Page 180 of Commanding Blood And Bonds

THIRTY-FIVE

END OF THE ROPE

AUGUST

Turns out, I did not have it under control.

The glowing blue portal in the corner was, evidently, a tiny gate to the underworld. Or at least, that’s what I decided after a few dozen nightmares came pouring through it. When Ally reentered the fight, breath finally returned to my lungs.

“You okay there, rookie?” she teased, decapitating a crowned nightmare before it fully emerged from the threshold.

“Just saving you some fun,” I grunted, kicking the body back into the tear between worlds.

Ally was still pulling from our shared magic—her own well dangerously low after the week from hell she’d had. Not even our time in Terramyst had fully refilled it.

“Thanks, baby. You know bloodshed is my love language.”

I snorted and ducked a blade, twisting back as it missed me by inches. They were adapting now—emerging ready for us. I grabbed the nightmare’s arm and yanked it forward. Ally cleaved through it in one brutal chop.

“Any idea how to close this fucking thing?” I asked, just as a shrieking banshee-type creature barreled through.

Ally summoned a fireball with what little magic she had left and hurled it at the open maw pushing through the portal. The space went still. Spinning light pulsed at the portal’s center, throwing harsh shadows across the floor.

“Working on it,” she panted, trying to slow her breathing. Her eyes began to glow, scanning the perimeter of the gate. She was preparing something, drawing deeply from the well. How exactly you closed a portal to hell, I had no idea.

“Goddammit, big brother,” she muttered, “could you send me something useful for once in your fucking life?”

“Let’s not invite the devil to dance right now.”

“If he could close Grayshell, there’s a way to close this.”

“Sure. Yeah. I hear you, baby. But if he was gonna help, he would’ve stuck around.”

“I have a sinking suspicion his hands are more tied than ours.”

“Sympathizing with the enemy now?”

“Not sympathizing. Analyzing.”

“Okay. I can live with that—wait, what are you doing?”

I reached out to block the hand she was raising toward the gate.

“Maybe I can glean something from it.”

“Maybe. Or maybe you’ll get sucked into whatever hell pit these things are crawling out of.”

“Only one way to find out,” she said with a shrug. But the tension in her face betrayed her nerves. As she reached out a pale hand, I grabbed the other. If she was going, I was going with her.

Fuck me.

Unease churned in my gut. The moment her finger grazed the ring of light, three things happened at once:

A deafening crack tore through the air.

A blinding flash of light stole my vision.

And Ally’s hand was ripped out of mine like it had never been there.