Page 169 of Bound By Fury

Who are the others?

“Lucas, you know what to do,” Alastair says, as though he’s getting a little bored of this whole situation.

Lucas grabs me once again, but Kai shoves his way between us. He turns to me, his eyes a swirling forest of emotion. I cut my gaze from his and focus on my magic, dredging up what little remains. I will not let them take me. I will not suffer the same fate as the Air.

I glance around the room as I try to form some kind of plan.

“Don’t do it, Harper!” Lucas shouts as I begin to move.

Alastair jerks in my direction and yells, “Stop her!”

Lucas rushes forward, shouldering Kai out of the way. I pump my legs, splaying my fingers as I cut through a row of pews. Behind me, the sound of a fight breaking out.

I step onto a wooden bench and leap to the next, and the next, refusing to look over my shoulder.

Red figures charge toward me from all directions, shadows preceding them. The room dims, and the hiss of something dark chatters in my ears, argues with the whispers.

Faster than me, one shadow tendril snakes out and licks my arm. “Ah!” I yelp, nearly falling from the pew. The sizzling burn smokes like I’ve been lashed by fire, the skin turning white and red around the edges. “Fuck!”

I spin, around and around, watching as some of the cloaked figures flicker in and out. Red then gray. A person. A shadow shaped like a person. My mind whirs. What the hell am I supposed to do?

Then the sickening squelch of a blade lodged in flesh.

My stomach lurches as I turn.

When I see him, time stops.

Kai’s eyes are wide, his fingers interlocked around a gleaming black hilt in the center of his stomach. Blood pours out of him. He crumples to the ground.

At the edge of the room Lucas freezes, his eyes flickering from Kai to me and back again.

Something inside me cracks.

It grows and grows.

“Noooo!!” I scream, squeezing my eyes shut and opening my mouth as wide as it goes. The sound that comes out of me is not human. It is not animal. It is not something that should exist.

I run, lightning branching off me like static fingers searching for someone to zap. The shadows scramble back.

Dropping to my knees, I slide across the wood floor, skidding to a stop at his side. I pull his hands away and grab the knife, wincing as I yank it out, watching as the blood gushes in time with his heart.

Not like this. It’s not supposed to happen like this.

Somewhere in the distance Alastair yells about his plan. Berates someone or other.

A panicked scream.

Another body hits the floor.

I ignore it all as I close my eyes again, acting off pure instinct. Guided by hands I can’t see. Hands that have woven the fabric of my destiny.

Gathering the power in my fingertips, I press them against the wound. Tears stream down his face as he looks at me. It’s all there. Apologies. Memories. Sorrow. Fate.

How did we get here? What did we both do to deserve this life?

I cannot look into his eyes and see anything other than that little boy with a snotty face and a peculiar frown.

I don’t think. I can only pray. To god or the universe, the stars or my ancestors, twelve dead witches or the Mother herself.