I pried open my eyes but kept them slits to not alert whoever had bound me to my wakefulness. I lay slung over the back of a pack beast, tied and gagged. I tested the bonds, and there would be no wriggling out of them.
I would have to shift to free myself, but I didn’t want to do that before I assessed the situation. I listened but couldn’t make out the words the voices spoke. Scratching hisses filled the space around us, and it all came back to me in an awful rush.
“Caly!”I called out in my mind, somehow managing not to vocalize it and blow my cover.
I was met with silence. I reached for her from within, tracing the loose strands between us. I was unpracticed at the art, but even though I had avoided our bond at all costs, the Goddess created us as one, and there was no avoiding the threads that bound us.
She was there. I could feel the beat of her heart still anchored to her body, and I breathed a little easier. She was still alive. Probably still out. But now I had to figure out where she was so I could shift and grab her and hopefully get away before they could get that crossbow back out.
If I could even fly with the hole that thing ripped in my damn wing. It would be fine, it would have to be. I’d fought it hard as it pulled me in, which meant I could still keep myself airborne then. I had to hold on to that and hope I still could now. I closed my eyes and listened. I counted the mules and the horses. Then I counted the undead. My stomach turned. There were hundreds of them. They would close in the second I shifted, so I wouldn’t have much time.
Finally, I found the beast that must be carrying her. It walked like the mule I was on, its gait a little heavier, and there were more undead around her. They must be serving as guards. Obviously, whoever controlled them was able to get them to do more than just destroy.
I couldn’t let them get us wherever they were going and subject us to what they did to Kol. It was now or never.
I pushed my body out to take the shape of my dragon, but nothing happened.
Like I was cut off from that part of myself. I could feel the shape, but I couldn’t get to it. Like my matter was stuck.
Was this how Kol felt?
Panic tingled in my fingertips. How would I save her if I couldn’t shift? I called for my magic, which I could feel still existed, but it felt somewhere out of reach. The wind ignored me. I pulled at the vapor, and some of it came. I focused and called the power from the earth. My reserves were low because of the injury. I needed more. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t take my dragon form.
When I reached out for a ley line, they felt so far. I traced them, searching for a node that might be a little deeper but bigger and easier to draw power from. There were none.
What was this place, and why was it so barren of magic?
I growled in frustration and again tried to take my dragon form.
Nothing happened.
Oh no.
What if they’d already done to me what they did to Kol?
No, no, no.
My heart raced as I searched my mind, trying to find a solution, something else to try, even with my magic so low.
Shit.
Had I failed her?
Did my selfishness at not wanting to bond with her lead here? If we could share magic, this might be easier. Even if she was passed out, as long as she was alive and we were melded, we could exchange.
But I couldn’t do what-ifs or regrets.
I had to find a way out of this as we were.
How long had it been since they pulled me out of the sky? I inhaled deeply, and the scent of my blood was still permeating the air. It couldn’t have been that long. I was not healed enough,and if I’d been out for more than a few hours, I would have healed more.
Surely that’s not enough time to have done all that they did to Kol? Even with a few people, the intricate magic work took time and energy. It didn’t make sense. So what else could have made me not able to shift? Even with low magic reserves, I should be able to. Could it be the bolt that they pierced my wing with? Could it have been poisoned with bane or something?
That had to be it.
Now I needed a plan, but I was being pulled under again. Every blink of my eyelids had them closing for longer and longer. I couldn’t succumb. Caly needed me.
“Caly,”I called to her mind.“C?—”
