Chapter 27 #2
Conversations quieted. A few patrons near the entrance shifted in their seats, suddenly very interested in their drinks. That was when I glanced toward the door.
A group of males entered—eight, maybe nine of them—all broad-shouldered and rough-edged, with ink crawling up their arms and necks in patterns I didn't recognize.
To say they were bad news was an understatement.
Their eyes swept the room with the lazy confidence of predators who knew they owned the space.
I turned back to my bowl, hunching my shoulders slightly, trying to make myself smaller.
Invisible.
But shit…
It didn't work.
One of them noticed me immediately.
His gaze locked onto my hair first—of course, it did—then dragged down to my face, my cloak, then the map spread across the bar.
He smiled.
It wasn't friendly.
He muttered something to the others in a low, amused tone, then broke away from the group and started toward me.
My fingers tightened around the spoon.
Don't look at him. Don't engage.
But I could feel him closing the distance, his boots heavy against the wooden floor.
He stopped beside me, leaning one elbow on the bar like we were old friends.
"Eating alone?" His voice was casual, too casual. Like he had every right to be standing there. "That's a shame. Pretty thing like you shouldn't have to dine by herself."
I kept my eyes on the bowl and said, "I'm not interested."
"Not interested in what?" He laughed, a low, grating sound. "I'm just being friendly."
Uncomfortable silence stretched between us, and I could feel his invasive gaze assessing me, like he was already calculating how far he could push.
I needed to either get rid of him or leave. Quickly.
Since I didn’t think I could make him leave, the latter was my only option.
I ate faster, trying not to give myself away.
"You're not from around here, are you?" His tone shifted, mocking now. "That hair... Ravenwood mage. Red like that, must mean you're powerful." He leaned closer. "Or dangerous."
“Zerch, why don’t you leave her alone?” the tavern keeper said, moving closer. “You’re disturbing my customer.”
I glanced at him and took in the wariness in his large round eyes.
Zerch turned slightly. “You need to mind your business, tavern keeper. You don’t want trouble with me.”
Blessed Mother. The tavern keeper stiffened and nodded, and when he backed away, I knew I needed to get out of here as quickly as possible.
I finished the last of my broth faster now, swallowing it down even though my hands had started to shake.
I set the bowl aside and began packing my things.
"Leaving so soon?" Zerch asked, his smile widening. "We just got here."
A few of his friends peeled away from the door and drifted closer, forming a loose semicircle around the bar.
My pulse spiked, but I tried to remain calm.
I stood, slinging my bag over my shoulder, and I headed for the door without a word.
Exhaustion still clouded my mind, but there was no way I was staying in there. A woman traveling on her own was a prime target in any realm.
I walked through the door quickly, stepping back onto the cobble-stoned path.
Through the market stalls I went and reared onto a side street, giving myself distance. I also wanted a clear path where I could phase.
Hurried footsteps echoed behind me.
I made the mistake of glancing over my shoulder.
Shit. The males from the tavern had followed me, their faces twisted with sickening grins.
Oh no. This was not happening.
The one who'd approached me at the bar—Zerch—led the pack.
"Come on, sweetheart!" he shouted, playfully. "We just want to talk! Or fuck. We can get straight to the fucking. Never had a Ravenwood mage before."
Laughter erupted from the others.
Forget calm. I broke into a run.
And they chased.
I ran faster. The road narrowed into a dirt path, and the trees loomed ahead like dark sentinels waiting to swallow me whole. In my panic, I started chanting and opened a gateway into the Void. I leapt inside hoping to escape those bastards.
But Zerch and the group followed me.
I instantly realized my stupidity.
Of course, they could follow me here—and with no effort at all.
They were Fae who were used to phasing all the time.
And phasing was little more than walking from one place to another.
Just lightning-fast. Had I been able to portal and leap across great distances, I would have stood a better chance of escape.
And… no, no, no.
Energy drained from me, and a wave of weakness washed over my body, sending me falling out of the Void.
I plunged into the woods on a gust of air.
My hands shot out, catching myself against a tree trunk before I could hit the ground, then, despite the spinning in my head, I continued running.
Not a moment passed before the haunting laughter of my assailants sounded behind me.
Branches tore at my cloak, my hair, my face. I ducked and twisted, stumbling over roots and uneven ground, my tired lungs burning as I pushed myself faster.
Just keep moving. Don't stop.
