Page 28 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
She clenched her teeth as the power warred within her, begging to be released. It was as if the floodgates had opened once she searched for a piece of it. Like a living entity, the power wanted to be used. It wanted to wreak havoc, to destroy, to unleash itself upon the world. But Hallie held on. Her jaw ached from clenching it so hard. She pressed the one tendril into the bricks with all the strength she had left.
Nothing.
She ripped her hands away, and the cold early morning froze the sweat on her face. She shivered.
“Let the flames loose,” King Filip said from nearby. “It’s contrary, I know, but in some circumstances, your power needs to be uncontrolled. Keep hold of the one strand to keep you grounded. Let the others flow into the brick. Visualize your outcome.”
Well, he’d been mostly right before when she’d tried healing Niels. Hallie breathed heavily and shivered some more. With hesitancy, she pressed her hands to the brick again. Heat immediately radiated out from the place she touched. Her power responded with vicious desire. She grabbed at one of the strands and held onto it, but she allowed the madness pressing against her skin and soul to flow out through her fingers instead. She screamed. It burned. It scalded and flowed like a river into the brick below.
Light exploded behind her eyelids, and she nearly lost control of everything. She was on fire. Shewasfire. She clung to the strand, but it was like clasping a hand in a raging storm.
“Hallie!” someone screamed. Niels? Or was it Kase? Someone else?
She couldn’t let go of the brick. She lost hold of her one strand of power. The light grew brighter. The pain increased.
She fell straight through the shining portal.
Chapter 5
BLASTED DEATH TRAPS
Kase
KASE AWOKE TO COLD WETNESS on the side of his face.
He flinched and batted whatever was causing the sensation. The cold stung, but he wasn’t sure why. He hit another hand, forcing his lids open. It was Hallie. It had to be. He’d been dreaming of her, and now she was here, poking at him to irritate him into waking up. He smiled and blinked away the rest of his sleep.
Stowe bent over him, rag in hand. He squinted down at Kase. “Quit smilin’ at me like that.”
Wrong Walker. Kase bent his smile back out of shape and sat up. Pain radiated through his skull, and he slapped a hand to it…which, of course, caused more pain. Something else leaked onto his hand.
He pulled away. Dark blood mixed with flakes smeared across his palm.
“Don’t move just yet, son,” Stowe said a little more kindly, sitting back and digging through his pack.
“What happened?” Kase looked around the room, trying his best not to move his neck much, hoping that Stowe would stop the blood pouring from the side of his face. The pounding in his head only lessened somewhat.
The space was only lit with electropistol sparks, but Kase could see enough. They sat in the tunnel just adjacent to the Zuprium crystal, which was visible through an opening in the rocks blocking them from going back. At the top was a crack big enough for someone very slim to crawl through. To the left was only darkness.
They had no way to go except forward. Kase didn’t fancy another battle with the crystal anyway.
Stowe handed him a vial of brown liquid. “A rock clipped your head pretty good, but you’re a tough’n. Lucky my pack wasn’t buried too deep, and this was cushioned quite nice like.”
Kase took it from him as Stowe continued, “Don’t have none of that fancy medicine you inject into your skin like they do in the capital, but this’ll dull the pain until we can get you checked out proper.”
Kase downed the vial in one gulp. It tasted like dirt. He grimaced and squeezed his eyes shut as the liquid tingled its way to his stomach. Ugh. Hopefully he didn’t throw it up. “Thanks.”
Stowe tied up his pack. “It’s the least I could do after you…well, thank you, son.”
Kase gave a small laugh. “Guess my luck is changing, then.”
Stowe helped Kase stand as well. “From what little Niels told me about you, I owe you much more than a simple numbing medicine.”
“Oh, yeah? And what did he say about me?” Kase rolled his bruised shoulder and winced at the pain. Guess whatever it was he’d drunk hadn’t taken effect yet.
“That you’re arrogant and rich and don’t know nothin’ about mountain life, but you’ve put yourself in harm’s way to save my daughter more times than he could count, so there’s that.”
Annoyance flared in Kase’s cheeks as he furrowed his brow. “It’s what anyone would’ve done.”
