A stranger teacher and student pairing Anna had never seen.
Eventually, the hall emptied, and Honnan’s lesson about a riot that took place in a small coastal community called Dark Sands came to an end and he ushered them out of the hall.
When they exited, he turned left not right.
Right was back to their chambers. Left was workrooms.
“Why are we going this way?” Shadowlight asked, adding a low growl.
“I need to retrieve something from my workroom and Gryton will have my head if I leave you unguarded to go retrieve it later.” Honnan’s tone was free of stress, but there was a hint of deception to his scent.
Shadowlight growled louder.
“Damn gargoyles. Can’t keep a secret from you to save my life. If you must know, I’m meeting someone. It won’t take long, then you can both return to your chambers afterward.”
That was all true, but Anna didn’t trust him. There was more he wasn’t saying. Shadowlight didn’t have a choice. He’d have to follow and there was no way she was letting the kid go alone. So, glowering at Honnan, she followed him doggedly even knowing he might be leading them into a trap.
It wasn’t until they took another left, descended two flights of stairs, and then turned right down a dimly lit hallway that Anna recognized the area. A moment later, a draft wafted past and confirmed her fears.
The coiling scent of old blood grew steadily stronger with each step. Shadowlight snarled and Anna instinctively shifted to gargoyle form.
“Stop, both of you,” Honnan said with an annoyed huff. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t need something from her. Behave yourself, or I’ll order Shadowlight to imprison you in a cage of shadow magic.”
It wasn’t an idle threat. Since they’d both been training with the blood witch, their mastery of magic had greatly expanded. Unfortunately, Anna had only been a gargoyle for a few short weeks and her training wasn’t as advanced as the kid’s. If he was ordered to imprison her, he would. Unless he fought the collar. If he did that, they’d lose their advantage and once Gryton learned of it, he’d upgrade the collar again. Dammit.
“Shadowlight, unless we’re in danger, just go with whatever he says. We don’t want to reveal our cards yet.”
“I understand. I don’t like it, but I understand.”
He continued to growl softly.
As they walked closer to the blood witch’s workrooms, Anna’s unease grew, her gargoyle nature screaming a warning.
And then a familiar, darkly seductive voice was whispering in her waking mind. “They mean to enslave you.”
“What? You only figured that out now?” Using a sarcastic tone on Death might not be the brightest move, but it made her feel marginally better.
“Your bravado will not save you or the young gargoyle from what the blood witch plans to do to you.”
“She won’t risk Gryton’s or the Lady of Battles’ rage. She can’t kill us.”
“No, not kill. But she will lay claim to your souls. She plans to bind you to herself and the two demon siblings. Her power will take your souls and twist them in ways that even my sister would hesitate to use.”
Sweat trickled down Anna’s back. If what he said was true, they needed to escape and tell Gryton.
“Gryton is no savior. Come to me. Now. Before your souls are beyond even my ability to cleanse.”
With that slap of clarity, Anna knew they’d stayed too long. They’d been lulled by the Battle Bitch’s dark power and let their guards down. They should have attempted escape days ago.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
Anna fisted her hands, but they were already at the door leading to Taryin’s dark domain. Honnan shoved the ancient wooden door open with one shoulder and walked through, ordering Shadowlight to follow when the gargoyle balked.
Not about to let Shadowlight face the danger alone, she marched in and shoved her way between the two males and came face to muzzle with the blood witch.
Taryin brought her hands up, the sickly glow of blood magic circling her long elegant fingers.
“Why is the female gargoyle here? I only need the male for the spell.”
Honnan chuckled. “Shadowlight, capture and hold the female.”
“It’s okay Shadowlight. Don’t fight the collar until I tell you,” she sent along the link.
His trust in her was absolute and he obeyed her at once. He obeyed her, not the collar, Anna realized with a bit of shock.
The others in the room didn’t seem to notice the difference, so she made a show of snarling and fighting as Shadowlight shoved her into a cage created from his newly mastered shadow and blood magic.
Anna didn’t have to fake her displeasure at being locked into a cage while three captains remained outside with Shadowlight, but she needed the captains to think she wasn’t a threat.
“Shadowlight, we need to kill or incapacitate all of them. Starting with the blood witch. Lord Death says the blood witch is going to perform some ritual that will alter our souls in ways even he can’t cleanse. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a freaking good reason to fight.”
“I agree, but I don’t know if I can fight the collar and the witch at the same time.”
“You won’t have to. Just lure the witch next to the cage and then drop the spell when I say. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” he said, his voice full of trust and confidence.
Anna wouldn’t fail the kid. She’d see the witch neutralized even if it killed her.
“Shadowlight, I require a few drops of your blood,” Captain Taryin said. “It won’t even be enough for you to miss, but as you can see, I’ve been working on this one spell for days and it’s almost complete. I only need a bit of blood to finish it.”
The witch gestured toward the stone worktable at the center of the room. Last time there had been bowls of powders and dried herbs. This time there was a slowly rolling and twisting knot of magic floating two feet above the table. The magic shifted and shuddered and seethed as if the very air caused it pain. It reminded her of a school of fish attacked by some unseen predator.
