AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You unchained me so I had a fighting chance,” Angela said. “Which, as you can see, is the best kind of chance. So you can come with me and Kami, if you want. Or you can stay with him.”
They both looked down at the murderer, lying sprawled in his own blood at the bottom of the quarry.
Ash put his hand in Angela’s.
Angela turned, with a chain in one hand and Ash’s hand in the other, toward where Kami was hiding. “All right, Kami,” she called out, and moved toward her. “You can come out now.” Her eyes were blazing with pride and fury.
Kami was so proud of her, and so sorry about what she had to tell her.
“Angela,” she said. “Look behind you.”
Angela and Ash both whirled around. The blood was still there, scarlet trails over stone. But Rob Lynburn was gone.
Kami had only looked away for an instant. She had not considered how the wild power of the woods and a source’s blood might help a sorcerer heal.
Angela took a deep breath and said, low and calm, keeping her grip on Ash and her chain, “We should run.”
“You both run,” Kami told her. “Go get Jared and Lillian and Holly; they’re coming toward us. Find them and bring them here.”
“Why can’t you come too?” Angela snapped.
Kami saw fear under her anger for the first time. Angela was never, ever scared for herself. Kami looked at Ash’s face and saw he understood.
Kami kept her voice steady. “Because the rock has closed in on me. Rob did it, and I’m trapped. I can hold him off, I’m a source, but you need to go get help. Angela, I trusted you, please trust me now. Please go.”
Angela hesitated, then whirled around and left. She used her grip on Ash’s hand to help him as they scrambled out of the quarry, Angela more familiar with the terrain. She stood on the lip of the quarry and pulled him up to stand beside her with ease.
Kami watched their heads, one dark and one bright, going into the woods, until they disappeared from her sight.
Angela did not know Rob had spilled Kami’s blood with that knife. She did not know how weak Kami felt, trembling in her stone prison. She would be furious if she found out that Kami had made her leave when Kami could not defend herself, but Kami wanted to be sure Angela was safe.
Kami drew in a slow shuddering breath, and reached out for comfort where she could always find it. I can hear him coming back, she told Jared. I’m scared.
One of Rob Lynburn’s boots hit the heap of chains with a dull clang. Kami looked at him stepping over his own blood and shivered.
Don’t be scared, Jared told her. He won’t touch you. I’m coming, and I’m going to kill him.
Kami swallowed. Her breathing was so loud in this small space, hissing and furnace-hot, like the roar of a dragon in its cave. She was afraid Rob might hear. Kami turned her head as far as she could and looked at the dark stone instead of at Rob Lynburn. She turned her mind toward Jared. Come soon.
The hollow closed in tighter on her, like a stone fist. Stone pressed against her back, her sides, and her face, cold against her lips. Its grip seemed to go right through her flesh and promise to grind her bones to powder. She could not help it: she let out a small, stifled sound of agony.
Rob Lynburn made a soft, delighted noise. “Come out,” he called.
Kami stayed where she was. The stone tightened around her. She did not know if she would be crushed or suffocated first. Jared’s cold, clear terror cut through the dark confusion of her brain.
If she did not get out of here, she was going to die. She had to take her chances with Rob.
“Come out,” Rob repeated. “Or be buried alive.”
She tried to will the stone to open and free her, but she had no air and he had her blood. Kami made a small, strangled sound of assent. The stone grip released her, easing by just a fraction. She turned her face toward the light and began to drag herself out on her raw, bleeding hands and knees.
Rob stood over her, smiling against the sun and looking like Jared’s dependable uncle. The knife was shining in his hand.
Kami looked up at him, her vision hazy so his golden hair blurred with the autumn leaves. She cleared her throat and whispered, low and hoarse, every word painful: “I’ll cut the link.”
Jared was running through the woods, trees and light going by in a blur. He could hear Holly and Aunt Lillian running after him, neither of them able to keep up. Holly was still shouting questions somewhere in his wake. Aunt Lillian had given up asking.
Jared’s heart was louder in his ears than their footsteps or their voices. Most of him was with Kami, stone on all sides and closing in. He thought nothing would be able to stop him, and then Angela and Ash burst out of the trees.
