into me from my right, knocking me off balance. I reeled like a drunk on a bender before I found my footing. When I did, I didn’t bother yelling at Nguyen or Shay again, I just shot toward Navali.
My magic might not be enough to put down the demon taking up space inside her, but I could at least buy my people time to get clear of the immediate threat.
I was nearly there, just three feet shy of her, when I was lifted off my feet by an invisible force. I twisted and wrenched my body in unnatural ways trying to break free, but it kept lifting until I was six feet off the terrace. Then ten. Then fifteen.
Terror etched lines in Shay’s sweet face below me before the energy pulling me up shifted and shoved me back down. I braced as best I could, but it wasn’t enough. Pain ricochetedthrough me when I hit, the designer tile cracking beneath me. Or maybe that was my ribs. Or my skull.
Agony exploded in my head.
“Senna!” Nguyen’s furious voice sliced through the ringing in my ears. I looked up, blinking the blurriness from my vision in time to see him shoving Shay behind him as Navali advanced on them.
“Run!” I yelled.
I tried to get to my feet, but my head was a mess of fuzz and pain. Warm blood leaked down my neck. Nausea rose like the tide in a storm inside me. I took two steps, stumbled over nothing, and landed hard on one knee.
Come on. I can do this.
My pulse was erratic. Every nerve was on edge. And worry and panic threatened to overwhelm me. I’d been through a hell of a lot worse physically, but I’d never been this fucking terrified in my life. Because I wasn’t scared for myself.
When Shay tried to push past Nguyen, yelling at him that they needed to help me, my heart swelled even though I wanted to scream in frustration.
“Run,” I yelled again, but it was too late. One second, my second-in-command was on the terrace, and the next, he was hurtling toward the glowing rift. “No!” My chest locked up tight.
I had half a second to imagine what would happen to him if he ended up in the Alius before he splashed safely into the pool below that strip of orange firelight, sending a wave of water over the glass wall on the far side.
