His energy felt hotter than mine. A fiery frenzy to my cold calm. I also sensed the wound that blasted oath had left in him, tainting his blood so much, a bitter taste lingered in my mouth.
While my magic lay almost dormant unless I consciously accessed it, his sought and craved the pulse of blood. Human blood, especially.
It sent a shiver down my back I refused to let show.
This would be the first and last time I would agree to meld our powers–but someone had to keep me alive and standing while I drained every ounce of my energy.
There was a very real chance I could die. I hoped Allie’s grief would be brief–I no longer fretted that she wouldn’t mourn, not after she hadn’t let me crumble after Geryll’s death, though I still wanted to shield her from pain.
It’s what I did.
I cast my magic wider, letting it pulse just at the edge of the Serpent veil. Beyond it, the young snake approached. The others were still as inaccessible to me as they’d been on the day Geryll had died.
But its blood…its blood was tainted. Rancid and sharp, turning my stomach.
If I could feel it, though, it meant whatever curse had been placed upon it was either tied to his blood or his life force.
The Blood Brotherhood dealt in blood, but it couldn’t protect.
The Protectorate shielded, but only with outside forces.
No Clan should have had the power to create such magic.
I doubted the Serpents even truly understood how dark this spell was.
Behind me, warriors shuffled, raising arrows that carried fire on their tips. At Zandyr’s command, they rained on the other bank.
Each ignited one of the pyres in a deadly blaze. Large enough to frighten, powerful enough to help us, unnoticed.
My entire body was now at the mercy of my power, but I couldn’t help but think of how Allie would have fired that shot with her Huntress grace. Magnificent.
The snakes hissed, pleased with the sudden warmth.
Not the youngest, though.
His already sluggish movements turned jerky and violent.
I couldn’t stop the tremble that coursed through me as the monster’s blood boiled. It headed straight for the river, trying to cool itself.
“I’ll be merciful one last time,” Zandyr said. My magic deafened most of it, like he was shouting from the bottom of the frozen lake. “Leave now or my army will destroy you and everything you hold dear.”
“You are one battle away from losing your Clan and you threatenme?” Kleonos bellowed from the other side.
The snake reared its head back, hissing in agony. Its pangs of death gripped me hard, threatening to drag me along into the darkness.
Zandyr’s magic intervened swiftly, cooling my veins.
Finally, the monster fell to the ground.
Blood, metallic and rotten, spilled out of its mouth and eyes as it gave its last pitiful inhale. It died farther away from the water than we’d anticipated.
From this point on, every second counted.
The moment the first drops spilled, seeping into the muddy riverbank beyond the veil, my power latched onto it. It finally turned feral, hounding each trail of blood. I imagined it came from the snake which had killed Geryll, reveling in the way it drained from the beast.
My fists shook from the pressure. I hoped Zandyr had enraged the Butcher enough that the violent fool wouldn’t trouble himself with the Commander palling right in front of his eyes.
One by one, my magic guided each trickle of blood that fell from the monster through the river’s currents.
