Fuck.
I luscelered again and again.
Seconds ticked by.
Pressure squeezed my lungs, and a cold sweat beaded down my neck. I could feel the painful strain from Rune reaching a point of no return.
Rune, don’t!
I followed our connection back to her.
She inhaled and choked on the smoke.
I shut out the pain in her lungs, seconds away from taking my own breath.
Rune collapsed.
Fuck!
Desperate, on the brink of sending my shadows spearing in every direction, someone coughed, and a hand grabbed my ankle.
My sword whipped toward the source, the tip stopping right at the pet’s colorfully warm signature.
He continued to gasp and cough, and his body quickly transitioned from orange to red to white.
“Shield,” he wheezed, releasing me.
I surrounded me and Rune in thick shadows, enclosing some of the smoke with us.
Then white flames burst around my shadows, pushing outward. The sphere hit the hazy particles and…disappeared.
The pet inhaled, sudden and sharp.
Before I sank to my knees, I released our coverage. Ridigar’s smoke fell out, scattering like harmless fog across the ground, and blistering heat sent my uniform into a sharp cooling descent.
I coughed and took in a lungful of semi-fresh air.
Three blue forms luscelered from behind the trees as the pet’s flames searched and destroyed. Two lit up like supernovas, ceasing to exist. The other fled, becoming a speck of color before vanishing into the trees.
Unfortunately, I had a feeling it wasn’t Ridigar who died.
My feet twitched with the urge to follow. This was my chance.
Then Ridigar’s words slithered into my head.
We’re not keen on exposure.
No, they weren’t.
They went to great lengths to hide, which meant they probably had security measures in place if we followed, and they had a specific purpose for risking exposure now.
I glanced at the pet.
They wanted him dead.
Why?
And how did they know we’d be here?
