8. Chapter Eight
8
CHAPTER EIGHT
ELODIE
M y body hit the floor in a jarring tangle of limbs, a cacophony of noise rattling around us as weapons, jewellery and whatever else clashed together. My eyes flew open to find the honed edge of a dagger inches from my face and I slammed them closed again. It was no small miracle I wasn’t currently impaled on a sword right now. I felt my lungs expand, desperately sucking in as much air as I could, despite the heavy bodies half laying on me and half holding me down.
Struggling against the weight pinning me down, I kept my eyes squeezed shut, fearful of what I would see when I opened them. Aware that when I did, I would have to face the reality that this was real. I couldn’t hide behind the veil of a dream, despite sending a prayer to the gods wishing so.
Strong arms unbanded their hold on my waist, pulling from the tight grip I hadn’t realised I held them with. As the heated contact of their bodies retreated, freezing air settled over my exposed body, goosebumps erupting across my skin as the dampness from the ground clung to me. Startling as large hands grabbed my arms and pulled me to my feet, my eyes opened to meet a pair of dark green ones, panic evident in them.
This was Big Man, and sure enough, I turned my head to see another pair of eyes—grey this time—staring out at me past their black mask.
That was Stormy.
The fuckers had kidnapped me.
Kidnapped me!
Wrenching from his grip and trying to ignore the chill that was sinking through to my bones, anger rose inside me along with a rush of magik stronger than anything I had felt before. It prickled at my skin as I huffed out clouds of vapour into the frigid air.
Thick fog hung all around obscuring anything more than 20 feet away in a suffocating white blanket, giving me absolutely no clue where I was. I wasn’t ready to unpick the question of how I got here. Not yet.
The soft glow of dawn breaking through some distant horizon was the only guide I had as I shivered in the dark, the grass slick and icy under my bare feet, toes aching as the ground stole what little warmth I had.
Who did they think they were breaking into my house, hurting my dog and now taking me to gods knows where? I needed to get home quick sharp, because this crazy shit was not what my life was about. I wasn’t hanging around to figure any of this out. I needed to get away from these psychos; who knew what the hell they wanted from me.
And though it was stupid— so fucking stupid —I ran.
I ran faster than I thought possible given how exhausted I was from the dramatics of the last day and night, grass crunching with each pounding step and bitter air whipping at my exposed skin.
I had no plan, no way of knowing what way to go except towards the faint light that was my guide, but I didn’t think too much on that as I willed my body to propel me forward, allowing the fog to swallow me whole. Shouts of surprise came from behind me as their heavy footfalls started. Pushing myself to work harder, using the thud of their boots to spur me on, I didn't want to get caught a second time.
I did just throw myself into their arms only a few minutes ago, though.
Now was not the time for that reminder.
Not when I was running from kidnappers, no matter how right it had felt in that moment to reach for them.
A scary black blob was trying to get me, that was the only reason why.
They had obviously been the lesser of two evils, but that didn’t mean I was on board with their abduction plan.
The cold attacked my lungs making every step harder than the last, but a kernel of triumph grew within me as I gained ground. The clatter of my bangles meant a silent escape wasn’t on the cards for me, but I was going to do it; I was going to outrun them.
Where I was going to end up when I outran them, I didn’t know, but anywhere away from them was a bonus. The unfamiliar feeling of my magik rose inside me in a wave as something wrapped round my heart, like a string that had been pulled taut. My steps faltered as I was yanked backwards by an invisible force.
I barely had time to squeak in surprise, a shout of alarm coming from close by as my legs collapsed under me. Instead of hitting the ground I found myself in someone’s arms, the pain instantly receding as I clung onto them to steady myself while the smell of sweet cedar wrapped around me.
“Pretty fast for a little thing aren’t you, Goldie?” A low voice purred against my cheek. Pulling back, I looked up into a pair of deep grey eyes, dark hair poking out from a gap in his mask, having come loose from all the chaos. My fingers twitched as I resisted the urge to reach out and tuck it back in, wondering how soft it would feel.
That’s a fucking weird thing to want to do right now.
Mentally I shook myself as a second set of hands grabbed my shoulders, pulling me around to face them. My body now pressed tightly against what honestly felt like a brick wall as I craned my head to look up at him stepping back a little to take him all in.
Ah, here he was, Big Man in my face yet again.
This close, his eyes were a rich jewel tone of green, reminding me of walking through my little patch of woods as the sun was setting, his brows currently furrowed into a deep scowl. The nerve of this man to be looking at me like this was all my fault reignited my anger. Wrenching my arm from his punishing grip, my fingers curled into a fist, and I snapped it forward, punching him right in the face with all the force I could muster.
His head barely moved while a jolt of pain shot up my arm.
Shit, that hurt.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he growled, both hands now digging painfully into my biceps, heat scalding my skin at every point of contact.
“Escaping!” I ground out through clenched teeth, not pulling away yet despite how tightly he was holding me.
“You can’t leave! You have to—” His eyes flew wide at the same instant a heavy dread clawed at my insides.
No, no, no. Not again.
My own fear was mirrored on his face, eyes darting around to locate it, and I knew I wasn’t lucky enough to escape it again, not for a third time.
