Find her.
Chapter29
Kyra
His soul kept slipping, her hold on his life weak as she tried to keep him as still as possible. Liquid salt wet her lips, the light around them so bright she could barely see as the man violently surged, his back bowing at an impossible angle. His wrist snapped, hand slipping through the chain with a wet crunch.
Kyra went to grab his flailing arm, to keep him still as his scream echoed in pain. Her fingers barely touched before he hit out with a strength that surprised her, knocking her back hard enough she bit through her lip.
“Careful!” Dirk snarled, his dark presence behind the barrier of light. The thin shroud of magic burned across her aura, a type of circle she had never encountered before. There were no markings, symbols or elemental anchors she could see on her side, only the bright light that leaked from within the cracked concrete. “I can feel your chi through the necklace, you’re not even trying!”
Copper coated her tongue, her hands rubbing against her now dry jeans. “I’ve never done this before!” she cried, the young man’s soul slipping once again. She didn’t know how to hold it, her magic strangled by the choker that pulsated around her throat. She had only ever pulled the thread, she had never tried to keep it tied together.
She didn’t even know if there truly were threads, or if that was something her subconscious envisioned when her parents pushed. She didn’t really care, not when she forced her awareness out to wrap around the thread that had frayed, to keep it anchored to the earth, anchored to her.
The man screamed once again, his body twisting in such a way something else cracked.
“Please, stop moving!” she pleaded, hoping he could hear her through his delirium. His eyes were wide open but empty, the fabric that had been tied around his mouth long gone as blood stained his teeth. Veins strained beneath pale skin, black and throbbing so hard it was only a matter of time until they burst.
He was going to die and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
“Please!”
His head snapped to her, lips pulled back in a roar as he launched, taking her down beneath him. The momentum had pushed them flush against the circle, the light barrier searing against her aura. His hands tore at her skin, the fabric of her bra ripping as his nails sliced and cut before reaching up to wrap around her neck. Fury lined every muscle of his body as his fingers tightened. His movements weren’t a warning or a way to scare her, he wouldn’t torment and mock as she thrashed beneath him, no, he had one purpose and only the choker blocked him from destroying her trachea.
There was no point begging, not when nothing sane looked out from dark eyes rimmed with red. The choker creaked at the pressure, and she stopped struggling.
The circle flickered, Dirk a dark silhouette against the bright light that started to lash out, her aura throbbing against the onslaught. The man’s skin began to pucker, splitting open to reveal a splash of red before it darkened to black. He was closer to the circle, almost touching the barrier.
The choker cracked, she could feel it in the increased stress of the metal.
Just a little more,she thought.
The circle dropped, and the man was torn away. His hands had curved into claws, nails red from blood she only just felt drip down her chest. Animalistic screams continued as Dirk gripped him tightly, and Cassandra walked up and blew a powder in his face. He immediately stopped fighting, going limp in Dirk’s arms. He was still alive, barely, but he was not the same man he was before.
“I see that went well,” Bane commented from the corner, his glamour still in place. He tilted his head, a slight shimmer in the area beside him before his face tightened.
“He’s alive, that’s already progress,” Dirk said, dark eyes gleaming with exhilaration as he hauled the man onto his shoulder as if he weighed nothing. “That’s only the first stage.”
Kyra couldn’t drag her eyes away from the man, the veins that had appeared were a noxious spiderweb beneath pale skin slick with sweat.
It took her a second to register Dirk’s words. “First stage?” she repeated, her voice just as tired as the rest of her.
A humourless smile touched his lips.
“Dirk?” Bane interrupted with an eerie calmness.
The Daemon held her gaze, upper lip twitching as Kyra swallowed.
“I think Kyra should be excused for the moment.”
Dirk finally broke the eye contact, nostrils flaring when he faced Bane. “We’ve only just started.”
“We can continue…”
“I’m sorry, who do you believe is in charge here?” Dirk snarled, his wings rustling at his back. “I say when we’re finished, not you.”
“You’ve made that pretty clear,” Bane said, his tone hardening despite his relaxed expression. “But I highly suggest you pause for the moment and let her recover, otherwise your next stage may not go as well.”
