Page 10 of The Cursed and the Broken
I shouldn’t use magic after the toll of healing. It always left me weak and nauseated—and that was when I pulled from my blood, rather than taking on the afflicted one’s injury.
The pack prowled back and forth, snapping as they assessed us. Their eyes glinted a strange silvery blue. “What’s wrong with them?”
My companion said nothing, and I glanced at his eyes to find them studying their movements, judging their patterns. Finally, he shoved me behind him again with a muscled bicep and I yelped as I almost rolled the injured ankle.
The wolves struck, the biggest launching a deadly bite towards the man’s jugular. A flash of silver so fast it was almost blinding swept down and embedded in the wolf’s fur. Blood spattered in a crimson arc.
Laszlo collided with another wolf mid-air, their bodies thudding as they hit the ground and rolled in a flurry of fur and teeth. Panic climbed my throat as my dog attacked relentlessly, sinking teeth into flesh and kicking with his powerful legs. But he was so small compared to the wolf and he barked in pain as the primal creature sank its teeth into his neck and tossed him aside.
He slammed against a tree and did not rise again.
Fear turned to rage, instilling courage in my bones. I tossed my blade in the air, catching the tip between my fingertips and, with a steadying exhale, I threw the dagger at the wolf’s heart. It hit home and the creature was dead before it hit the ground, tongue lolling as the breath left its lungs.
The stranger’s eyes flashed with surprise—and was that a hint of admiration? More wolves approached from the direction he had travelled from and my heart sank as they surrounded us. We found ourselves back-to-back, and I could feel every shift of his muscles as he pressed into my spine.
“I don’t suppose you have any more blades to repeat that, do you?” His voice was calm, measured, and I wondered if his heart betrayed the fear that mine raced with.
I gritted my teeth. “Actually, I find myself a little shorthanded at the moment.”
His laugh rumbled through my back. How could he findanythingabout this amusing?
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
The world dimmed as shadows uncoiled from the ground, an unnatural stillness settling over the woods. Wisps of black smoke seemed to hiss from the dead wolves’ bodies, which twitched erratically. The limbs jerked before unfolding stiffly, then the eyes blinked—black as voids.
He was animating the dead. Usingnecromancy. The power was … it was unholy. To see dead things walk again, to control an otherwise powerless thing. It seemed wrong. And yet, we had no other options, and he was a táltos after all. Spirit magic ran in their blood.
I supposed it didn’t matter if it went against all religious constructs, anyway. The Christian churches vehemently spurned witches—hunted them even—and humans didn’t even know táltosok existed. Why look to men when a woman wears the weight of all injustices?
The wolves faced off, snarling at each other. They pounced and the man’s sword flashed as more blood coated the dappled forest floor. He grunted as fangs sank into his bicep, the blood dripping down his arm in scarlet waves.
Even with the aid of the undead, they outnumbered us. I couldn’t hide behind him forever, couldn’t run. My vision spotted as nausea roiled through me and I swallowed the urge to vomit.
A wolf lunged for me and I scrabbled back in alarm, my spine slamming into a tree trunk. Time seemed to tick slowly, giving me an eyeful of a maw filled with daggers and glowing eyes fuelled by bloodlust.
A hum buzzed deep inside me and the power that reared its ugly head when I felt threatened, scared, or angry unleashed. My fingers curled as I raised both arms before me and I screamed into the maelstrom of black and misty red that exploded from my fingertips, engulfing the pack before me.
They disintegrated into a mess of blood, bones, and fur. All that remained standing was a very shocked looking táltos. Vaguely, I saw a flicker of hunger in his eyes as he looked at me.
My vision dimmed, my head swimming and weightless and I closed my eyes, sinking into an abyss.
FIVE
Muffled sounds reached my earsas I stirred to consciousness. My head pounded, and I didn’t dare open my eyes just yet.
“Can you hear me?”
My brain struggled to make sense of the sound, to block out the pain surging through my body. A fogginess clouded my mind and my ankle barked with hot flares, setting my veins on fire.
“Can you hear me?” the words repeated. A man’s voice.
I opened my eyes and groaned as reality came crashing back in. He was gazing at me and I noticed a gold ring in his pupils that I hadn’t seen before. Beautiful.
I blinked several times after realising I was staring and grew painfully aware that my head was in his lap, his calloused hands gently holding my face. A blush stained my cheeks and he smirked, as if he knew what I was thinking.
“Are they—are they all gone?” I asked as I sat up slowly, half wanting to stay in his arms, but keenly aware of the intimate position I lay in.
He swept a hand through his dark brown hair and a ray of sunlight caught his strands, highlighting reddish hues amid the brown. Gods, he was irritatingly handsome. I blinked again as his face morphed into one of wicked humour. Did I say that out loud? What’swrongwith me?
