“Good fucking morning to you too.”
I shove through the door so ready to collapse I’d be willing to reap myself just to sleep.The flat door is ajar and for the second time in as many minutes I grind to a halt.Only this time, my heart does not still.
It slams so hard against my rib cage, I swear I’m going to pass out.My grip on the door handle tightens.
“What is it?”I breathe.
Lex and Bastien both pale.Their eyes skirt surreptitiously between them.My vision glazes red.My chest rumbles, thick potent power drifting through my veins.Tufts bubble up through my skin and drift in the air.Lucy’s magic.
Clunk.
Both their gazes fall to my hand.I glance down.
The door handle is crumbling in my fist, a gaping hole in the wood where it sat.
“We couldn’t get to her.She’s in the Church Mortis dungeons.But...”Lex’s words fade as she glances at Bastien.She swallows hard, her hands twiddling by her sides.
Bastien picks up for her.“We think Ignatius did something to her.She’s…”
“Alive?”I spit.
They both nod.
Bastien is stiff as he says, “But… I don’t know.The energy around the cell… it was different.Her runes were all dark, like the life had been sucked out of her.”
My stomach drops out.What was it Ignatius said?She’s all power.“He’s going to drain her of everything.It’s what he always does.He uses people to his own gain.So I’d bet he did exactly that…”
“Drained her power?”Lex breathes.It’s not a question but more of a shell-shocked statement.
I drop the handle, the clank of metal against our apartment tiles rings like a bell toll.The song of an omen, the melody of war on the wind.
I push my shoulders back.Even if she hates me, I have to do what I promised.“We need to get her out of there.”
24
Lucy
Imust be dead because I am certain there’s nothing left of me.
I’ve been ripped apart, broken and used up.
Damp seeps into my joints and all the crevasses where joy and memories and hope used to nestle.The cold is the only thing filling the void inside me.
I roll onto my side but only get halfway, metal tinkles, digs into my wrists and prevents me from changing position.I peel open my eyes and remember the handcuffs.
I refuse to quit.I am going to study the runes.If they’re as powerful as I think, then I should be able to find a way out of this mess.
Ignatius took a piece of me when I didn't think there was anything left to take.I thought I’d hit my lowest point.
Foolish.I spent my life as a demon, I should know there’s always further a person can fall.I let my awareness focus on my body.The need to identify what he stole from me overrides everything.I can still sense the runes, though they are muted.The cuffs are responsible for that, of that I am certain.Unluckily for him, I am still connected to them.The power hasn’t gone away, but I don’t know how to wield it and it’s behind a gate or barrier of some sort.
There.A notch, or perhaps a hole is more accurate.I nearly missed it because it’s… I think the easiest way to describe it is as a scab where he cut a piece of power out of me.
I relent and sag onto the stone floor.
I quit.
What’s the point?I’ve lost.Everything and… a lump forms in my throat… everyone.
