Page 198 of Fangs
Icouldn’t stand still by the gate, so I paced, nervous energy running through me like an electric current. Apple came and tried to join the waiting group, but I got Leda to take her and the kids back to the canteen. I wasn’t sure what was coming, and I didn’t want them to see.
On one of my turns, I spun and nearly ran directly into Clarity. I stopped with a gasp, but before I could say anything, she seized my hands, her eyes going wide and completely black.
“Beware the gentle hand. The shadows cloak its biting smile!” she babbled.
“Clarity—” I tried to pull away, but her grip was painfully tight.
“The loom has woven a tapestry of lies,” she continued, her voice rising hysterically. “These shadows owe him no allegiance.”
I could hear the rovers approaching, and my heart leapt into my throat.
“In silence, the snare is set!” Clarity cried. “The snare is set!”
“Clare, it’s okay,” I tried to soothe her.
Her eyes returned to their normal color, but Nemo, Smith, and the other guards were all staring.
“Clarity!” Sky appeared, panting. “Sorry, Bones, she’s so fast.”
“It’s okay, just… get her out of here.”
Sky wrestled Clarity back as she continued to shout nonsense at me. I’d have to explain to Nemo whatthatwas, but I focused on the gate slowly opening. The first rover roared through with Mac driving, and I almost burst into tears when I saw he looked bloody but mostly uninjured, but any relief I felt evaporated as I realized someone was lying unmoving in the backseat. I started running, vaguely registering that Wolf’s rover came next, but Lee was driving it, and all the occupants were slumped over. Griz drove Wolf’s second rover inside with more unmoving bodies, and Raven followed in the last rover containing her and Jax. They both looked rough but okay.
That meant?—
“I’m sorry, Em,”Mac’s voice was desperate and rough.“I tried to keep him safe.”
Oh fuck, Sam.
I scrambled into the rover almost before it stopped and hovered over Sam, fear choking me. His face was so grey, his body limp and eyes closed, but there were no injuries I could see.
“What happened?” I demanded, my shaking fingers trying to find a pulse in Sam’s neck. It was so faint.
“We managed to take out their leader, but he was rigged with some sort of chemical weapon… or something. As soon as he fell, this thick black fog started hissing out of him like a fuckin’ smoke grenade,” Mac said.
“Never seen anything like it,” Griz added gravely from the other side of the rover.
“It didn’t hurt any of us except Sam and your brother’s whole crew… minus Lee,” Mac continued.
I glanced over at my brother’s rover to see Lee bent over Wolf’s unconscious form, and my heart felt like it was about to explode from pounding so hard. I needed to focus.
“Em, you can’t—” Mac reached for me as I gripped Sam’s wrists.
“Don’t you dare try to stop me,” I snarled at him.
He looked startled at my ferocity but withdrew his hands and didn’t argue.
I called my healing power and let it flow into Sam, bracing myself for the pain of hitting that wall.Please, please, please?—
I gasped as my powers connected with something, but it wasn’t the barrier I’d felt before. It was a nauseatingly familiar roiling darkness that fought back—the Shadowbane. I poured my power into Sam, determined to win, and after several minutes, I felt it begin to shrink. I stared at Sam’s face, barely daring to hope, but I could see the color returning to his face and his chest rising and falling as he began taking deep, steady breaths.
“Oh my gods,” I breathed.
“Is it working?” Mac demanded, and I realized he had crammed himself into the backseat with us.
“It’s working,” I choked out.
The darkness vanished, but a wave of sudden, intense nausea went through me. I released Sam’s arms, and my hands felt numb and prickly as though I’d slept on them funny, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it because Sam opened his eyes and slowly focused on me with a grimace.
