Page 28 of Ransomed to the World
His movements slowed, and he stopped fighting, her chest hurt seeing him so defeated. The connection between them became blurred, dulled by whatever they gave him.
I love you.
Please forgive me.
His last thoughts drifted to her seconds before everything between them became fuzzy, like static.
Everyone rose to their feet…except Mason.
One of the trolls lifted a knife. Before Annora could launch herself forward, he slashed downward. Dread pooled in her gut until she saw only a small gash on Mason’s forearm. Blood dripped down from the injury, and Nerilla captured it in a shallow cup.
Annora only relaxed when they moved away from Mason.
Blood continued to drip and pool on the ground, and she was unable to resist the compulsion to go to him. She took a step, only to have Edgar grab her arm.
“If I’m right, you only have a few moments.” He turned her away to face him. “You already know the dangers of trying to skip or portal underground—you don’t have enough practice to do either in the dark. Promise me you won’t try.”
He was hamstringing her.
But he had a point.
Whenever she tried to jump, she almost always had a picture of where she wanted to be. She did short jumps through walls and doors, but never in a blind maze underground. “What would happen?”
In the back of her mind, a clock was ticking down. She could almost feel Mason breathing down her neck already.
A muscle ticked in Edgar’s jaw. “You have enough strength that you shouldn’t get stuck in the middle of thousands of pounds of rocks that would crush you in seconds. If you try to go too far, you could rebound and end up right where you started. If you don’t have a specific image in mind when you jump, you could end up in a billion particles, scattered in the darkness.”
Annora’s breathing stopped.
She hadn’t even realized that was an option.
She cast her mind back at how many times she jumped blindly and wondered how many other rules she’d broken.
Had she been just lucky?
No, she’d trusted her instincts.
She could do no less now. She gazed up at Edgar’s fathomless blue eyes and refused to lie. “I’ll do my best to stay alive. That’s all I can promise.”
“You’ll take the sword as well.” He pulled the strap over his head, quickly dropping it over hers, and adjusted the strap across her chest until he was satisfied, doing his best to avoid looking at her the whole time.
“No.” She tried to hand it back, but he grabbed her wrists.
“You either take it with you or you don’t go.” The afterworld filled his eyes until they went completely black.
He wasn’t going to change his mind.
Everything inside her rebelled at the thought of using the sword against Mason.
She just couldn’t do it.
Xander grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him, and everything inside her stilled. “Take. The. Sword.”
“Fine.” She gritted her teeth and dropped her hands, the sword on her back making the spot between her shoulder blades itch. She flexed her neck as their expectations settled over her.
Camden and Logan hurried toward her, both looking so serious her gut clenched. Logan reached her first.
“Whatever they gave him, Mason is completely gone. I could actually feel the predator in him rise.” He pulled her against his chest and clutched her close, whispering into her hair. “Be wary of him. As much as you might want to see him as being the same Mason, he’s not there right now. Trust me, you won’t be fighting Mason.”
