Page 26 of MidKnight
Before the smoke could turn completely, I saw Quinn swing his sword, forcing the djinni to dissolve again.
What are you doing?
Waiting for Declan.
Declan?
Backup,Quinn’s mental voice was breathless as he swung the sword a third time, making sure to slice the smoke in half. The smoke attempted to breach the cracks of the room, to crawl down the gutter, but didn’t go for the bars of the door. I wasn’t certain why until I looked at the door. Or where it had been. Now, all that appeared was a wall.
The door looked to be on the other side of the room, where there was actually only stone. Quinn was disguising the door and the real gutter with his illusions.
Quinn tried to keep up both his magic and the sword fight. But he was quickly tiring. His expertise wasn’t in fighting, particularly fighting smoke, where he couldn’t judge how hard his swings needed to be.
I shot pulses of green light at the smoke, trying to slow it down. I don’t know if it did any good. But it felt better than standing there.
Suddenly, I heard a metallic clatter on the stone floor.
I looked down to see a beer stein rolling on the ground, near the actual door to the cell.
The real cell door slammed shut. The black smoke bolted toward the door, following the sound.
Shite!
Blast him with peace, Dove!
I lit the room with green light and moaned as my arms ripped open. My magic changed the smoke to a sickly grey-green color.
Quinn scooped up the cup and held it out in the middle of the room.Get in the cup!His mental shout echoed and made my ears ring.
But the smoke continued to swirl. Slower, now that it was infused with peace magic.
“Dec, what’s the opposite of smoke?” I called out.
The smoke in front of us turned to ash. A small, rolling ball of grey dust, like a tiny planet attempting to form, floated in midair. I shot another blast of peace at it, turning the ash green.
“Ash is dust. Opposite of dust!” I yelled.
Quinn stretched out the stein underneath the green ball of ash just as Declan transformed the dust into water.
The green water sloshed down into the beer stein. Quinn slammed the lid down.
“We’re good!” I called out.
A second later Declan burst into the prison chamber.
“What the sard—”
Quinn held out the stein and Declan took it from him. Quinn grabbed the hand that lay on the floor and yanked the jeweled rings off it.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
I took all his jewelry off when we first captured him. These rings here only appeared when I severed that hand. They’re probably spelled or something. Which means they’re important,Quinn said to both of us.
Declan nodded his approval. “Djinn are controlled by rings.”
Quinn poured the four sparkling rings into his pocket. Then he scooped me up and his thoughts projected to both of us again.We need to get her to Ryan. She’s gonna pass out.
He strode out of the dungeon, Declan trailing behind with the beer stein that rattled and steamed and even screamed.
