Page 71 of The Veil of Blood and Magic

Zev nods, reaching down for something I can’t see at his hip, and I nearly sob as he brings the vial to his lips, tearing the cork out with his teeth before bringing the vial to my mouth.

I take one swallow and breathe deeply.

He tries to take it away, but I shake my head. “They injected me with silver,” I say, and a low growl rips from his chest. “I need more.” He brings the vial back, and I take another swallow. I silently thank Sirius for weaving in healing properties into my medication that go beyond stopping my attacks.

By the time Zev recorks the bottle and puts it back into the satchel, I can already feel the medicine work its way through my body, doing its best to rid me of the effects of the liquid silver. And since I’m not chained up anymore, my vision is clearing right alongside my mind.

The last drifter falls at the hands of Jagger’s blade.

Zev holds me as Jagger looks our way, his partially shifted form melting away to his everyday face. His eyes meet mine with a fury. “Is she okay?” he calls to us from where he stands near the bank of a...

Swamp. It’s crystalized with frost but still unmistakable.

Fear overwhelms me as an eerie silence descends around us. I gasp, clinging to Zev. “We have to get out of here?—”

An animalistic screech cuts over my words, followed by no less than a dozen Banachs leaping out of the swampy water and surrounding Jagger.

They bare their sharp, venomous fangs, looking more horrifying than any illustration I’ve ever seen before. They stand no more than three feet tall, but they’re covered in muscles. Their bodies are slick with seaweed and other swampy bits—no lips to be found, just rows of razor-sharp teeth dripping with black, viscous goop. And their eyes, Goddess, their gleaming black eyes are too big for their skeletal heads.

“Fuck,” Zev growls, clearly torn between helping Jagger and getting me to safety.

“Put me the fuck down,” I snap, wiggling enough to show him that I have strength coming back to me. “Go help him!”

Zev hesitates for a second before gently setting me on the ground and racing to help Jagger. Rain clops over to me, standing near and whinnying at the commotion.

Zev draws his great sword from where he keeps it strapped on his back and slices through three of them the second he joins the fray.

Jagger takes down one after the other, and it doesn’t take long for them to eliminate the threat.

I sigh, my head sinking to the earth as my muscles twitch, my body coming back to life?—

More screeches crack the air as at least thirty Banachs leap from the water, all of them aiming for Jagger and Zev.

I force myself upward, willing my legs to move so I can help, so I can fight and even the odds, but they aren’t working. The medicine is working, just not fast enough.

“Jagger!” I scream as he’s taken to the ground by ten of the ruthless creatures.

Zev goes down next. They’re doing their best to slice and punch and beat them down before those deadly teeth connectwith their flesh. But it’s only a matter of time before they tire, before they slip and a Banach will finally sink its teeth into them and then that will beit.

There will be no more Zev.

There will be no more Jagger.

And it’s in that moment, in that split second of panic and chaos that I realize I can’tlivein a world where they don’t exist.

My legs may not work, but my mind is clear.

And my powers are within my grasp.

I spare half a thought at what will happen after this.

Spare half a thought to mourn the short relationship that’s developed between the three of us. Because after this, there will be no more relationship. After this, they’ll want to kill me themselves.

But I no longer care.

I grip the power that’s been fighting its way to the surface for so long and unleash it on the Banachs trying to kill my drifters.

A pure, sparkling green magic bursts from my fingertips, the veins of power spearing directly where my mind wills them.

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