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"What is that ?” Though Nikki kept her voice soft, the words seemed to echo harshly around the cavern, again hinting it was larger than it looked.
The slug creature obviously wasn't bothered by the fact it was no longer alone. If its movements were anything to go by, the prospect of being watched seemed to excite it. She swallowed back bile and pulled her gaze away from the bizarre sight.
"I have no idea what that is,” Michael said, voice flat and cold. But there was something in the way he said it that made her look at him sharply. He shook his head almost imperceptibly and walked further into the cavern. She followed, trying to quell her desire to ask him what he knew. Trying to ignore the strange sounds of lust coming from above them. The woman's blood dripped into the middle of a star etched into the cavern's hard rock floor. While the blood glistened wetly, there were deeper, older patches that suggested similar sacrifices had been performed here.
Around the star was a protecting circle of stones. These were a burnished black, just like the ones that ringed the town, but they were much smaller.
Nikki put out a hand. Energy crackled through the air, a buzz that got steadily angrier as her fingers drew close to the unseen wall that protected the star. Flickers of blue cut through the air, lightning-like wisps that lashed out at her hand. It felt foul, somehow. Depraved, even. She clenched her fingers and dropped her hand back to her side. Michael looked up at the woman again. “I think we've found one source of Dunleavy's energy. Whether this sacrifice feeds his demented soul, his dark gods, or the circle you say rings this town, is anyone's guess."
She nodded, keeping her gaze on the stones rather than the happenings above them. “We can't leave her here."
"She won't live, even if we do manage to get her down."
"I don't care.” Facing death was one thing. Doing so while forced to endure the ministrations of something not even remotely human was another.
She walked past him, closer to the ring. The stones reacted, seeming to glow deep within their black hearts. Sparks crawled across her skin, an unpleasant sensation that made the tiny hairs over her body stand on end. Rubbing her arms, she swept her gaze around the circle, trying to remember everything Camille and Seline had told her.
There was always a key. Always one stone that could unlock or destroy. All she had to do was find that stone. Not easy to do when they all looked the damn same.
Her gaze came to rest on the stone on the north edge of the circle. It was a little smaller, a little less obvious, than the rest.
She walked around to it. There could be no finesse about this. She didn't know enough about magic to dismantle the power of the stones. And brute force certainly couldn't dismantle a circle of this size any more than it could a circle the size of the one that ringed the town. But she'd bet this circle was set up to protect the star and its sacrifice against someone who knew something about the ways of magic, not someone armed with little more than a silver knife.
Silver was the one thing immune to magic. The only thing that could cut through a magic barrier such as this with the ease of a knife through butter.
She flicked the knife into her palm and knelt, studying the stone. Wisps of blue arced through the air, their foul energy scorching her forehead.
"Do you know what you're doing?” Michael asked, from the other side of the circle. She met his gaze. “You'd better hope so."
The thing above them let loose a strange sort of squeal. Nikki's gaze jerked upwards. The slug had disengaged itself and was slithering around the woman's legs, heading for the ceiling. Nikki hefted her knife, in half a mind to throw it, but at that moment, the thing reached the roof and disappeared into a fissure.
"I'd take that as a sign,” Michael commented blandly.
"Maybe it's just had enough sex, and the retreat is its version of rolling over and going to sleep." A smile tugged the corners of his mouth. “I still prefer that you don't do this."
"You know of any other way to get that woman down?"
He lifted a hand toward the circle. Energy buzzed, the sound a high pitched scream of fury. Nikki raised her eyebrows. That reaction was far stronger than the one that had greeted her. Maybe Dunleavy had expected Michael to get this far.
"No,” he said, “I'm afraid I don't."
"Well, I'm not leaving her there,” she said flatly. “And I don't care what trap Dunleavy has set, I'm going to spring it."
"Wait—"
She didn't. She slashed the knife toward the stone, backing the blow with as much force as she could muster. The air screamed, and energy lit the darkness, blue flashes of light that crawled across the blade and up her hand, burning deep. She bit her lip, ignoring the sensation, keeping her eyes on the rock. An invisible force pushed at the blade, momentarily resisting her blow. Then the knife hit the stone, and the force of it reverberated up her arm, jarring her spine.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then there was a blinding flash, the boom of an explosion, and a wall of heated air slapped across her face and threw her backwards. She hit the ground with a grunt and flung her hands over her head, trying to protect her face. Shards of stone bit through the air, tearing at her clothes, her skin. Then the weight of another hit her, protecting her from the worst of the energy borne rocks.
After a while, silence returned. Except the silence wasn't really silent, but filled with a dripping far stronger than before. Surely the woman couldn't have had that much blood left, Nikki thought, wanting to look, but at the same time not wanting to. If the force of that explosion had blown her off her feet and back a good ten feet, what had it done to the poor woman hanging above?
"You don't want to know,” Michael commented, his lips caressing her ear as he spoke. “Are you okay?" She nodded, wondering if he even realized he'd read her thoughts. “What's that dripping?"
"Water.” He lifted himself off her and touched her arm, gently assisting her into a sitting position. Despite his warning, she couldn't help looking. What was left of the woman didn't really resemble anything human. Just a bloody, shapeless, mass.
She briefly closed her eyes, then opened them and took a deep breath. “At least it would have been quick."
"Yes.” His confirmation didn't ease her conscience any. His thumb brushed at the moisture on her cheek, a gesture as gentle and as caring as the look in his eyes. “You gained a few cuts in the explosion."
