Page 38 of The Bonds of Indigo

I tut, spin, and drive my shin into the creature’s skull, sending it cartwheeling across the clearing into a tree. The bark splinters with a loud crack that blends with Amarah’s grunt.

I move to grab the other by the nape, but she screams, “Stop! Don’t touch its fur!”

The creature’s canines sink into her forearm. Her other hand balls into a fist as she drives an elbow back and strains to push it off.

Alright, as she wishes. But I’m not letting it keep chewing on her like a toy. I bring my foot down hard into its flank. It whimpers as it loosens its hold on her. Then I kick again, harder, and it goes flying several dozen feet away.

Copper and something else, something fucking divine, washes over my senses. It’s addictive and sickeningly sweet. I inhale, the scent of damp soil and citrus crashing into me.

Amarah scrambles up on shaky knees and then stands. “Pyrehounds. Their fur is sharp and poisonous. Before you say anything stupid…” She looks over her shoulder at me. “It’ll incapacitate even your kind, and I cannot carry your big ass.”

I’m too distracted by the smell of her blood to answer. What the fuck is in her veins? Why does she smell so good? Had the wards dulled it the first time I smelled it?

Fucking Vayl above.

I hear rushing footsteps behind me and pivot, just enough to raise my knee and meet its snout. Bone cracking under the impact. The Pyrehound whimpers as it hits the ground, shuffling backward and burying its face into the dirt as if it could somehow fix what’s broken.

More whining follows from the one I’d kicked off Amarah but when I glance over, it’s not pain causing the sound. No… vines are crawling up from the soil, wrapping around its limbs and neck, dragging it down into the earth. Its cry splits the night as bones crunch under the tightening grip.

The same sound erupts behind me. The other beast being pulled under just like its counterpart. When I turn, it’s already halfway gone. Within seconds, both creatures vanish completely, leaving only dark blood seeping from the disturbed earth, spreading in a widening circle.

What the fuck just happened?

The Witch chuckles softly and brushes past me. “They hurt me…”

My brows knit as she drops to her knees, clutching her bleeding arm with her good hand.

“Vendra’s warrior didn’t like that.”

“Yeah?” I scoff. “She won’t grant you power to channel, but she’ll summon the fucking earth to kill Pyrehounds for you?”

Her shoulders tremble. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. She doesn’t want my apologies” —she hisses through her teeth as she grabs a fistful of dirt and smears it across her injured forearm— “because I have nothing to be sorry about.”

I move beside her and lower myself to one knee. “Whatever. Let’s go. We can come back.”

“No.” She jerks her arm away before I can grab it. “The source of the energy will disappear within a day. I’ll survive.”

“You sure about that?!” I glance down at her arm which is still bleeding pretty damn badly. Why the Beyond she smeared it with dirt mixed with Pyrehound blood is beyond me. There’s clean soil all around.

Okay, weird sentence, but still: Untainted dirt exists, and she chose to kneel right in the middle of Vendra’s kill.

She squeezes her eyes shut, and I hover my hand near the back of her neck. The urge to grab her, to haul her back to the car, hits hard. I need her alive to open the gates and to get to Lucifer—but damn it if that’s not the only reason.

I can’t have her dying. I’m not a fucking monster.

“This is reckless. Let’s get to the hotel, and I’ll give you my blood to heal you. We’ll find another opening, Amarah.”

When she sucks in a breath and holds it, I shift my gaze to her hands, thinking maybe she’s made a breakthrough. Nothing.

She slowly tilts her head toward me, and I look up at her face.

Red rims her violet eyes, and they flicker like flame. They don’t stay one color, just ripple between pale pink and deep amethyst, alive and burning.

They’re… stunning.

The vein in her neck pulses. “Don’t… don’t say that.”

“Say what?”