Page 17 of Magic Claimed
I don’t know how long I clung to his back. I was so focused on not falling off and breathing through the vice about my neck that I didn’t notice we were at the castle wall until we stopped in a dark corner in front of a large oak door frame.
A burst of magic flowed over me, and Jarom flipped my legs off Alerick’s back. My legs buckled. I tried to drag in air, but my throat was almost closed over. I leaned against Alerick, using him to prop myself up while I fought my fuzzy head.
“We can’t go any further,” Eike said after he’d Changed.
Alerick Changed, winding his strong arms about me. Something long and thin pressed into my hand. I looked down, uncomprehending of what it was. “Pretend it’s the wand you were sent to fetch.” He must have carried it in his mouth all this way. A part of me thought it was because he might have cared, but I wasn’t stupid. He’d taken it to make it look as though I’d hadn’t been in wolf shifter territory. To keep what they wanted me to do a secret and nothing more. At least it was one less problem I had.
But then I couldn’t think about anything else other than getting through the door and to Esoti’s quarters when the collar tightened. I pushed away from the dubious comfort of Alerick’s arms and staggered to the door.
A large hand wrapped around my bicep and I looked into icy blue eyes. “Don’t forget what we need you to do,” Jarom growled.
I shoved the door open and wove up the steps, ignoring my burning throat. My burning lungs. My hammering heart. The tears streamed down my face. Air. I needed air. I gripped the collar with one hand and the wand with the other, calling for an inner strength I never knew I had.
The darkened corridor stretched so far. Too far. I willed one foot in front of the other, using the wall to keep me upright. One foot. The next. There was Esoti’s black door. I fell against it, knees sagging. Fumbled with the knob with unresponsive fingers. It slipped open and I fell through the door and onto the cold stone floor.
Esoti walked over to me, casually. As though he had all day, cruelty flashing in his eyes. I lifted the wand with a shaking hand, my breathing wheezing in my ears.
“Well, well. Where have you been all this time? You know I don’t enjoy waiting.” He lifted the wand and examined it while I suffocated on the floor before glancing at me as though I was an afterthought. “I suppose you can’t answer me in that state.”
He flicked his wrist, and the collar loosened. I gasped and coughed and gagged as sweet air flowed unrestricted into my lungs.
Esoti towered over me. “I wonder if this wand is as good as it looks.” He shrugged. “I guess there’s no time like the present. Don’t get up.”
Blue magic streaked from the end of the wand and engulfed me in fiery pain. Alerick had not only given me a real wand, but a powerful one. Maybe strong enough to beat my secret out and force a Change. Why the hell had he given me a wand this powerful?
Magic sank into me, lighting up my body with agony. I chased the magic as it scoured through me. So far into myself, that a ball of glimmering golden light shimmered in the darkness of my soul. That was it. My shifter magic. I had to hide. I dove towards it, wrapping my consciousness around it. Praying to the gods that Esoti wouldn’t find it.
I clung to it as pain ravaged my body. The golden light flared, offering me warmth and comfort. There was something familiar about it. Something tempting. Faces flashed through my mind. Three men and a beautiful woman smiling down at me. The woman had golden blonde hair, similar to my own, and she looked so happy when she smiled at me. Then her face washed away with a burst of power so ancient and intense it left the taste of charred parchment in my mouth.
My mind blanked and every cell in my body vibrated with a jolt of pure energy that infused my body. The golden light expanded, filtering through every part of me before it disappeared, buried in the essence of my blood and bone.
Esoti fired magic strong enough to flay skin and liquify my insides until blessedly the agony was too much. I reached for the freedom of the beckoning darkness, grateful when it swept me away.
Chapter Ten
“Was that wand strong enough?” A male voice sounded through the end of a tunnel, all echo-y and fuzzy as it was. That might be because I was face down on the cold stone floor in a pile of frozen blood and shredded bones. I knew that voice and it sent a chill through me. Titan. One of The Six.
“It had a bit of power behind it, I have to admit,” Esoti said, sounding almost bored.
Esoti really did a job on me this time. If I ever saw those shifters again, I’d give them a piece of my mind. If they were going to give me a fake wand, they could at least have made it a weak one. I felt as though every bone in my body had been removed for cleaning and shoved back together.
“Did it kill her this time? Looked like it did.” A female asked. I almost jumped because she was so close. Luckily, I had no energy to bat an eyelid at Drisella. Great, there were three of my least favourite people in this room talking about me.
“No. She held on this time, although I tried my best. Curious,” Esoti said.
I hadn’t died? It certainly felt like it. The thing was, when I died, I didn’t snap back a perfect, healthy version of myself. I still had to heal the damage that was done, which could take some time depending on what Esoti had done to me.
“Did you get it out?” Titan asked.
Gods, did they know my secret? That somehow I was a wolf shifter? Every muscle in my body tensed as a cold sweat covered me from head to toe.
“Nothing as usual.” There was the scrape of a knife on a plate and the smell of fried eggs and bacon hit me. So, they were eating breakfast while I’d passed out cold on the floor. A wave of dizziness hit me. I hurt, was exhausted and my stomach was eating a hole through my intestines. Six spoons of stew was a distant memory given recent events.
The only good was that my secret was safe. If Esoti knew I had Changed, he would have told Titan and Drisella.
“It has to be in her. You’ve been trying for years,” Drisella said. Footsteps moved away from me and there was the scrape of a chair as she sat. She spoke about me as though I was a weed that continued to grow despite multiple attempts at poison. If only she went through what I did daily. If she could die, oh the ways I’d end her. Boiling in oil would be perfect. I’d dip her in slowly, toes first so she’d last. My mind supplied me with delicious images of Drisella in a big pot, screaming her head off while she boiled alive. I almost smiled at the thought.
“Any luck with yours, Titan?” Esoti asked.
