Chapter 16 #2
Valen takes a right and I stumble when he almost runs into me.
I cast one more covetous look at the wicked book before following the other weaver.
Valen’s tone licks up my spine. “The kind with no clothes and your thighs gripping my neck.” He nods in the direction we came.
“If you reclaimed your birthright, I’m sure my father would let you look at the grimoire. ”
The temptation has me biting my lip. “Oral sex and a cursed book? My, you do know how to seduce a girl.”
He huffs a laugh. “I know you, Tori. You can’t resist anything that could get you in trouble.” He pauses. “Speaking of which…”
I step up to his side and behold the Amulet of Acerabus. It glints in the crystal lights and is exactly as I remember it. The stone’s iridescent eye glares at me judgmentally and I grin. “Hello, lovely. Let’s see what you have.” Cracking my neck, then my knuckles, I step up to it.
Valen sneers. “That’s disgusting.”
I crack both wrists just to watch him flinch.
“I forgot how much you hate that.” I resist cracking each finger joint and wave an open hand before me.
The magic blooms in my mind’s eye. An intricate magical web takes form, with a fat, sinister trap waiting like a spider at its periphery.
I eye the curse, trying to decipher its secrets.
I let out a low whisper. “Your father doesn’t pull any punches. ”
I pluck a thread. The Entropy reverberates down my arm, leaving numbness in its wake.
I beam and catch the curse with both hands.
Sweat blooms, my hands shaking, but my smile widens and eyes sparkle with the challenge.
I hiss a low incantation, my magic crackling over my skin.
Static raises my hair, heat pulsing in my veins.
Metallic warmth coats my tongue and I spit the blood out.
The droplets hover in the air before power sucks them in.
A pulse. A crackle. And lightning bursts forth, crackling angrily towards my flesh.
I swirl my hands and force the power into a ball, and the curse shatters.
I pant, my body aching, but my smile wide.
I’m so goddamn talented that I astonish even myself.
My gaze flicks over to devour Valen’s form in a hungry sweep.
“What was that about my thighs around your neck?”
Valen returns the look, his blue eyes smoldering. “Say the word, my dear, and I’ll be on my knees ready. That was damn impressive.”
Before I can respond, a roar echoes through the halls. The fire in my veins douses. My breath stutters, my lips soundlessly forming, “Lucas.”
Valen glances casually behind him. “Better grab your trinket before your magician becomes dinner.”
“Fuck!” I surge forward. I snatch the amulet from its display rack and shove it in my pocket. “LUCAS!”
The blood drains from Valen’s face. “Don’t scream, you daft woman.”
I ignore him and run like my life depends on it. With a hissed obscenity under his breath, Valen follows me. I scream for Lucas again. The magic crackling through the museum stings my tongue, burning my throat with each rasped breath.
Then Lucas appears from around the corner, sprinting with blood dripping from his glowing rings. He roars, “RUN!”
I screech to a halt, my boots sliding out from under me, and I hit the ground hard on my back.
The sphinx crashes into a display in her haste to turn the corner after Lucas.
No longer the luxurious cat sprawled on the grass, this is a demon on the hunt.
Jaws spread wide, long fangs glinting in the light.
Wings splay as she rights herself to pounce.
A vice-like grip grabs my arm, wrenching me up, but I rip free of Valen’s hold. Fire roars, crackling in my voice. “DUCK!”
Lucas dives, rolling on the ground.
I throw my arms out, screeching the incantation.
An inferno erupts from my hands. Several wards squeal as my attack tumbles down the hall, singeing the tips of Lucas’ hair and engulfing his cap.
The sphinx screeches and a too-human voice cries out the counter spell.
With a mighty beat of wings, my fire is smothered in the wind.
The blood leaves my face. “Oh sh—”
Ice spears strike the sphinx, shattering on impact, and sending the beast hindquarters over head, down the hall. Valen arcs his arm up and a crackling wall forms behind Lucas. My brows rise. “Nice.”
Valen grabs me again, anger flushing him. “Shut up and run.” He roars, “Get up, magician, or you’re getting left behind!”
I don’t have a choice. I’m dragged behind Valen as he sprints through the halls of the museum. I look back once to confirm that Lucas is on his feet and following, but Valen doesn’t let go of me and I stumble.
