Finnian sucked in a breath through his nose, inhaling the pungent odor of its blood—metallic and sour, braided with mint and citrus, dripping with one of Cassian’s curses.
He was grateful for its determination in trying to free itself, only to be met with the iron bar’s ensnaring bite. From day one in this cell, he meticulously observed and documented every instance. Those twenty-four hours had taught him something about the bars. Something that would prove to be useful now.
Finnian curled both fists around the steel bars of his own cell. Their power hummed in his knuckles, accelerating the stride of his pulse.
One.
Despite Finnian’s careful silence, the executioner trailing Shivani paused and glanced back.
Two.
Blood surgedin Finnian’s temples, quelling the sound waves in his left ear. The solid molecules of the bars shifted under his palms into something squishy and smooth.
The executioner’s mouth parted in what Finnian could only assume was another growl as it pushed off its feet towards him.
Three.
The bars morphed into large, oily black serpents. Their heads protruded out. Fangs elongated from their open mouths, and they lunged.
Shivani whipped around, her shoes scuffing on the stone. “Why are you—?” Her eyes went round.
The sensation was a sweet, painful one of teeth latching into the meat of his forearms. He waited until their bite secured around bone and ripped backwards off his heels.
Adrenaline numbed the agony of the serpents’ teeth fracturing through his bones. The snap echoed up his elbows as both of his wrists detached from his body. Along with his hands, the serpents swallowed up the Chains of Confinement.
Like the bursting of a dam, Finnian’s power rushed back into his veins.
Blood gushed from his severed wounds, splattering onto the tops of his shoes. Speckles littered his vision, and his head felt light. The serpents’ glossy, scaled bodies solidified back into iron bars.
Finnian raced against his lethargy and channeled all his energy into regenerating his hands.
One.
The executioner’s long arm reached for his cell door, but against Finnian’s divine speed, it was not fast enough.
Finnian wiggled his newly formed fingers to revive his nerves, smiled, and then latched onto the once-again solid bars and drove them apart. The iron gave way as easy as plastic to the return of his divine strength.
Two.
In perfect timing, Finnian stepped out of the cell and shot his blood-soaked arm out, meeting the executioner with a hand around its throat. He squeezed, crushing its windpipe and the cartilage between his fingers. Its body crashed onto the floor.
Finnian discarded its severed head over his shoulder before pinning his focus on the blurred figures of the other executioners racing down the corridor straight for him.
Shivani snatched her blades from her stocky, beige pants.
Be a good boy, Finny.
He fixed on the beads of energy dwelling in Moros’ stones, the mountain clay, and drew it out like a magnet. Using the movement of his fingers, he molded the particles into five thick icicles, each the size of Finnian’s arm. They floated, arcing in front of him like a hand of cards. With a forward slice of his hand, he speared them towards Shivani and the charging executioners.
She sent a flash of kunai from both hands. The icicles met their steely points directly, shattering into peppercorn.
Finnian bent his neck sideways to dodge the sailing edge of a knife. It drove into the cement of the stone behind him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noted an executioner closing in on him. His index finger and middle finger came together, and he took aim like a pistol. “Mens tua est mea.” The incantation left his lips swiftly.
Magic tingled the tip of his finger and the hex shot forth, nailing through the executioner’s mask. The material shattered into chipped bones. A hex burnt into the executioner’s forehead, a mahogany star with small, runic characters at each point, an ouroboros in its center. The creature immediately came to a stop.
Finnian clenched his hand into a fist and reared it up, ordering the energy in the stone beneath Shivani’s feet to heave. Within the pulse of a heartbeat, spikes tore up and plunged into her legs. Their dagger-like ends jutted in a swirling blossom through her.
