My chest started to rise and fall quicker, heartbeat screaming in my ears. My inkling speared an electric shock through my core.
This didn’t feel like a simulation anymore. This feltreal. Like being at a haunted house as a kid where you knew some clown with a chainsaw was around the corner waiting to pop out.
It was too dark to see anything to take aim.
Focus. Ground yourself.
I’d found Pogue in the caves. I could find this thing too.
I sucked in a breath and reached inward. Energy swirled around me as I felt my Soulsayer rise. Power glided up my spine, spreading across my skin like smoke and static.
Wait—if this thing wasn’t real, only a simulated training monster, it wouldn’t have a soul. Which meant I couldn’t sense it. My Soulsayer would be useless here . . .
“Ugh,” I groaned, frustrated.
Then, a menacing growl. Loud. Close.
On right?—
Bang!
Bang!
I fired blindly into the dark. No visibility. No target. Just my rising panic guiding me.
How the hell was I supposed to do this? I can’t see anything!
Another growl—and then my feet left the ground.
Something massive slammed into my chest, knocking the air straight from my lungs as I flew backward. I landed hard on the ground, spine scraping stone. My breath stolen away.
Well, guess that answers the question about whether it can actually attack.
Murmurs and shouting erupted from up above. I’d hoped the dark blanketed me from their view, but no such luck. Clearly, the magic provided them with a front-row seat.
Grinding my teeth, I forced myself upright, pushing past the ache of the new bruise on my back.
Another snarl. This time, just steps away.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I shot toward the sound, chest heaving. I didn’t like this.
“Prick,” I muttered.
Something slammed into my side this time. I hurled into a wall. My shoulder took the brunt of the impact before I collapsed like a ton of bricks, face first on the cold floor.
My chin pressed against the sandpaper ground. A new pain radiated up my ribs.
I moaned, begging for air.
That was it.Enough.
Deep rage rose inside me, thick and freshly dipped in venom. The steady stream of my magic burst open, no longer a calm trickle, but a violent, rising flood.
“For luck’s sake!” Lochlainn’s voice rang out from above, laced with stabbing frustration. At me? At himself? I didn’t care.
Then a new voice broke through, more gentle but equally firm.
