Page 263 of Alchemised
The drugs were taking effect. Luc was strong enough to resist Helena’s attempts to hold him back and alert enough to realise how outnumbered they were. Still she tried to stop him.
“Luc, you’re injured. I’m not even sure how much. You’re just not feeling it.”
“I’m not watching them die.” He tried again to shove her and Purnell off.
She dug her fingers into his arms. “Luc, you don’t have resonance.”
“Then heal me again later,” he said, finally ripping himself free and throwing himself into the fight. He kicked a necrothrall so hard his foot went through its chest. He snatched up its sword.
Soren called him several names, but there was no time to do more than curse as they kept fighting their way down.
Helena pulled out a knife when they reached the basement. Wagner was huddling behind Purnell as if he expected her to protect him. Purnell’s eyes were wide, the whites glaring with visible panic as she clutched back. They shouldn’t have brought her. The girl was beginning to fall apart. She didn’t have the nerve for combat.
They got into the room and blocked the door, but it was barely secured before the whole wall shook. They fled into the tunnels, scrambling after one another into the sewers, trying to reach the flood cathedral. Alister brought up the rear, crushing and sealing the tunnel behind them, step after step, so that pursuit would be slow.
They reached one of the larger tunnels and paused, gasping for breath.
“You’re not supposed to be fighting, you moron,” Soren said, slumping against the wall. In torchlight, he’d turned very grey and his nose was broken, blood streaming down his mouth and chin.
Purnell was crouched on the ground, rocking and muttering, Mummy? Mummy, please don’t, over and over.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Luc said, breathing hard, shifting his grip on the sword. “This sword is shit. You could have brought a weapon for me. Do you have my rings at least?”
“You don’t have resonance,” Helena snapped.
Luc grimaced but gripped the sword harder.
“I don’t know how Lila’s never killed you,” Soren said, pushing himself up but looking ready to topple over.
“Hold on.” Helena went over and checked him. His arm was broken again. Three times in a year. It was unlikely to ever heal properly after this. She aligned the bones again and fused them.
“Do you have something for pain?” Penny asked in a small voice. “Or maybe you could block off some nerves.”
When she was done with Penny, she made them all take her blood tonics, so that if they required healing, what she’d need would already be there. She’d brought two for everyone but hadn’t expected an extra prisoner. Wagner drank hers while she was passing out the others.
“We need to keep moving,” Soren said. They had to drag Purnell with them; she was completely gone, staring blankly as if she didn’t know where she was anymore, still saying Mummy, her voice chillingly childlike.
They retraced their steps, following the maze of tunnels back to their entry point. At first it was a relief that they weren’t being pursued, but the closer they got, the eerier it was.
Helena’s ring burned again.
“Sol save us. It’s Blackthorne!” Penny said, her voice strangled with terror as they rounded the corner.
The shallow sections of the flood cathedral were filled not only with a horde of necrothralls but also a number of what looked to be the mortal Aspirants, lined up and blocking their path.
“Go back!” Soren immediately said, but he’d barely spoken the words before there came a scream of metal behind them, followed by a savage roar.
Chimaeras.
They were penned in.
Blackthorne stood at the front, barely armoured. “Capture Holdfast, kill the rest, and you will receive the immortal reward!”
There was an eager roar among the Aspirants, while the necrothralls just stood still, waiting.
“Stay close,” Luc ordered as he fell in, shoulder-to-shoulder, with Soren and Sebastian.
“Get across,” Soren said.
