He doesn’t budge.
Worry niggles at me.“Algar?”I try again.
Rynthea’s eyebrows pull together as she slides closer to him. “Hey. Algar?” She shakes him by the shoulder, causing his head to loll to the side.
“What happened to him?” I move closer, ignoring the lingering pain in my thigh.
“I don’t know. He was just fine,” Rynthea replies in a panicky voice.
Thane drops to one knee and gives Algar a thorough once-over. Then he pulls him forward by his shirt to reveal the back of his neck. I gasp, and Rynthea and I both lean backward when we see the slimy, bloated gray thing attached to his skin.
“Shit. It’s a leech.” Thane lifts a hand above Algar’s neck, and the leech’s skin sizzles before it falls off and curls into a crisp on the jungle floor. I back away as Thane uses his magic to flick it away from us.
“I’ve seen leeches,” Rynthea says, head shaking. “Never that size or that color.”
“Welcome to The Shallows,” Thane mutters. “Help me lay him all the way down.”
Rynthea helps place Algar flat on his back. His lips are now turning blue, and more of the color is draining from his face.
“It must’ve been venomous.” Thane opens Algar’s mouth to reveal yellow foam accumulating on the perimeter of his tongue.
“No.” My chest tightens. “How do we get it out of him?”
Panic begins to set in as we realize the severity of his situation.
Thane sighs, dropping his head. “I can draw it out…”
“Okay, so do it!” Rynthea demands, perched on her knees now.
“It’s not that simple,” Thane retorts. “He’s on the brink of death. To bring him back, that’ll require me to tap into full black magic.”
“Aren’t you already using that?” Rynthea questions with a frown. “With all the shadows that come off of you when you fight. Seems pretty black to me!”
“That’s not full black magic,” he counters. “You need asourceto do that. What you’ve seen me using is gray magic, which means I use little parts of black and merge it with the white, which is safer. That’s what we were taught in The Shadow Guild.”
“Wait a minute. Thewhat?” Rynthea counters.
Thane eyes her. “That’s beside the point right now. We need to focus on Algar.”
I can tell it takes everything in her not to blow up on him. But he’s right. Algar is more important right now than whatever fucked-up-ness happened in Thane’s past.
“What happens if you use it?” I ask him.
“My thoughts become corrupted,” he answers in a lower voice. “I can lose control. Once the black magic sucks away all my energy, I’m forced to find energy elsewhere. Normally from another sorcerer…or a mortal, which is why I said you need a source to continuously use black magic.” He pauses, eyes falling to Algar again. “As my own control slips away, it makes it easier for someone more powerful to control me, too.”
I frown. “Like who?”
“You know who.”
I pause, blinking. I know exactly who.
“Well, Algar needs us,” I assert. “We can’t let him die. You’ll have to use it, just this once.”
“I agree,” says Rynthea. “You’re strong. I’m sure you can control it.”
Thane looks down at Algar, his brows furrowing and his hands curling into fists. He shakes his head left and right, as if battling with his own thoughts. Then, with a sigh, he closes his eyes and exhales.
“You and Rynthea need to move back,” he instructs.