Terror scrabbled at the edges of my mind, threatening to drag me under.
My foot caught on something. I didn’t know what, but I pitched forward and landed face down on the ground.
The shockwaves went straight through my body. I tried to get up, but the air stung the bruises I gotten on my elbows and knees.
That was the least of my worries. Because the bastards caught up with me.
Hands grabbed at my cloak, yanking me backward. I spun, trying to tear free, but another set of hands locked around my arm.
All-consuming fear flooded my system.
Gods, how in the fuck did this happen to me?
I’d run from the safety of Vyrenth Hollow only to end up like this.
"Let me go and leave me the fuck alone!" I thrashed against their grip, but they only laughed.
I was a mouse in a sea of lions. I couldn’t fight them off. And I couldn’t blame the magical drain for that.
Zerch stepped in front of me, that crazy smile still carved across his face. His hand shot out and grabbed my jaw, forcing me to look at him.
"You don't get to run away from me, sweetheart.
" His fingers dug into my skin, tilting my face up. "Not after walking into my town with that pretty hair, those frightened eyes. And what’s that I smell?” He inhaled my hair and laughed harder.
“Hhhuman. Look what we got, boys. A half-human, half-mage girl.”
“I wondered why she ran.” The guy holding me from behind cackled in my ear. “Don’t you have many powers, little mage?"
Zerch inhaled me again. “Oh, she does. But something’s wrong with her.” His voice took on a taunting sing-song tone that irritated me to the bone.
The jab reminded me of the kids at school who made fun of me because of my heritage.
“Fuck. Off,” I cried, trying to knee him in the balls.
I missed, even though we were so damn close.
“I knew you were special.” His other hand came up, fingers trailing slowly down my neck. “But you, you, my dear lady, are weak.”
Weak.
Something inside me snapped.
Fear twisted. Sharpened. Became fury.
I recalled the incident I’d written about in my journal when I’d aged the rebels with my time magic and they turned to dust.
That was not weakness. That was power.
I needed it now. And I had the advantage of my notes. When I’d last used that spell, I didn’t know my base power was time magic. Now I did.
Like before, I just needed to conjure all the years these assholes had to live and make them live out the rest of their lives within the space of a minute.
I searched for my power and found it eager to be used.
“Dokombriva, mortiulim, carpe liveum,” I chanted and snarled.
They all laughed when nothing happened.
“Dokombriva, mortiulim, carpe liveum,” I cried again, louder.
Zerch grabbed his belly, ready to howl with laughter, but he stilled as if someone had shut him down. He lifted his hand to the bright sunlight, and it turned to dust, blowing away in the wind.
That was all that happened. There was no dramatic ripple of power that attacked them all.
But that didn’t mean my attack had no effect on the others.
The grip from the guy holding me loosened as Zerch wailed and released a stringline of curses.
“You fucking bitch.”
“Dokombriva, mortiulim, carpe liveum,” I shot back. I’d hoped to do more damage, but nothing more happened, probably because the magic within me was fried.
The connection withered every time I tried to sense it, and I knew I’d completely drained myself.
With his remaining hand, Zerch backhanded me across the face. Stars crowded my vision, and pain exploded inside my head.
“Look what you did to me. Fucking little bitch.”
Hands gripped me hard once more, but then a blanket of darkness poured over the forest.
I thought night had come, but this…it wasn’t that. It was something else.
Something wrong. The darkness rolled through the trees like smoke, thick and suffocating, swallowing the light whole.
It was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Given that I’d just returned from Morg?ven and the Land of the Dead, that was saying something.
The Fae males froze. Their laughter died. Their grips loosened. Their aggression evaporated, replaced by raw terror.
"What the—" one of them started, but he never finished.
The ground beneath our feet began to crack.
Thin lines spiderwebbed outward from where I stood, glowing faintly with an eerie, sickly light. The earth groaned, a deep, resonant sound that vibrated through my bones.
"No—"
The ground gave way, then long wispy fingers in the form of shadows reached up. Alive and hungry.
The instant the guys saw that, they ran.
All of them. Without another word. They bolted through the trees like the hells themselves were at their heels.
I ran, too, but I wasn’t fast enough. The darkness grabbed with hands hard as steel.
I screamed as it dragged me downward into a widening chasm in the earth. I clawed at the edges, my fingers scraping uselessly against dirt and stone.
The world vanished into black.
And within the darkness… something laughed.