He spun, pulling me into his body as I caught sight of the inky black darkness stark against the fog that still surrounded us, now easily ten times bigger than it had been in my room. Filling the sky until the soft glow of the approaching dawn was all but extinguished.
It was back; it had followed us.
“Run!” he shouted, grabbing my hand, dragging me with him in the opposite direction to where I was making my escape. My head whipped around, searching for the third member of our party, panic thick in my throat at the thought of any of us being caught by that thing. The magik that moments ago flared with a vibrancy I had never experienced, now felt stagnant under my skin.
“He’s coming,” he assured me, his grip almost bruising in his desperation to get away. Taking three strides for every one of his, his momentum propelled me forward. The grass cushioned my bare feet as we sprinted through the mist, as I struggled not to slip, lungs burning with both the effort of our escape and the effect of the thing pursuing us. Risking a glance at his face, the mask gave me nothing but a glimpse of gritted teeth. I still couldn’t see Stormy, but I hoped he wasn’t far behind.
Icy wind whipped at my skin as I let him guide me blindly across the land, the burn in my legs growing at the incline we hurtled up. Blood roared through my body, limbs throbbing from the effort of enduring this pace. The pounding of feet mixed with the rattle of their weapons. The clanking of gold that wrapped around my wrists and ankles echoed around the empty land.
A shift in the air told me it was closing in, my body to grew heavy with the effort of fighting off the sheer terror it induced. My hand was clasped in his as breath rattled in my chest, the air around growing thick as I attempted to suck in oxygen.
Any energy I could muster was draining away, a vacuum in the unseeable sky siphoning all we had to give. I didn’t dare risk the seconds it would take to see how close it was. Knowing it was there was enough, I didn’t need to see it.
As we crested the hill, my ears picked up another set of heavy footsteps, and I allowed myself a moment of relief that we were all still running for our lives. That moment was lost as waves of despair crashed upon us. I could hear the men grunting for breath as they fought through it and I wilfully ignored the sounds that were coming from me in the effort to keep myself upright and moving forward.
The fog that had been so thick only a moment ago had begun to dissipate, clinging to the lower plains and revealing a towering stone wall further away than I would have liked.
Half running and half falling as my frozen feet screamed in protest, we pressed forward to the large wooden gates that I hoped signalled safety. The distance between us and the pursuing entity grew, and I pulled in a single, clear breath moments before I pitched forward, knees slamming hard into the ground.
Hands reached for me and I let them, using their strength to right myself as large fingers closed around mine once again. Our destination drew closer, every painful step that wracked my body made it almost impossible to focus on anything else, and I knew I wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for the two men beside me. Although the grass cushioned my steps, running barefoot had stones digging into the soles of my feet. Sweat beaded on my body despite the chill in the air, making my hands slick, but there was no way I was letting go.
“Faster!” A bellow came from behind, and I was wrenched forward as a tendril of darkness ghosted its way down my back. Agony burst across my skin at its touch, and I cried out, sensing the ripple of satisfaction that pulsed around us. A growl ripped from Big Guy’s chest, his hand tightening on mine as it took every part of my being to continue running.
A soft glow shone around us as his other hand pulled out one of the luminescent stones he had used in my room, the presence retreating for a second before the stone stuttered and faded. Curses flew from both men, followed by a thud as he dropped the useless thing to the floor.
We were close now; soon we would be at those gates. If they thought we would be safe there, who was I to argue with them on the destination? Anywhere felt better than where we were right now.
With the sky clearing, I noticed the slight ripple in the air in the direction we were running towards. It was a shimmering curtain of iridescent silk barely visible just a few metres from the stone wall stretching out in all directions like a dome. I barely had time to register what it was as we burst through it, a familiar pulse of strong energy thrumming through my body, my mind whirling as I recognised that feeling.
I’d just run through a ward. This place had magic.
The terror that had so thoroughly gripped my mind slid away, and my fingers sparked with energy as magik flooded me. The hand holding mine instantly pulled away and I spun as an ear-shattering shriek pierced the air, watching as the inky shadow hurled itself at us.
Chest heaving with relief at the intake of a full breath, I staggered back, desperate to get away as it threw its mass at the rippling air, but found no way through. Its huge mass writhed as it crashed upon the ward like a wave on glass, tendrils reaching out, searching for a gap again and again.
My body was vibrating as my muscles went into shock, one of the men shouted out angrily to someone, somewhere. I wasn’t paying them any attention. Too busy eyeing up this thing that had now tried to attack me for the third time. It wouldn’t get through—I was sure of that—and as it realised the same it shrieked in frustration, the sound grating along my bones.
How it made that noise, I had no idea, because I definitely couldn’t see a mouth. Then, like in my dream, it began to fold in on itself, the air around it growing impossibly dark as it collapsed into a black hole of its own making.
I was fast becoming accustomed to strong hands grabbing at me as they pulled me backwards. Shrugging listlessly out of their grip, I twisted around to the dark stone wall that stretched further than I could see, the top impossible to lay eyes on. The heavy wooden gate directly in front of me my only choice.
Where the fuck was I?