Page 162 of Anchor

“Stop her!”he shouted at the top of his voice, and Hakim, still dragging himself closer to me, stabbed me in the thigh with a knife. The pain shot fire up my veins, and it intensified when he used the handle to pull himself up faster. I didn’t sit up, didn’t move, didn’t scream—just kept on whispering.

My tongue didn’t twist. My focus didn’t waver. My magic didn’t hesitate.

Bes and his friends were trying to get to me, too, but Seth jumped in front of them before they came close, and the Devil had raised his hands to his sides, and he was chanting, too.

Goddess, he was chanting furiously, screaming the harsh words out, and I was close.

So fucking close…

Hakim was practically lying on top of me now. I grabbed his chin, tried to push him back, but the effect of my magic must have faded all the way because when he wrapped his fingers around my neck, he cut off my breathing almost all the way.

My instincts screamed. If I stopped this spell now and started again, I wouldn’t make it—it was simply too long. There was no time to get him off me and then start over—no time.

Dead-dead-dead,my mind said, and in that split second, I started to believe it.

Then Blackfire magic covered Hakim’s face and it was like he stopped existing for a moment. The black flames slipped into his skin and he began to scream, and he no longer squeezed my neck. I continued my spell, not daring to look up, to see Taland. It had beenhimwho’d spelled Hakim because Seth was busy with the others. There were no other Blackfires here except…

The Devil.

Everyone seemed to be shouting Iridian words at the same time, but I heard his voice when I focused. And when Hakim, screaming still, fell off me, I saw him.

His smile. His arms. His Blackfire shooting from his hands and going right through the veil as if he was in the same place as us.

Too late.

Just when I had only a handful of words left to finish the spell. Just when my magic had gathered itself in my hands, connected with that bracelet better than it ever had with my original anchor.

Too late!

The magic spread across the room, around all of us at once. It grabbed us as if with invisible hands and froze us in place, then pulled us up in the air.

No more screams. No more movement. No moreanythingexcept us lying in the air on our backs, floating. Everyone—Hill and Hakim and the siblings, we were all floating.

My eyes moved, though. I searched for the Devil, and I found him, but whatever spell he’d put on us had a good grip on my heart, too, so it didn’t beat faster. I didn’t breathe heavier, either, even though that wound on my thigh was pulsating with pain.

The Devil wasn’t smiling.

He looked to be in just as much pain as me. His teeth were gritted, his head lowered, and I could have sworn sweat shone on his forehead. The woman who’d been waiting behind him wasgone, and the barred cell door was now open, and outside I could just make out people moving.Fighting.

Had Hill really sent people after him in the Tomb? Would they get there in time to stop him from whatever he was doing to us?

I hoped and hoped and hoped…

Then I made peace with the fact that they wouldn’t.

So, I tried to move my hand—and I could, but only slightly. And I tried to get my jaws to move—again, they did, ever so slightly. There was no voice to speak the last words of my spell with, but I mouthed them anyway. I mouthed them slowly, so excruciatingly slowly, while the Devil watched me.

While the Devil gritted his teeth harder.

Then…

“ALE!”

Hill’s voice pierced right through my mind. The palm of my hand heated up, the magic ready, as ifitcouldn’t be controlled by the Devil, even though everything else on my body was at his mercy.

“Ale…l-let… me…” Hill said. “Go!”

His voice was strained. I didn’t dare look at wherever he was, but through the corner of my eye I could swear that he wasswimmingin the air, coming toward me. He was fucking swimming in the air while the others were still on their backs, just like me.

---