Page 81 of Killing Time

An unpleasant smile still played around his lips. Although it was too dim in there for me to tell exactly how many goons Jasper had brought with him, I thought it had to be at leastthree or four, maybe even more than that if some of them were hanging back in the shadows.

Even unbound, there was no way I could have taken on a bunch of grown men, all of whom must have some sort of powerful magical gifts…even if I couldn’t say for sure what those talents might be.

And although I had no idea how Jasper had done it, I guessed whatever spells he’d put in place to block my magic were narrowly focused on me and my particular talent. After all, if he was planning to use my blood to fuel some sort of unholy ritual, then he couldn’t have blocked all magic and its users, or the ceremony would have been nothing more than show, with no teeth to it.

“This is not murder,” he said. “This is necessary.”

“No, it isn’t,” I protested. “That’s what I keep trying to tell you, but you can’t seem to get it through your thick head that none of this is going to help you the slightest bit.”

His mouth compressed at the “thick head” slur, but I was beyond caring at that point whether I offended him or not. I was just doing my best to avoid dying in the next five minutes.

“I am not going to waste any more time on this,” he said, and his head lifted, almost as though he’d heard or sensed something in the heavens far above this gloomy basement.

The moon sliding into those few moments of absolute darkness?

I hadn’t felt a single thing, so I couldn’t say for sure.

All I knew was that my entire body had gone tense, knowing the time was here.

I was going to die.

A flash at the corner of my vision, and I shifted as best I could on the tabletop, once again pulling at the ropes that held me in place, fully knowing I wouldn’t be able to get free…and also knowing I was still going to struggle as much as I could.

No way was I going to let Jasper Wilcox slit my throat without a fight.

Except, miraculously, one of my hands was now free.

Another flash, this one at my feet. My eyes focused for a single second, and I realized it was Seth standing there. He held a short knife, one that must have been very sharp, because it cut through the rope binding my ankles without slowing down a bit.

Astonishment and hope and sheer relief flooded through me. Before I could react, though, Jasper shouted, “He’s trying to free her. Grab him!”

Easier said than done. While I’d watched Seth as he teleported several times during our journeys together, I’d never seen him like this, blinking in and out of existence so fast, it almost seemed as if he was The Flash rather than an ordinary warlock.

No, scratch that.

There was absolutely nothing ordinary about Seth McAllister.

He appeared behind Jasper next, grabbing him by the arm and yanking him backward just as he was about to reach out and seize my free hand. But before Jasper could summon some kind of spell to blast him away, Seth disappeared again, this time reappearing on the other side of the table, where he grabbed the two warlocks who’d been standing there and knocked their heads together.

They didn’t exactly go down in a heap, but they both staggered, clearly put off balance by the unexpected attack. The warlock standing nearest me tried to take hold of my feet, but I kicked out, catching him right in the groin.

He let out awhoofof air and bent over double, doing his best to catch his breath. Jasper hadn’t taken off my shoes when he bound me to the table, so I was still wearing the same pumpswith the low, blocky heels I’d had on when he caught me trying to escape.

Turns out they weren’t half-bad in a fight.

Now Seth appeared on the other side of the table, knife flashing again as he freed the one remaining limb that had been bound by those damn ropes. At once, his arm went around my waist, and he held me close.

“You will not have her!” Jasper growled, and his hands lifted as though he was preparing to fling some kind of awful magic at us.

Except whatever he’d thought would happen…didn’t. I knew I’d tensed and clung to Seth that much tighter, but theprimusmight as well have been hurling only insults, since we both seemed completely untouched.

“Protection spell,” Seth said with a grin, then looked down at me. “You ready to get out of here?”

“Absolutely,” I replied.

But then I looked over at Jasper, whose face was suffused with anger, his ineffectual fists clenched at his sides. I had no idea who had cast the protection spell on Seth, but right then, I was very, very glad of its help, because theprimuslooked as though he was ready to murder us with his bare hands.

“And Jasper?” I added, staring right into his furious black eyes.

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