The best solution was to take Ash far from where Soren knew he would be.
Ronin would hate her for it.
Naia wouldn’t forgive her.
But she couldn’t stand here and endlessly battle these illusions, waiting for the bastard to appear and abduct the child for his own gain. She needed to eliminate the distraction of the false Daemon if she wanted to fight against his sick ploy. If Soren followed, Marina was confident that she could protect Ash.
Inhaling a deep breath, she flipped up her palms. Darkness trailed from them like bellows of black smoke, filling the air and smothering the light of the passage.
Blind wails echoed amidst the repulsive noise of the Daemon ripping out the witches’ viscera.
Marina fabricated across the hall and scooped Ash up in a swift embrace. “I am sorry, Ronin. He is not safe here.”
The child instinctively wrapped his limbs around her, his small fingers digging into her hair. The touch of his magical energy pricked at her nape.
“MARINA!” Ronin roared, his thorned brambles soaring through the air to stop her.
She felt the gale of the speeding vine graze the back of her leg as she sped away.
“I’ve got you.” She clung to Ash with one arm. With the other, she commanded her fog of Night to condense and travel down the throats of the Daemon that set their sights on them, expanding and bursting their organs from the pressure. “Take a breath.”
Marina felt Ash’s diaphragm expand against her chest, and she teleported them to the safest place that she could think of.
31
COME TO ME
Marina
Marina’s bootscrunched down on a thin layer of packed snow. The flat terrain was enveloped in it, with layers of white beauty softly collecting on the tall evergreens that swallowed the land around the clearing.
Tenebris, her beloved village, was just beyond the cliffs.
Ash squeezed her neck, his breath quick in her ear. The boy was frightened and probably had no idea who she was. He was without his parents—without their constant aegis of protection.
Despite her apprehension to soothe the child with physical affection, she thought of her older sister and how overtly loving she was. That was the comfort that Ash was used to.
Marina lightly placed her palm on his back and rubbed in circles. “Do you know who I am, Ash?”
Sniveling into her hair, she felt him nod. “Aunt Marina,” he said through his phlegm.
“I realize that you don’t know me, but I am here to keep you safe.” She hugged the child tightly. “Do you think, just for now, you can trust that?”
Ash lifted his head to look at her, searching her face with his tear-filled gaze. The child was merely five years old, but the look in his eyes, as rich as the earth, held an endless depth she had seen before.
“Promise to take me back to Mom and Dad?” He held his small pinky finger up between them.
She locked her pinky with his, giving him a small, reassuring smile. “I swear it.”
Ash threw his arms back around her neck and stuffed his face into her hair. “We aren’t alone,” he whispered.
Gooseflesh ripened down her arms.
She cut her eyes around the clearing, through the slivers of the trees, down to the bed of snow. She didn’t sense another’s aura. She didn’t see footsteps.
What is happening?
“Behind you,” Ash murmured. “The man in the mask.”
