Kyra called to her power, the siphon on her arm cracking beneath the surge. She could bring people back from the dead and force souls in and out of bodies. Surely she could heal mortal wounds?
“Incenduro!”She flung arcane at the shadow, the power hitting it square in the chest, hard enough for it to crash against the heavy bookshelf. “Please, please, please,” she begged anyone who would listen.
She pulled Kace’s palms away from his throat, replacing them with her own. The blood was slick between her fingers, coating the wood beneath them both red.
Kace spluttered, gasping for breath.
She ignored everything around her, her gaze concentrating on the wound, imagining it closing.“In morte vita,”she whispered, her chi flowing down her arms, across her palms and onto Kace. She pushed everything she could into her hands, the magic flickering at her fingertips.
A sharp pain started on the left side of her throat, a reflection of his wound.
She knew there was a cost for both life and death.
Kace grasped for her, his grip surprising strong on her upper arms as the shadow staggered to its feet.
She reached with her chi, flinging it across the room as she pressed harder against the blood that still pumped hot. She didn’t know if it would work, the spirits that rode her aura howling inside her head, pushing, craving vengeance for their deaths.
She could taste it, the shadow’s chi like ash on her tongue. She felt it try to break free from her grasp, its life thread delicate to her senses. But it wasn’t the thread she was after.
“In morte vita!”she screamed this time, amplified by the spirits.
The shadow dropped to its knees, those skeletal fingers scratching at its own throat as the skin divided on its own to reveal muscle and bone.
Kace sucked in a staggered breath, his skin slick with both blood and sweat, but whole. His eyes were closed when she finally broke her concentration, pain creasing his brow.
“Very clever, Kyra,” a familiar voice said. Bane stepped through the wall, his body solidifying enough that she could make out the lack of emotion on his face.
“Bane?” she choked out, scrambling to reach the knife that was left by the fallen shadow. Her fingers brushed the metal, but a heavy foot landed on her hand.
“Did you really think we wouldn’t find you?” He sounded bored, his attention barely flickering to Kace who had begun to groan.
“You haven’t been alone in years, there’s always one of us with you, watching everything you do. Eating, showering… fucking.” A hollow laugh. “Frederick would never have allowed his prized possession such freedom.” He pressed harder on her hand, the bones protesting at the pressure.
Kyra hissed out in pain.
“I told him those threats wouldn’t work.”
Sudden realisation dawned on her. “You? You were the one behind those notes?”
“I knew you would never have agreed to move into the bastion and give up yourprivacy.” His foot released, but he leant down to wrap his hand around her braid. “Even if you were threatened, or attacked.” His eyes glittered, and she remembered phantom fingers squeezing.
Kyra flared her power, reaching for his thread but was met with a sharp sting.
“Uh, uh, uh. I’ve learned of your little trick.” A band around Bane’s wrist crackled, absorbing her magic. “I’ll never understand why you chose to leave. Think of the power you could have learned, the spells and enchantments that no other witch is capable of controlling. You had the illusion of freedom, something Frederick believed would make you more compliant, more grateful to him for sparing your life, and yet you fucked that up for what? A male?” He yanked her up to her feet, her scalp screaming.
“No,” she spat. “I chose myself.”
“Interesting…” Another twist of his wrist, her neck bending at an angle. “I wonder if I killed your friend, would you be able to bring him back to life?” His attention skirted to the dead. “Shall we find out?” Bane said, the first sign of emotion rumbling his voice.
“Kyra?” Xander skidded to a halt, his face smoothed into a lethal calm.
A shadow shimmered in the corner, a skeletal male stepping out. He held a knife, identical to the one she had tried to reach.
Kyra tried to shout, the words cut off when Bane’s free hand slammed across her mouth. She watched as Xander turned, the dagger stabbing deep into his back. She screamed, but she was already shoved out the door, and into the hands of eight Magicka enforcers who waited out front.
* * *
XANDER
