Page 17 of The Dark Mage
Three-quarters of a mile in, disaster struck.
A dark hole swallowed her ankle, bending it the wrong direction.Tendons and ligaments screamed in protest, and something snapped with a dull, sickening sound.She wrenched her foot free, gasping shallowly, tears burning hereyes.
Somewhere behind her, dogs bayed, their cries ringing across the shadowed forest.
Shit.
Her injured leg wobbled as she staggered forward.Every step sent bolts of pain shooting from ankle to knee, and she clamped her mouth shut against the screams clawing their way up her throat.Grim determination and raw desperation drove each agonizing step over the uneven, treacheroussoil.
The Farro glistened through dark trunks, moonlight playing on the rippling water, and Ren’wyn felt her willpower revive.Her breath rasped wetly as she pushed her body, desperate for the river’s icy embrace.
But the dogs were closing in.The voices of the guards, harsh and urgent, coaxed the hounds ever closer.Ren’wyn almost wept for joy when she realized she could beat them to the water.
The last hundred yards were pure agony.
Wet coughing, gasping, and sharp jolts of pain blended into a horrible symphony that pulsed through her limbs, lungs, and pounding head.She tasted iron, and her ankle suddenly and completely gaveout.
Ren’wyn tumbled down the steep embankment, rolling through damp leaves and brittle branches.The moon and stars flashed drunkenly in her headlong descent, her fall ending as she slammed into an elm along the river’sedge.
She lay sprawled in the mud, lungs paralyzed and vision a blurry haze.The cold river lapped against her feet as precious seconds ticked away.She clawed at the mud, willing her body to move, to breathe.She couldn’t make it into the water if she couldn’t breathe—and gods, how she wanted tolive.
On the ridge, dogs sniffed and old leaves crunched beneath heavy boots.The guards were close, loud, and angry, their leader’s barked orders ringing out above the din.They had surely heard her scream, the dogs had her scent, and they were closing in.
Ren’wyn cursed her useless body, her sluggish lungs, her throbbing head.Tiny sips of muck-scented air invaded her chest as she dragged herself forward through the slippery mud.The smell of wet, rotting leaves filled her nose as she fought for enough momentum to roll into the water.
Then, a roar swelled deep in the fabric of her magic.
The deep thrum surged through her blood, filling her veins, muscles, and bones—the very air around her—as though the unseen world itself was awakening.Time slowed.
A hand clamped over her mouth as someone rolled herover.
An arm looped around her waist, bracing across her chest and hoisting her upright.With the little air in her lungs, she screamed into the callused palm, pain radiating until shooting stars filled her vision.Dimly, she registered being dragged along the riverbank.
The mud squelched and sucked as her captor stumbled, cursing under his breath.Ren’wyn’s limbs hung limp, too weak to fight and too injured to resist.Then, a realization cut through her haze of pain and despair—this stranger wasn’t dragging her back to the guards.
He was taking heraway.
Her pulse quickened as the fabric of the world seemed to roar, power coursing from her deepest self and seeping into every inch of her awareness.The Void stirred in response, answering the ancient force rising within her.Shadows twined around her legs and torso, challenging the stranger’s own energy.Black clashed with red, shadows tangling with fiery sparks behind hereyes.
Her lungs cleared in a single, desperate inhale.
“Holy hell,” the stranger whispered, his breath warm against herneck.
His magic met hers head-on, bright and wild against her darkness.Though he released her mouth, his firm grip at her waist kept her upright as she sagged against the muscled plain of his chest, her body spent.
Above them, the guards’ torches flickered against the black night sky.The dogs bayed and snarled, pacing furiously along the ridge.The soldiers could see nothing of the shadows that cloaked Ren’wyn and the stranger, nor hear the roaring power that rippled through the unseen world.
“We know you’re down there, whore!”one guard shouted, his voice brimming with malice.“Erst told us to have some fun with you before we brought you back.Hold still, and we’ll make it quick.”
Dark laughter rippled through the group, vile and sharp.
The stranger hissed in disgust, his hold on her tightening protectively.
Ren’wyn was no longer listening.
Her lungs filled with air and the scent of mud, leaves, and death.She reached for the Void, and it surged to meet her.The darkness fed hungrily on the stranger’s fiery strength, growing until it consumed the night.
Shades crawled from the ground, mist-like figures forming at the water’s edge.Tendrils of shadow snaked from her hands, hissing with raw power.Ren’wyn’s pupils dilated as her second sight illuminated the ridge above, the soldiers’ lives burning like fragile beacons.
