Page 432 of Primal Bonds

“He’s here.” She picked up the pace. “I know he is.”

That’s when the skies opened up. Rain sluiced down as if someone had turned a fire hose on them. Her black turtleneck was instantly plastered to her body. Within seconds, she’d lost sight of everyone but Jace and Fane.

She dashed the water out of her eyes and kept moving.

The deeper they went into the woods, the thicker the shadows grew. With the rain sheeting down, it was like fighting your way through a waterfall. They were soaking wet, and beneath their feet, the forest floor had turned into a gluey black mud.

The shadows grew thick enough to touch. The nearest one began to slowly spiral.

They all froze.

Marjani put out a hand to see if it was as real as it looked. The shadow—or whatever it was—tried to curl around her, but recoiled from the protection charm.

“Careful!” Fane jerked her back. “It’s some kind of dark magic.”

The three of them eased around the mini black cyclone, but all the shadows were swirling now.

“What the fuck?” Jace snarled, his eyes the bright green of his jaguar.

The shadows spun faster, coalescing into hairy vines that slapped at their faces, dragged at their clothes.

Marjani dodged between two vines. As before, Olivia’s charm repelled them. But a third vine twined around Jace’s legs and threw him to the muddy ground. In the next breath, he was being dragged through the forest, his body slamming into trees and bouncing off rocks.

“Jace!” She and Fane sprinted after him.

He managed to snag an arm around a tree trunk. With the other, he hacked at the vine with his iron dagger. As they caught up to him, the vine disintegrated into ashes.

She dropped to her knees, brushing the ashes off him. “You okay?”

Jace’s chest heaved. He gingerly tested his arms and legs. “Yeah.”

“Here.” Fane held out a hand, pulling him to his feet.

“God’s cat.” The jaguar shifter swiped a hand over his face. “What the fuck are those vines?”

“Hell if I know,” said Fane. “Some kind of ward? Or maybe even an illusion?”

“It was no illusion,” was the grim reply. “I’ve got the bruises to prove it.”

Fane shook his head. “With the night fae, it’s hard to tell what’s real, what’s not.”

“Look out!” Marjani slashed at a vine snaking at them from around a nearby tree. As before, it crumbled into ashes.

She took a second dagger from her boot so she had one in each hand. “Whatever it is, we have to get out of here. Stick next to me. The charm seems to repel them.”

The men nodded, mouths set, as three more vines dropped around them. Together, they hacked their way forward for several endless minutes.

Just when she wondered if they’d ever get out of the woods, there was an intense flash, followed by two more in rapid succession. Through the trees, they glimpsed a group of sun fae hurling fae balls at the vines, forcing a large patch of shadows around them into retreat.

Fane swore and slashed through yet another encroaching vine. “The bloody things are multiplying faster than we can fight them.”

“The sun fae.” She stabbed a vine right before it wrapped around Jace’s neck from behind. “They’re our only chance.”

The three of them continued slogging through the mud, dodging the shadow-vines when they could, and fighting them off when they couldn’t, but the sun fae warriors kept moving, too. They couldn’t seem to reach them.

They fought doggedly on. First Fane, then Jace were thrown to the ground. She helped cut the vines off them, and they continued forward, but they were all tiring. On top of that, they were soaked to the skin, and if there was anything Marjani’s cat detested, it was being cold and wet.

Then they lost sight of the sun fae. Although they could still hear sounds of the battle, it was impossible to tell exactly where it was coming from.

---