Watching the seething mass made Anna vaguely nauseous.
“Stay here next to me. Make her come to you,” Anna instructed Shadowlight.
In answer, he settled on his haunches and leaned against the cage, alertly waiting but no longer growling.
Taryin had picked up a long-bladed dagger from her worktable and turned toward Shadowlight. Seeing his new posture, she smiled. “That’s a good boy. You’ll be able to release your Kyrsu from the cage shortly.
Shadowlight’s ears swung forward as if curious.
The blood witch had the audacity to pat him on the head, but the kid was on his best behavior and only flashed his fangs, which made the blood witch laugh a second time.
“That’s my gargoyle,” Taryin said as she brought the blade against Shadowlight’s forearm.
“Now,” Anna whispered into his mind.
Chapter 32
The cage bars shimmered as they disintegrated into their separate shadow and blood magic components. Anna lunged through the swirling misty remains of her cage, calling on her own blades made of shadow and blood magic. Shadowlight was half a second ahead of her and his blade-tipped tail stabbed the blood witch. Anna was on her a second later, one of her blades sliding in the back of Taryin’s neck, just under the skull.
With her spinal cord severed, the blood witch could only widen her eyes in surprise. Taryin made no sound as she slumped forward against her. Kicking her dead weight away, Anna leaped toward the startled Ninara.
“I’ve got this one. Honnan is all yours,” Anna instructed.
Ninara lashed out with a shimmering wave of offensive magic, but Anna retaliated with her own. Small voids of darkness appeared and shredded her enemy’s spells, unraveling them before they could touch her.
She rushed forward, using her wings and tail as weapons like Sorac and Shadowlight had drilled into her. Shredding Ninara’s spell
s, she closed the distance and wrapped her long, powerful fingers around the other woman’s throat, squeezing back her cry of alarm.
“The Battle Goddess was foolish to create beings as powerful as Shadowlight and me and think we’d be easy to control.” Anna dragged Ninara closer until they were breathing the same air. “We aren’t slaves. Why you thought you could control us, I have no idea.”
She glanced over at Shadowlight to see him slam Honnan into the floor. Not that she was concerned about the outcome. Sorac had already pitted Shadowlight against all his mentors, and Honnan hadn’t faired so well in the ring. He wouldn’t here either. Anna dragged the still struggling Ninara closer to her brother.
“Ninara, how much do you think Honnan cares? He seems indifferent to most, but I’d say he genuinely loves you.” Anna crouched next to Shadowlight and his prisoner. “Shall we find out?”
Anna flexed her talons and broke the skin on Ninara’s throat. “I know from Sorac’s lessons that beheading kills almost any opponent.”
Honnan’s mouth opened, and his lips moved, but nothing came out, not even breath.
“Kid, ease up on the grip before you pop his eyes out of his head. Besides, I think he wants to say something.”
Shadowlight eased up on the incubus’s throat but dug his talons into Honnan’s chest until blood pooled around each digit. If Honnan survived, and that was a big ‘if,’ he was going to bear a gargoyle’s talon marks on his pecs for days to come.
“Oh, and Honnan, if I were you, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to attempt to issue an order to Shadowlight. I saw him nearly put Gryton through a wall not that long ago and you and your sister strike me as more breakable than Tin Man.”
Honnan’s nostrils flared and he nodded ever so slightly.
“Are you going to behave?”
Another nod.
“Good, you’re going to surrender control of Shadowlight’s collar over to me and then he and I are going to imprison you and your dear sister.” Anna tapped her blade made of shadow and blood magic against his cheek. “You have my word we won’t kill you if you cooperate.”
Honnan nodded again. Good. So far, so good.
“Shadowlight, can you make another of those handy cages while I secure them?”
He nodded but didn’t release his hold on the other male until Anna had gagged and hog-tied him with layers of shadow magic.
Then she attended to Ninara in the same fashion. Once Shadowlight was finished constructing the cage, Anna dragged her captives over to it and tossed Ninara in. Anna removed the incubus’s gag. “No heroics. Just transfer the command spell.”
Honnan did, calmly uttering the foreign words she’d come to recognize from all the times she’d heard the spell spoken. When he was finished, Anna gagged him again and shoved him in a cage next to his sister. Shadowlight sealed them in.
“How long do you think that will hold them?” she asked.
“Long enough to get away.”
“Good, we need to warn the servants and somehow get them out of here. I’m not leaving them behind—”
Pain exploded in her abdomen. She was suddenly propelled backward, and then her body crashed into one of the workroom’s stone walls. Her head cracked against the unyielding surface and her vision darkened until she was temporarily blind.
The pain in her side was intense, a burning agony, unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. Screams assaulted her ears. It took longer than it should for her to understand she was the one screaming.
She forced her lips together. It stopped the sound, but not the pain. She wasn’t sure if anything short of death could end the terrible suffering. Anna only hoped there were no guards outside in the hall to hear.
Her hands reached blindly to the point where the greatest agony radiated. Blinking slowly and focusing on her breathing helped to clear her vision. Through her wavering sight, she saw what her hands had already felt.
