Page 82 of Tethered In Blood

She didn’t slow. “You’re welcome!” she shot back, voice taut between frustration and urgency. The thing lurched off me and twisted toward her with a hollow, rattling breath. Her eyes widened, but she ran faster. The creatureblinked, becoming a mere distortion in the air before vanishing.

“HERBALIST!”

Forcing my body upright, I shoved through the pain in my back and ribs just as the thing reappeared before her. She skidded to a halt before the shifting mass of brittle limbs and clawing darkness. The torch wavered in her grip, the flickering light exposing the jagged edges of its form. The sound of grinding metal rattled around us, its voice a hollow echo that grated against my skull.

“The gods are waiting.”

Quinn lifted the torch higher, her fingers curling tighter around the bundle of herbs in her other hand. She gripped the stems as her thumb rubbed the leaves with purpose.

Clever Dilthen Doe.

But not clever enough. The thing shifted in that same unnaturalblink,and suddenly, it was behind her. Her body tensed with a gasp. I pushed off the ground and crossed the distance between us.

I slammed into it just as the thing reached for her. The impact vibrated through my bones. I grabbed at whatever I could—solid or shifting—and wrenched it away from her. The torchlight flared, casting deep, jagged shadows over its form as it screeched, a noise of splintering glass and torn metal. Quinn stumbled forward, spinning around with wide eyes. I shoved the creature back again, my voice a low snarl. “Run.”

Her grip on the torch tightened, her knuckles white against the wood. To my vexation, she lifted her chin and said, “No.”

Saints fucking damn me.

The laughter curdled the air, a twisted symphony of voices that didn’t belong there. But they were different. Not the distorted mockery of my voice or the warped echoes of meaningless screams. The voices meant nothing to me.

I frowned, and my heart quivered in my ribs as the words snaked through the air. A man’s voice spoke, low and coaxing, laced with a hint of sweetness. “Playing hide and seek again?” Then a woman’s detached voice followed.“You can’t change what you are.”Confusion knotted in my gut as my mind scrambled to understand it.

My eyes landed on Quinn again.

She had gone rigid.Her face paled in the torchlight. The look in her eyes made my chest seize. Wide. Stricken. She no longer looked at the creature.

She watchedme,gauging my reaction.

The voices weren’t for me.It wasn’t mockingme. They were hers. Her memories. Her nightmares were torn from the depths of her mind and laid bare between us, things I was never supposed to hear.

My veins pulsed as the silver-blue light crept along my skin. My instincts snarled at me to move, fight, and tear through whatever force this thing used to dig into her mind. “Herbalist!” I barked. The thing laughed in a low, rattling and pleased toneand then vanished. It was gone in an instant, as if it had never existed. I moved toward Quinn when I thought it was safe. When I assumed the creature got what it wanted or that it may have been another warning or mind game.

Her focus shifted behind me moments before her body crashed against mine, knocking the air from my lungs as her weight collided with my side. I twisted abruptly, and my boots dug into the dirt to catch my footing. My arm wrapped around her waist to steady us both. Her breath was hot against my chest, and her hands gripped my arms for balance as her body pressed flush against mine.

A sudden, blinding whoosh of flames erupted behind her, igniting the air into a searing blaze that licked up my face and cast everything in a golden-red haze. The creature was swallowed by its inferno. The fire devoured it with an unnatural hunger, crackling as if possessed. Shadows writhed and twisted around its form, contorting in agony as the flames curled over every inch of its being.

It screamed with thousands of voices within a cacophony of agony, loss, and damnation. An endless, wailing shriek rattled through my bones and tore through the night, filled with the voices of every soul sacrificed to it. The sound pressed into my skull, reverberated across my ribs, and dug into my marrow.

The fire became insatiable. Its body convulsed and writhed against the inferno, and its limbs twisted at unnatural angles, struggling against the flames that devoured its existence. The smell of charred rot burned my nose as a final, horrid screech split the air. The creature collapsed with one last violent convulsion. Its remnants crumbled into a heap of bones and ash, scattered by the wind as if they had never been there.

My heartbeat roared in my ears, my body still ran hot, and I still thrummed with the energy of the fight. The ancient and violent pulse through my veins itched for an outlet, and the sight of her defiance, the torch clenched in her trembling hand and her breath uneven yet unwavering, only stoked the fire that burned within me.

I grabbed Quinn’s shoulders and shoved her back. “WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?!” I spat, my voice raw. My breath remained unsteady, and my chest heaved as adrenaline pulsed around us. “YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STAY IN THE ROOM!”

Her head snapped up, eyes flashing with a reckless fury that exasperated me. “And let you die?!” she shot back.

“Die?!” I scoffed. “That thing was testing me, Herbalist! I had it handled!”

“Oh, of course, you did,” she replied sarcastically, throwing her arms up as torchlight danced across the determined lines of her face.

My jaw set, grinding my teeth as I glared at her. “You—”

Her body went rigid with a sharp intake of breath. Maybe I had hit a nerve, pushed too hard, or pressed too far. Her scowl deepened. Her breathing became too fast, too shallow, and she swayed. A sick, ugly sensation twisted in me. I lunged forward just as her legs buckled, catching her before she hit the ground.

My hands clenched around her as I lowered us both, her weight slumping against me. “Herbalist.” The word left my lips, more breath than sound. “Shit.”

An unfamiliar feeling crawled up my throat.

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