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ChapterTwenty-Eight
Perry stared at the black space where Vori had been only a second ago.They’d touched down in a clusterfuck of a situation, but for a moment, he’d believed he’d made it in time.
His father had run out of the house, caked in blood but staggering upright.Confusion had blasted across Perry’s senses.“Mitch?”he yelled, but no way his old man could’ve heard him above the deafening noise of the helicopter.Then, Vori had been a few steps behind his dad.
Gorgeous and green-skinned, he’d been so damned happy to see her alive that he’d forgotten all about his anger at the witches who’d forced him away from her, his worry for his dad, their mission to kill Petra and save Kradnovtl.Everything but Vori.He’d stepped to the pavement and hurried toward her.
One blink—his love had cleared the empty doorway.
In the next, Petra hurled a knife in his queen’s back.
His heart jumped as if it would rocket up his throat, and his lungs seized.He couldn’t yell.Not a denial, not a threat.There was no air.It’d all been sucked into whatever shadows had wrapped around Vori.Hiding her.Shielding her.Protecting her if she didn’t bleed to death in whatever in-between limbo she’d slipped into.He didn’t understand her shadow magic, wouldn’t have guessed at what might’ve happened if she hadn’t shown him.
He had to get to her.Now.
“Perry.”His father mouthed his name in something that might’ve been a yell carried off in the noise of the chopper or a hoarse plea given how destroyed the man looked.
He shoved his father toward the helicopter, pointing for him to climb inside.He could deal with whatever horrors Mitch had faced later.
Once they were safe.
Once Petra was dead.
He called on his magic and aimed every volt full blast at the killer they’d chased across realms.Except he was drained.Restoring the human’s power structure had wiped his powers.
Petra rushed forward, her damned goblin speed making her a blur.He braced for impact, although his strength would be no match for hers.She could rip him apart as she had the others.
Except she headed for the helicopter.His heart pounded.
No.His dad.She was going for his dad.And their only hope at making it back to the goblin glass in time.
The chopper’s passenger doors burst open.From the back, Alexei yanked Mitch inside as if the man weighed nothing.From the front, a blast of gale-force wind gusted out.Delia.The perks of having a Legacy witch with an elemental call to air as a temporary ally.
Perry hit the ground.The windstorm whipped over him, ripping at his clothes.He peeked up, squinting against the dust and dirt, searching where he’d last seen Vori.How could he find the right shadow when the world was cloaked in them?He ducked his head again and pushed his hair out of his eyes—an impossible task with the mini cyclone twisting around him.
Petra spun backward, slamming into a tree.She ripped the trunk from the ground and hurled it at the helicopter.
No.He couldn’t lose either of them.Not Vori.Not his dad.
Another blast of air, and Petra’s tree-turned-spear crashed into the power lines strung above the street.One of the lines snapped and went to the ground.Sparks flashed over the asphalt as it twisted and cracked like an electrical whip unleashed.
Alexei opened the helicopter door again.The downed electrical line coiled and struck like a pissed-off viper.They were too close.It was too dangerous.He knew more than anyone.He’d used his powers to knock Delia and her fiancé out of the sky.He met the Legacy witch’s gaze, wondering if she was remembering the same.
He waved them away.“Go, go, go!Get my dad out of here.”
Someone or something yanked Alexei backward.Maybe Mitch.Maybe Delia’s magic.The big man struggled, but the helicopter lifted.It’d been almost impossible to land here with the curving narrow roads and the tight fit between the trees and the utility lines.Yet their pilot had done it.He’d gotten Perry here where he needed to be.With his queen.
Now he needed to hold Petra off and find Vori.To pile enough healing charms on her to keep her going until he could get her to safety, to Kradnovtl.Alexei wouldn’t leave her.They would make the witch stop a safe distance away and come here.
If he could just get to her.
A thread of doubt wiggled its way down his spine with a biting chill.If that wound had killed her, she’d be visible, right?He couldn’t think about that possibility.He didn’t want to live without his queen, and Petra would be all too happy to make that nightmare a reality.
The line sparked and popped, calling to his magic.A crazy idea formed.If he could channel all that power, he could stop Petra.For good.But he’d never tapped into such a supersize dose.He might not survive it.
He glanced at Petra, who staggered to her feet.He definitely wouldn’t survive her.She’d been clear he was on her hit list.He’d rather take his chances with a few thousand volts than a crazy killer goblin.
“Stop,” Vori’s voice, ragged and raspy, echoed in his ear.“It’ll kill you.”
