Page 127 of Winterfall Destiny

"Sounds like fun," Andrei replies, and prepares to move.

Maeve again steps in front of Andrei, staring him down. "Stay here until we figure out how to get out of the catacombs," she says harshly.

Andrei halts, eyes going to her hands, before returning to her face. "Testing your theory about the First?" he whispers.

I sense the shadows before I see them on Maeve's hands. The magic that passed between us throughout the time we held hands in the room now feeds the direction she chose. Blackwood. The mist-like magic surrounds her fingers, but remains snaking across her hands and wrists, not shifting to wrap around her arms as Lex's shadows do.

"Is the First making you do this, Andrei?" I ask.

Andrei flicks his gaze to Maeve's shadows. "You shouldn't have locked me up."

"We did not lock you up," retorts Maeve.

"Everything's been locked up," he says, baring his teeth.

At Maeve.

The girl he just killed for because someone touched her cheek.

"I guess your heightened abilities also heighten your stupid decisions," she retorts. "Do not walk away. Jamie, find out what's happening to the others. Explain."

"I'm not walking away either," I say in shock.

Andrei closes the final gap between him and Maeve, looking down, and her mouth tightens into a thin line. "Move."

"If we kill everybody in the catacombs, Gabriella starts again somewhere else!" she shouts at him. "She'll move deeper underground. We'll lose Gabriella when we're fucking close to finding her."

"I'll find Gabriella before she gets a chance." He presses himself against Maeve, and the magic around her fingers grows thicker. "Someone in this place knows where Gabriella is. I'm sure I can persuade them to tell me."

"No! We minimise the damage you've fucking done, Andrei, and we get out with the information Tobias finds," says Maeve, meeting his scalding gaze.

She holds her ground and I edge closer to her, linking fingers, as the pair of us create a possibly useless barrier between Andrei and the entrance. I clench my other fist, searching for the magic pooled inside me from my synergy with Maeve. Shadows don't come, but I've more defence than Andrei thinks.

"Move," he snarls at me.

"No."

"I said fucking move!" His searing eyes meet mine and I'm hit with a pain square between the temples, staggering backwards as my fingers fall from Maeve's hand. "What the fuck, Andrei?"

"Don't you dare hurt Jamie, you arsehole," shouts Maeve and shoves Andrei in the chest with both shadowed hands. "Fucking control yourself!"

Andrei doesn't budge, and Maeve moves to grab his wrists. "Jamie. Please. Find Tobias," she calls back.

The shadows spiral between her hands and Andrei's arms, the magic she controlled now bursting out. Maeve gasps, stumbling as if the shadows pushed her closer to Andrei. They consume Maeve's body before engulfing Andrei too, the pair obscured by the cold mist. Andrei screams out like the darkness is consuming him and he's trapped inside the cloud before he lands heavily, lying across the legs of one of his victims.

The shadows pull Maeve with him, and she struggles to push them away, as Andrei yells out again.

"I only wanted to stop you," she chokes out. "To hold you here."

Andrei's thrashes beneath Maeve, breathless, choking. I shove my fingers into my hair and watch, uselessly.

Fucking uselessly.

No. I aided this magic and even with the shadows out of control, this was the right action to take. We've no clue what Andrei might do, and I'm convinced he would massacre everybody in the catacombs. And then what? Walk out of the catacombs looking for more Dominion to kill?

Maeve and Andrei become a tangle of shadows and limbs, but Andrei's resisting the attack, physically overpowering Maeve even though the shadows pull at him. He knocks Maeve onto her back and seizes her shadowed wrists in one hand.

"I'm not staying here," chokes out Andrei.

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