Alches pawed at the same spot. A tentacle thumped the barrier.
He definitely wanted something from me.
The apathy that had started to claim me faded as I concentrated on those shadows, sending my mind questing along the thin connection I had with them. Had always had with them. Whether I was conscious of it or not.
What I found there was homecoming. The same sense of belonging I felt in Noctessa.
Right in front of me was my escape. If I could reach those shadows, I could take Deborah and Lowen and leave this place. I was a magic breaker. The barrier wouldn’t be able to stop me for long.
Hold on, Debs, I thought at my companion. It was time I got inventive.
Breathing through the pain, I tested the root impaling me. A small movement at first. Then a bigger one.
Both left me feeling worse. If that was possible.
“Ai—leen.” Lowen’s broken voice rasped from the cage suspended from the tree’s branches. “Don’t—struggle.”
I sagged, my brief surge of energy exhausted.
Damn it. I had to be the world’s worst vampire.
I couldn’t even summon the strength to glare at the shadows that were my salvation. Too tired to do anything but stare numbly.
Why did they have to be so far away?
Unknowingly, I settled into something of a fugue state. Everything else ceasing to exist except me and those shadows.
For a moment, I thought I heard my name being called. My body fell away. A piece of me flew toward those shadows, seeking refuge in the cool comfort of their embrace. They fluttered. The edges rippling.
Hands tugged on my knees, fingers digging into the flesh of my thigh as their owner crawled their way up my body. It wasn’t until a liquid warmth that tasted like cherries and summer filled my mouth that I snapped back to myself.
“I did it,” Deborah breathed, looking so proud of herself. And oddly relieved as my gaze focused on her.
Her eyes rolled back in her head and she dropped.
I moaned. “No.”
She shouldn’t have done that. Somehow—and I didn’t know how given her state—she’d managed to drag her body acrossthe few feet that separated us to shove her wrist in my mouth. The willpower it had taken was something I didn’t even want to consider.
“How much did you give me?” I asked, desperate.
The answer didn’t really matter. Any amount was too much.
I glared at the shadows across the clearing. What was it that I had seen in those last seconds before Deborah’s blood had revived me?
It had been faint, but the shadows had seemed to move. Just like they’d done in the oubliette.
With a desperation spurred on by Deborah’s fading heartbeat, I threw everything I had at them, clawing them toward me like Deborah must have clawed her way through the dirt toward me.
My first attempt slid off something glass-like. My second caught purchase on a tiny chink in the defenses.
Pressure built in my head. A vise clamping around my forehead until the sensation became too much and I lost my grip.
“What are you doing?” Lowen asked.
I didn’t answer. Were those shadows closer than before or was it just my imagination?
To my eye, the spot where Alches lay looked warped, bulging toward me.
