AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Reaching out, he wrapped his arm around Peri’s waist as they ran toward the door, ignoring Tia, who was several steps behind them.
They were mere inches from the open doorway when the pressure detonated with an audible thud, like a concussion bomb. The blast wave swept through the cramped space with the force of a tidal wave, knocking Valen off his feet and shoving him through the doorway.
He staggered forward, battling to keep his balance even as the force of the blast ripped Peri from his arm.Shit.Whirling around, he searched the darkness, expecting to find her lying on the mossy ground.
Tia was there, sprawled face-first just inches away. He didn’t know if she was dead or knocked unconscious, and he didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that Peri was nowhere to be seen.
Was she still in the cabin?
Leaping over the motionless Tia, Valen rushed onto the porch. The door was still open, but there was no way to see past the reddish cloud that boiled and churned as if it was struggling to escape the cabin. He was going to have to get inside. Stepping forward, he pressed against the strange mist, shuddering at the oily clamminess that clung to him like a web of evil. He managed to get one foot through the door, when a blast of magic knocked him backward.
Fear scoured through him like acid. Peri was trapped. Jumping to his feet, he raced forward and slammed his fist against the impenetrable magic.
“Peri!”
Chapter 25
Peri hissed in agony as she was surrounded in a cloud of crimson. The magic was biting into her flesh like lethal claws. She wasn’t sure if the miasma had come from the statues or if it’d been lurking beneath the cabin, but she recognized its power as it violently ripped her from Valen’s grasp.
Flying backward, Peri braced herself to hit the hard floorboards. The red mist made it impossible to see where she was going, but gravity was eventually going to do its thing. The painful thump never happened. Instead she kept flying, as if she had been caught on an air current that was carrying her away from the cabin.
What the hell?
This had to be a spell.
Grimly ignoring the magic that continued to lash against her, Peri concentrated on her body. She started at her feet, envisioning them in the comfortable pair of tennis shoes she’d put on before leaving the safehouse. Next, she formed the image of her long, muscular legs hidden beneath her jeans and then her torso and arms warmly snuggled in a flannel shirt she’d found in the guest bedroom after taking a quick shower. Inch by inch she formed the picture until she could see herself clearly in her mind. Only then did she widen the image to place herself firmly in the center of the cabin.
The sensation of soaring through the air abruptly shattered as she burst through the illusion. Peri cursed when gravity belatedly kicked in and she hit the ground with a heavy thud. With a muttered curse, she dismissed the jolt that compressedher spine. She’d managed to land on her feet. She was taking that as a win.
Holding up her hands, she tapped into her magic and released a burst of power that peeled back the thick red mist. As it cleared, she wasn’t surprised to discover she was standing exactly where she expected to be. In the center of the cabin. She also wasn’t surprised to realize that both Valen and Tia were gone. They’d no doubt been shoved outside during the initial burst of magic.
But she hadn’t expected the woman with a cloud of blond hair and an angelic face who was blinking as if she’d just awakened from a bad dream.
“Destiny.” Peri stiffened, running a quick gaze over the woman, still in the same tube top and jeans she’d been wearing at the ranch. Now, however, they were coated in dust and flecks of…was that blood? Peri shuddered. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“I don’t know.” Destiny continued to blink, glancing around in bewilderment. “Where am I?”
“Outside of New Orleans.”
“Oh, right.” She slowly nodded, as if she’d latched onto a missing memory.
Peri took a cautious step to the side, sweeping her gaze around the room. The magic still thundered in the air, but it had moved to press against the walls of the cabin. She was guessing it was a barrier to keep out Valen. Or maybe it was to keep her trapped. Or probably both. Her gaze landed on the vessels, which continued to glow, although none of them were fractured. She was assuming that was a good thing.
She turned her attention back to Destiny. “How did you get here?”
Destiny wrapped her arms around her waist. “Your mother.”
“My mother?”
“Well, I drove the van, but she was the one who directed me where to go,” Destiny clarified.
Was this some sort of trick? Was she trying to unnerve her by talking about Brenda Sanguis as if she was still alive? Or had Destiny been driven mad by the magic?
“My mother is dead,” she reminded the woman, watching impatience ripple over Destiny’s face.
“I know that,” she snapped. “It was her spirit.”
“My mother’s spirit?”
