Page 59 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 1

“We definitely need to get out of here,” I said shakily.

Gabriel put a steadying hand on my arm. “The window?”

I pulled myself away from the gruesome sight in front of me and went to the window, smoothing my hands cautiously over the frame. The glass was caked with such thick wards, I was amazed any light got through at all.

I shook my head. “No way,” I told him. “Not unless you can buy me at least an hour. There has to be something we can?—”

“Evangeline?” Gabriel said, worry coating every letter. He came over to me and followed my eyes, trying to figure out what had stopped me in my tracks. His breath caught when he realized what it was.

On the wall high above us was a mostly unfinished weaving, barely a foot and a half long. It showed the head of a young woman with bright green eyes, a smattering of freckles, and a curly mass of chestnut hair. The thread at the bottom dangled limply, as if the ragged ends hadn’t been touched since Marcus found me and severed the connection.

My own face, younger and less cautious, stared down at us.

Gabriel’s hand brushed against mine as though he wanted to offer comfort but wasn’t sure if he should touch me. I grabbed it and squeezed tight enough for his bones to creak, but he didn’t complain.

“We’re going to find a way out,” he told me, quiet and firm. It was the sort of tone that reminded me that he had been born to authority. When someone told you something in a voice like that, it was almost impossible to doubt they were right.

“You’re goddamn right we are,” I said. “How hard can you hit?”

“Pretty hard,” Gabriel said. “What are you thinking?”

I told him. He stared at me for a moment, then started to grin.

It took me a few moments to get all the spells we’d need in place. I wrapped them around us carefully, making sure to get the order right. This could get very ugly if it went wrong. Smoke was starting to pour under the door, and Nanny Murk was pacing the halls, muttering to herself.

I laid the last spell, one that would keep Gabriel and me linked so that I’d follow him automatically if he went more than a few feet.

“These should hold,” I said softly.

“And if they don’t?” he asked, keeping his voice just as low.

“Then, we’re going to have bigger problems.”

Suddenly, the room seemed oddly quiet. My eyes widened, and I turned slowly to look at the loom. It had stopped moving. The tapestry was finished. With a horrible tearing sound, it began to pull itself free, the man in the tapestry reaching out for us with a rasping noise.

“Go!” I cried. “Go, gogogogo!”

The door burst open, letting in a burst of hot wind and the mad laughter of Nanny Murk. Gabriel ran straight at the wall, bracing his shoulder to ram it, and I gathered my magic behind him, sending energy to every one of the shields and charms and strength spells I’d put on him. There was a massive crack as he slammed into the wall with all of his vampiric speed and strength. For a moment, I thought we’d overestimated ourselves, but then the wall began to crumble, first slowly, then furiously quick.

The thing about using magic to manipulate space was that when it went wrong, it went wrong quickly. If, for instance, someone broke through an external wall from inside a room that shouldn’t exist, it would get messy very fast. I let out a slightly manic laugh.

The room began to… well, basically depressurize. The hole Gabriel had made was a gaping gray void, and the looms and tapestries and odds and ends were being sucked into it incredibly quickly. Behind us, Nanny Murk howled with rage. Things flew past me in a blur: sewing scissors, the shuttle of the loom, a pair of glasses. Some of the things battered me, but they weren’t enough to stop me as I sprinted toward Gabriel.

Together, we leaped into the rapidly growing hole, just as the suction caught the fire outside and brought it roaring into the room. I looked over my shoulder to see the furious old witch screaming spell after spell, surrounded by her burning tapestries.

The void flickered past us in fragments of lost space. It was a sickening blur, and I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing on the magic that kept me anchored to Gabriel. I could only hope we were still moving forward. It was out of my hands now. I wouldn’t be able to cast anything new without risking catastrophe, and magic like this was the sort of thing that could easily drive a human insane. My lungs were starting to burn, but I didn’t dare take a breath.

Suddenly, we were somewhere cold and damp. We hung in midair for a second, then landed with a splash. I opened my eyes and sucked in an eager breath. Gabriel and I had landed in one of the pools around Nanny Murk’s hut, pressed against one of the walls of the cavern.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Gabriel gasped, staring at me with wide purple eyes.

I let out a breathless laugh. “Fuck, neither can I.”

In the middle of the cavern, the hut was warping rapidly, growing, shrinking, and spasming. It looked like a glitching video game. Each time it glitched, more and more fire spread across it, painting the pale walls of the cave a burning red.

“Come on,” I said, sticking out a hand. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Gabriel grabbed my hand. Now that we were outside of Nanny Murk’s wards, my pendant reacted as soon as I activated it, sending us safely back to Gabriel’s manor.

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