Page 69 of Immortal Burden

“Stop,” I urged, reaching out and stroking his back.

“No,” he seethed. “I won’t let him win.”

“He is stronger. You cannot hope to breach the magic of Cornelius Martel.”

“Watch me,” he ground out.

“Ryker, do not. You are hurting yourself and I won’t stand by and allow—”

My words caught in my throat when I saw his magic erupt into being. It was beyond his normal green flame. This time, bright flashes of electricity sparked intermittently.

“What is that?”

I knew of those cuffs that held him. They were an extreme resort created by Immortal magic, impenetrable to all magic-wielders. They were used in The Void.

“Ryker, how are you doing this?”

“Point… is… I am,” he struggled to utter.

I saw the cuffs shudder. He was on the verge of shattering them!

A searing sensation permeated the back of my right hand.

I looked down to see a silver equilateral triangle being drawn across my skin in the most painful way imaginable, magically burning through my flesh.

I knew it well.

Ryker’s eyes widened. “No! Lucian, take my hand and I’ll—”

He cried out and both our gazes shot to his right hand. The same thing was tattooing itself into his flesh.

“This is the reason for the cuffs. He wanted to ensure you wouldn’t stop it,” I told him.

“Stop what?”

“The phantasmal plane from encompassing us.”

His eyes went wide. “No. I won’t… let him. I’ll… stop… it.”

He sputtered and terror gripped me as he heaved up blood all over the floor.

Still, he didn’t let up.

“Ryker!” I roared. “Cease! Immediately!”

Blood oozed from his nose, then trickling down his eyes like tears.

“You are dying!”

I lunged at him, grasping the cuffs, tugging with every ounce of strength at my disposal.

I was a nine-hundred-year-old Ancient vampire. My strength was truly colossal.

But I couldn’t bend them, even slightly.

My fingers began to burn, the cuffs soldering my skin like sunlight on flesh, burning them down to the bone.

It didn’t matter.

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