Page 27 of Burdened Bonds
They want me, they can damn well come and get me.
I streak along the paths, students and teachers scattering out of my way, the sound of heavy boots chasing after me.
As I careen around the corner of one of the dorms, I come face to face with a security agent and slam magic into his shocked face. A man behind him calls out, his magic shooting past my head. I fling the first man in front of me, using him as a shield and firing at the second.
“He’s here!” he yells to his comrades. “Over h–”
He doesn’t finish his words. I slam my fist into his mouth and he collapses to the ground. I throw the body of his comrade on top of him and, leaping over them both, race around the corner.
“Yeah, here I am you fuckers. You want to come and get me?”
I meet more of them around that corner, five perhaps and more running in my direction. I just hope it’s all of them, that Winnie has made it down to the parking lot. I keep my ears trained for the sound of an engine as I blastmy magic at the security agents firing on me. But all I can hear is the whistle of magic as it soars past my head, exploding on the path behind me. I swerve one blast, block another, send a third hurtling back the way it came. I’m better at this than them. Stronger, more skilled, better trained. But there are more of them than me and twice magic strikes me, scorching my thigh and my shoulder.
I hiss with the pain and keep fighting, making as much noise as I possibly can. Keeping them busy, aware they are coming closer to me, closer and closer, despite the first few agents falling to the floor.
Where the hell is that girl? Where the hell is that car?
I start to despair, convinced she must have been captured, convinced I will be too. The agents form a ring around me, trapping me against the wall of the gymnasium. Still, I fight. Firing magic with increasing desperation as more and more magic hits my body, bruising my skin and singeing my flesh. Another agent falls and another, but the ring around me grows tighter and tighter, and I don’t know how much longer I can hold them off. Then finally – finally – there’s an almighty crash, the roar of an engine, and a beat-up car comes hurtling through the parking lot doors.
The agents spin. They shout. Some start to direct their fire that way. The car swerves and careens, attempting to avoid the onslaught of the magic. A fire bolt hits the roof, a blast digs a crater into the path ahead.
She’s not going to make it. She’s not going to get away.
I yell at the agents, try to attract their attention back to me. More magic hits my body and I howl in pain, a howl that splinters right down to the bones of my body and I know what I have to do. I charge, pumping my arms and my legs, straight towards the ring of agents and as I do, the beast takes over my body – a body that cracks and creaks, lengtheningand stretching, reforming, so that by the time I’m on the agents I’m more beast than man.
The car screeches away as the beast snaps his jaw through throats, breaks bones with the force of his body, sends men falling to the ground. He fights and fights, his jaw soaked in blood, the scarlet liquid dripping from his mouth.
But it’s no good. There’s too many of them. Too many soldiers. The ring tightens and tightens still. He howls in pain as magic hits every part of his body and soon they’re on top of us, holding us down, weaving tight magical chains around our body. And soon we can’t move at all.
Caught.
11
Azlan
“Where the fuck are they?”I mutter. It’s midday. The weak winter sun is as high in the sky as it’s going to reach, its thin rays barely penetrating through the smoke that still drifts in the air.
It tickles the back of my throat and I cough.
“You wanna go without them?” Stone asks, peering at his watch and then back down the road. We’ve tucked ourselves down an alley between two of the buildings that hug the crossroads out here on the far side of the city. But there’s still a risk we will be spotted again – we’ve already evaded three attempts to capture us.
Have the others faced similar obstacles? Were they not so lucky?
This plan was probably a stupid one.That car may be useful, but probably not worth getting ourselves captured over securing.
I should have insisted we stayed together. When we find Rhianna, when we ensure she’s safe and sound, she’s going to want all of us. All her mates and that best friend of hers too. I have a feeling she’s going to hold me responsible for their safety and she’s going to be pissed at me if I’ve lost one or two of them.
“Five more minutes,” I say to Stone. “We give them five more minutes and then we go.”
Those five minutes crawl by. I want to be away. I want to be active, doing something, even if all I am doing is closing the distance between us. My bond aches for her and I can’t stand to be this far away from her.
My gaze swings between the empty road and the ticking hands of my wristwatch. Even out here on the edge of the city, these streets are usually bustling with traffic and people. But today, people have locked themselves away in their houses, hiding, sheltering, tending to their wounds.
The seconds creep by. I strain my eyes into the distance. Nothing.
I roll up the sleeves of my tattered shirt. I wish I had my fucking cloak.
“Let’s go,” I tell my friend, wheeling my motorbike out onto the road and jumping up on the saddle. He does the same and we’re motoring away in the next moment, both alert, both watching the road in front of us and behind, plus the goddamn sky above us too.
