As he was directing the corpses to attack the guards, Marcus formed a battle orb in his hand. He sent it whizzing through the air the same time Rishi let out a vicious growl and jumped in front of it.
“Rishi!” Marcus yelped, but the cat wasn’t hurt. It was like he’d intended to jumpintothe orb itself. The battle orb infusedaround Rishi’s form, until Rishi was inside of Marcus’ magic, completely surrounded by the ball of sparks.
“Holy crap!” Marcus shouted, but he kept the spell going.
Rishi took off running, the battle orb swelling around him. He hissed and yowled as he bounced around the room like some kind of explosive, electrocuting whatever guards he came into contact with. Rishi was the companion of a demigod, which meant he was special. I didn’t think any other cat in the Miriamic Coven could do what Rishi had just done.
Rishi raised his paw and swiped at a vampire guard in front of him. The guard was cut in half by the power of the battle orb, which reduced the vampire to nothing more than dust.
Ancestors, that wascool.I didn’t know Rishi could do that!
Charlie sifted through the mound of bodies on the ground that Marcus hadn’t summoned. I didn’t know what he was looking for, until I saw that he’d grabbed a discarded dagger— probably one that had been used to torture the inmates. A guard let out a harsh string of orders, and Charlie flung it in that direction.
Unfortunately, Kallie was running by right at that time. The dagger that Charlie threw embedded in her calf, and I cringed as she let out a scream.
“Ow! What the fuck!” Kallie screamed. She ripped the knife out of her leg and tossed it. Her shifter healing powers mended the wound quickly, but if he had thrown it any higher, he could’ve really hurt her.
This is exactly what had happened in Forevermore. Charlie had panicked, become overwhelmed, and had shot spells off everywhere, hurting more Elves than guards. We couldn’t afford more mistakes like that. He wanted to help, but in this situation, it was better if he stayed out of it.
I grabbed his shoulders and dragged him back behind the shield. “Charlie, you can’t help! Stay down!”
“You need to worry about yourself, not about protecting me!” he demanded.
“You’re hurt, you can’t see, you don’t have your powers, and you can’t even sense where you are! It’s irresponsible for you to interfere! Let us handle it!” I demanded.
An aggravated noise rose from Charlie’s throat. Blood poured from his hurt leg, and he slapped the puddle. “Use my blood! At least then I’ll be good for something!”
It was gruesome, but his words gave me an idea. I pulled the blood off the stone floor with my Water magic, then flung it in a stream over the shield. The blood got the attention of the vampire guards as it splattered against the wall, causing them to freeze. I took their momentary pause to summon a barrage of fireballs and blast them their way. By the time they knew the fireballs were coming, the guards were surrounded by my flames. I heard the dying gasps of vampires as my Fire caused them to greet their fate. Anyone I missed, Oberi killed with her horn.
Kallie, Marcus, Oberi and I kept the magic going, but no matter how many guards we took down, there always seemed like there were others to take their place. We’d already killed so many men, and yet more kept coming. We could mow down these guards all day, but if the Warden showed up, we were in trouble. We had to get out of here and off Institute grounds before he showed up. Jaymin remained out of the fight, as if we knew it was only a matter of time before she wore us down.
“Kallie, do it now!” Marcus screamed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Kallie went to snap her fingers. At the same time, a stray battle orb hit her, sinking into her gut. She let out a cry of pain and crumpled to the floor as her time magic vibrated outward.
The scene around me was like watching fast-forward on a television screen. Guards moved at a rate that was impossible for them to perform, even as vampires. The entire room around us turned into nothing but a blur, while the four of us, along with Oberi, were caught at a standstill. Rishi zoomed around the room in his battle orb until it exploded in the middle of the fight, dropping him to the floor. I turned in place, unsure of what was going on. Marcus failed to keep hold of the necromancy spell, and Kallie’s bow dissolved out of her hands. I tried conjuring a fireball, but the magic flared up and died out in my palm in a manner of nanoseconds.
Then everything stopped, returning to normal speed once again. Total fear overwhelmed my senses as I realized we were surrounded… and in captivity of the guards. One guard had slapped some sort of metal cuff on my wrist. It had a crystal in the middle like the ones we’d seen in the room that grew the devil’s finger— the crystals that weakened a demigod’s power and made us sick. A wave of nausea overwhelmed my senses, and a migraine began to blossom across my head as a familiar ringing sound echoed in my ears. I realized that all four of us were wearing similar cuffs.
I tried, but I couldn’t access my magic with this cuff on me. Fuck,fuck! We were so screwed. Kallie’s eyes went wide, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d done.
My heart sank to the floor as I realized the truth. She hadn’t stopped time. She’dsped it up.And because she had, we’d been unable to defend ourselves and had gotten caught.
Kallie tried snapping her fingers again, and she let out a whimper as time ceased to move to her command. A guard wrenched her arms behind her back so she couldn’t move.
“Make sure the wolf can’t escape,” a guard barked at his lackeys. A couple of dragon shifter guards stormed forward, grabbing her arms.
“Get off me, you bastards!” Kallie cried, but even with her shifter strength, she couldn’t escape two dragons.
Marcus attempted to wrench free in order to get to Kallie, but a guard slapped him across the face. His knees buckled at the blow as his head hung limply. Rishi yowled. He charged after the guy who’d hit Marcus, but a guard reached down and shoved him into a cat-sized cage he was carrying, locking it so Rishi couldn’t break free.
Charlie had been forced to his feet by a guard, but his broken leg wouldn’t support his weight. They didn’t even bother putting cuffs on him, just held him tightly by the arms. They’d guessed, for whatever reason, his magic wasn’t working at the moment.
Oberi tossed her mane and charged forward to help him, but one of the guards threw out a binding spell. She collapsed to the floor beside Charlie, her hooves bound by some sort of invisible force. She couldn’t move, nor could she break the spell.
“It’s in your best interest to stop resisting,” Jaymin announced. “That is, if you want to keep your parents alive.”
The guards parted. My heartbeat kicked into overtime as I watched a group of guards drag my parents into the room, shoving them to their knees. They were bound with noxite cuffs, and had probably been drugged with it, too. They didn’t have any magic to spare. They were defenseless and unable to fight back.