The ice shatters and a heart-stopping roar steals my breath.
Valen spits out angrily, “I can’t believe you convinced me to do this! Insanity. Fucking insanity.”
We burst into a large display room with the bones of a long-dead monster sitting in the center.
Six doors lead into it. Valen heads to the second on the left, but the one across the way bursts open.
The sphinx bounds towards us and there’s no escape.
Magic crackles and collides. It’s chaotic, the wards on the skeleton shrieking angrily, the pitch threatening to make my ears bleed.
I pant, mind rapidly going through plans. We’re three extremely powerful magic wielders against one beast, but the creature is barely out of breath. I scream as loud as I can, “I wish to hear your riddle!” But it’s no use. The sphinx either cannot hear or doesn’t care.
I swallow. We’re going to die if I don’t do something.
Sharp needles ripple up my back and I hiss, stepping away.
I backed too close to the skeleton’s wards.
My eyes flare and I risk death by taking my eyes off the sphinx to wave a hand over the magic.
The wards on this thing are the true pieces of art.
Three fat and juicy soul-curdling curses lie in wait.
A mad, terrible idea hits me. Magic builds in my hand. “Hold her still!”
“Easier said than fucking done!” Lucas’ gold threads form a whip and he wields it masterfully to force the sphinx back.
Ice crackles and the sphinx leaps away with a shriek.
She turns on Valen, hissing words so quickly that I barely track the incantation.
Fire roars from her fanged mouth, forcing Valen to dive away.
But it was a trick. The sphinx launches at him, wings stretching wide.
Valen isn’t going to get up in time to evade.
He was wrong. She would kill him if given the chance. My mouth stretches wide in a scream, but I’m too far away to stop her in time.
Her claws slice into Valen’s jacket, her teeth glinting as her maw stretches wide.
Gold threads wrap around the sphinx’s wings, halting her midair.
With a groan, Lucas throws his weight back, his rings pulsing with power.
Valen’s jacket shreds as she’s thrown back from him, flipping and slamming down on her back with her wings at odd angles.
More and more threads wrap around the sphinx as she writhes in frustration, encasing her like a cocoon.
Valen is still on the ground, his eyes too wide and skin a touch clammy. Lucas grabs his arm and hauls him up to standing. He smirks at the weaver. “Saved your life.”
It snaps Valen out of the shocked space he retreated to in his mind. He scowls, “Enjoy the moment while you can. I doubt you’ll get a second.”
Lucas laughs. “We’ll see about that.”
Claws pierce through the cocoon of Lucas’ threads and she tears them apart like they’re nothing more than cotton. Valen’s power surges and his ice crackles along the threads to seal up the cracks and keep her trapped within.
Lucas barks an impressed, “Fucking nice, V.” He holds up his hand and clicks his rings together. “Think you can combine that with my threads? Or is that too hard for you?”
Valen’s jaw clenches and his chin tilts up. “Too hard? No. Beneath me? Possibly.”
Lucas’ smirk is all teeth. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’ you fucking asshole.”
Lucas steps behind him, his arms stretching out to frame Valen’s shoulders with his fingers splayed out, palms down.
The gold rings pour out threads of magic and Valen inspects them before he lifts his hands palms up.
Their magics weave together as art and magic combine into one so beautifully that it distracts me from my task.
The sphinx rips my attention away and I gasp when her head gets free of the cocoon. Whatever Valen and Lucas are planning, it won’t hold her for long. I need to focus.
“Hold her still.” Power hums in my chest, my voice echoing with it. “And if I die, don’t let Jinx destroy my shop.” I plunge my right hand into the dangerous web of curses surrounding the exhibit, twisting my fingers in the magic, and pull.
I scream soundlessly, my mind sizzling as the curses swarm down the web towards me.
My teeth crack, my eyes glowing a bright green as black lightning crackles over my body.
My magic twists with the curses, with the strands of their web, the threads within my own soul threatening to burn me alive for the audacity of my plan.
But I loop the magic like Lucas’ rings, forming a metaphysical leash.
My lungs spasm, but I drag my left hand down my right, pulling the curses along with it.
My heart hammers, my soul screeching, but I force the Entropy magic down to my center and circle my heart, where the magic ripples with interest at my soul hiding within. I drag them away and to the clear.