Page 107 of Of Nine So Bold

They were losing control of the spell.

Taking a step forward, I sent my magic rushing toward them, pouring into and around their power. My gift was energy, and theirs needed support if they were going to stop this looming disaster.

“No!” Casimir cried. “Don’t?—”

Crystalline light swelled in my mind’s eye. Shimmering brilliantly, it rushed over and through me like a winter breeze at my back, cold and crisp, bright as the moon on snow.

My breath caught, and I started to turn.

“Focus!” Ignatius snapped.

I flinched, and instinctively, my training kicked in, marshaling my attention back where it was needed.

But that was the princess’s power I felt. Her beautiful energy pouring into me as if it was perfectly natural for it to join with mine.

A desperate sound left Casimir, and his magic faltered as if he wanted to pull back. But a warning grunt from Ignatius stopped him.

Apprehension bit at me. Was this what Casimir worried would happen?

Another magic joined hers. Darker. Hard like stone that had never seen the sun.

Ozias.

How was this possible? She?—

An icy wind swept around us as the gateway suddenly opened, swallowing the stones in darkness greater than a mere lack of light. Voices murmured in my mind as if from a tremendous distance.

My stomach clenched. Gateway demons.

“Ooh, look. The Nine are here.”The voice was pleased but insidious, like a snake twisting around its prey.

My breath caught. The Nine? I… I’d heard that. It’d been carried on a breeze, nothing more than a whisper on the wind, back when the Voidborn were chasing Gwyneira through the forest and we were trying to find her. I hadn’t been able to place the term at the time. Even now, its meaning danced beyond my reach—the fragment of something I’d read that I couldn’t fully recall.

My eyes darted to Ignatius. Did he know what it meant?

His attention was locked on the gateway, incredulity widening his gaze. He seemed speechless.

Which likely meant yes.

“Mm,”another gateway demon said, pulling my attention back, “they look tasty.”

“Should we eat them or let them through?”

Chuckling followed.

Casimir spoke up, his voice strained. “Do we have permission to pass?”

The gateway demons made considering noises. “We reallycouldeat them,” one commented as if to another.

“Bye-bye, prophecy.”

The demons cackled.

Shudders racked me. My body ached, my magic still pouring into the spell because, until these beings agreed, all my strength was needed to help hold the gateway open. But the princess’s power was fading too.

And if our strength failed, the destabilization could be catastrophic. Our only hope would be to close the gateway before the blowback could kill everyone here.

Includingher.

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