A long crystalline spear was pinning her to the wall. Its tainted, muddy amber color told her it was forged of blood magic.
She tried to pull the spear from her side, but it was sticky with blood and Anna’s grip was too weak. The sound of battle dragged Anna out of her own agony long enough to focus on her surroundings.
Shadowlight was in a battle with the blood witch and he was outmatched. Anna’s protective instincts roused even through the waves of blinding pain. Power stirred deep within, giving her renewed strength.
“Should’ve taken her head,” Anna muttered as she hacked up blood.
Not good. This was so not good. Oh, hell. This was going to hurt like a mother.
But Shadowlight was in danger. Roaring in rage and agony, Anna ripped the spear from the wall and out of her body. Crashing to the ground, she lay there for a moment, but her magic bond to Shadowlight was urging her to fight. She gripped the spear and used it as a walking stick to hoist herself to her feet.
The younger gargoyle was still fighting Taryin, but his magic was having trouble breaking past the barrier she’d built around herself. Anna glanced at the blood witch’s protective dome of power and then back down at the sickly amber spear in her hand.
Would the witch’s shields block a weapon forged of her own power?
Time to find out.
Anna took advantage of Taryin’s distraction and took the last few staggering steps toward her prey. While Shadowlight kept her busy, Anna launched the spear with all the force left in her arm. It struck, impaling the witch in the center of her back.
Shadowlight struck from the front. His powerful blow spun Taryin around.
As Anna collapsed to her knees, she smiled at the blood witch’s shocked expression.
“Got you again. Bitch.”
Shadowlight reached down and grabbed the blood witch and dragged her farther from Anna.
“Wait.” Anna’s call came out more of a whimper than a shout, but she forced her voice to steady. “Take the bitch’s head. I don’t want her coming after us again.”
Shadowlight nodded and reached down. There was a brief struggle and then came the wet, ragged sound of tearing flesh, snapping bones, and the pop of cartilage. He’d just beheaded the witch with his bare hands.
That he’d had to do that himself would have upset Anna more if she wasn’t bleeding to death.
A moment later a hulking shadow was standing over her and then Shadowlight gathered her broken body up in his arms.
“Anna?” Her name came out a sob.
“Going to be okay, kid. I’m not dying here in this place” Anna patted his cheek, leaving bloody smears behind. “Call shadows to hide us and then take me back to my room.”
He did as she asked, running back to their chambers as fast as he could. The bumping and jolting was a fresh agony, but Anna locked her jaws to prevent any sound from escaping. She needed to give Shadowlight as much time as possible to free himself of the collar and then escape.
Anna might have control of his command collar, but she didn’t know what would happen if she died and he was still wearing it. Probably nothing good for him.
When they reached their chambers, Lanya and her husband rushed forward and helped Shadowlight carry her to the bed.
“You need to go,” Anna said weakly as she looked up at the ceiling. “All of you. Go. Leave me.”
“Go?” Lanya said. “We will not leave without you.”
But to Anna’s relief, Lanya’s husband was already rushing to pull a large sack out of Anna’s wardrobe. It was the go-bag she’d been putting together for their escape.
She’d been worried the servants would find it while cleaning. Guess that answered that question of the family’s loyalty.
The father ordered his two children to pack a cloak and change of clean clothes and whatever other food and medicine was already in the chamber.
She was glad he understood what was coming. Her gaze returned to Lanya who was trying to slow the blood pouring from Anna’s side.
Fighting past the pain, she sought calm. “
Lanya, when I first came here, I was sent by the Mother’s Sorceress. She gave me two medallions. They would allow me to return to my home once I found Shadowlight. I buried them a day’s travel outside the city.” Anna closed her eyes against the pain still ravaging her body and then focused on the memory and exact location where she’d buried the two medallions.
She explained the location in detail to the two servants. The entire time Shadowlight knelt beside her, his hands pressed against her wound as he shared power with her. He was trying to heal her, but she knew enough about how their strange magical link worked to know that while he might be able to heal her, it would take days. They didn’t have the luxury of days. They probably didn’t even have hours. Someone was bound to notice that there were three captains missing.
And this wound was bad, really bad. It felt like there was still a part of the blood witch inside her, feeding on her. While Taryin might be dead, apparently her evil magic didn’t die with her. This reminded her of what the Riven had done to her when she’d first met Shadowlight. And yet, as horrible as the Riven attack and consequent taint had been, this was somehow worse.
She wasn’t at all certain she could survive this even if Shadowlight had days to heal her.
“Shadowlight, you and the others need to go now before someone discovers what we did.”
“I won’t leave you.”
“You must. I’m dying.”
“You are,” agreed that beautiful, familiar voice inside her head. “The blood witch infected you with her spell. It’s not as sophisticated as the finished weaving would have been, but it is still killing you. Worse than killing you. When it is finished, your soul will be destroyed along with your body.”
Anna’s eyes widened at Death’s words.
“You can’t have her, neither can the blood witch. I won’t allow it.” Shadowlight’s grip on her tightened.
The poor cub. She’d promised that she wouldn’t abandon him. Yet like everyone else he loved, she was breaking that promise. She was dying.
Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset 2 Page 37
