Page 55 of Shadow Weaver
“I have to try.”
I shot past her and into a pocket of shadow lingering between the thick drapes and a bookcase.
Madam Latrou’s face filled my mind, and then I was back in the classroom.
“Indie!” Joti ran toward me.
I hugged her on instinct and felt the tremor in her body. She was terrified.
I rubbed her back. “It’s going to be okay. Brunner is getting help. We’re going to be okay.”
“The quaking has stopped,” Kash said. “But …” He turned to look behind him.
Madam Latrou was in the center of the room with her arms up and her eyes closed. Above her was a fractured ceiling that had come away from the foundations. Lumps of cement and rock hovered above us. The whole thing was about to come down, and the only thing keeping it up was the soft blue sheen surrounding us. A shield created by Madam Latrou. I’d phased right into it.
I stepped closer to the tutor. “Madam Latrou? How long can you hold that?”
She shook her head, and I noted her forehead was beaded in perspiration. “Not much longer,” she said through clenched teeth. “Now, if this had occurred a few weeks from now, I may have trained the class in this particular manipulation of the weave.”
The blue shield flickered, and Madam Latrou’s face drained of color.
It wasn’t going to hold. There wasn’t time to get the cadets out one by one. I needed to get them all out now, but the last time I’d carried more than one person, it had knocked me for six. How would I cope with carrying several? Could I even do it?
“Madam Latrou. I need to shadow cast and take you all with me. Is there a way I could do that?”
She winced as if in pain. “The amount of power needed would exact a huge price on your energy. You don’t have the controlled circuit needed to refuel. I’m afraid it could kill you.”
Shit. I did not want to die. I didn’t have to die. I mean, I could leave right now. Just shadow cast out of there before the shield failed.
“Go,” Madam Latrou said, echoing my thoughts. “You need to go now.”
For the past few years, it had been look out for number one, but being there, being a shadow cadet, had triggered a part of me I’d suppressed for far too long. Leaving wasn’t an option for me. It wasn’t who I was, not anymore. Yeah, it was my life or theirs. One to save the many, but it was the only choice.
I took a deep breath. “I have to try.”
“Miss Justice, no,” Madam Latrou said. “That’s suicide.”
“And leaving you here to die would be murder.”
The room around the shield was wreathed in darkness. I’d get one shot at this because once the shield went down, we’d have a split second to phase before being crushed.
There were seven students, seven people to carry, and Madam Latrou.
I wrapped one arm around the tutor’s waist and grabbed hold of Joti’s hand. “Everyone link hands.” My heart was sledgehammering against my chest because this was crazy, this was insane. This could kill me. “We need to be connected.”
The blue shield fizzed. Madam Latrou was weakening.
“On the count of three, we run for that pocket of shadow. Madam, can you hold the shield till the last possible moment?”
She nodded, no longer able to argue with me. Every ounce of her concentration was fixed on keeping the rubble at bay.
I took a deep breath. “One. Two. Three.” I ran at the darkness, opening myself up to the weave. Allowing it to blind me. The blue shattered, the ceiling rushed toward us. Someone screamed, and then the darkness took me, skimming over my skin like a welcome friend. But then the friend morphed into a nightmare as it grabbed me, dug its claws in, and took a bite.
* * *
The weave was callingto me. Bright and wonderful and peaceful. Almost there. Just needed to get closer, a little closer. I needed to touch it. Something wrapped around my torso and pulled.
Down.
