Page 96 of To Free a Soul
Jabez then twisted, and Lindiwe tried everything in her might to get away.Her skin tore, and the already broken bone crunched and further separated as he stretched and mangled her arm before he yanked it off.
“An arm for an arm,” Jabez sneered, tossing it to the side.
Her dismembered arm slapped against the inside of the pink dome, splattering blood across the surface before it hit the ground with a thud.
Freed from Jabez, Lindiwe dropped to the ground to kick Katerina’s ankles and make her release her arm. Her heart was racing, adrenaline and fear of more pain rushing strength into her bloodstream – which only made her pulse dangerously faster.
Lindiwe’s sight warped in and out while she tried to get her bearings. The inside of her mouth was flooded with drool, and she swallowed it to push down the nausea that cramped high in her gut.
Tears of agony had long filled her eyes, but she couldn’t stop to register anything other than the need to escape.
Phantom. I need to shift.
Covering the bloodied stump of her right arm, she fled while attempting to morph forms, and flickered between the two. Jabez chased her around his dome as Katerina screamed and tried her hardest to avoid getting in the middle of them.
Darkness surrounded them completely, the layers of Jabez’s castle still on top of them.
Ducking underneath Jabez’s arms, using his Elven height against him, she managed to suck in a breath that pushed clarity to the surface. She let go of her injury and made a thin blade form in her hand. When her back shunted against a shimmering magical wall, she stabbed it backwards as hard as she could muster.
The thinness of the blade ensured she was able to stab through his ward. She hadn’t known it would work, as it depended on whether the ward was made to protect against slashing, impact, or penetrative damage.
It was enough that she was able to slice sideways.
And with her momentary clarity, she was able to turn intangible... just as his castle came down on top of them. He roared when they were buried alive under what should have been an unbearable weight.
But Lindiwe knew they weren’t crushed, based on the constant sounds coming from within, even when she floated upwards through the rubble.
“Stop fucking screaming!” Jabez bellowed. “Or I’ll end you myself!”
Katerina instantly went quiet.
When Lindiwe exited through the top of the ruins, half of the building had collapsed, while the other side creaked and groaned as chunks fell. The Demons she’d thrown against the walls were already climbing through the outer parts of the debris. They shook their bodies and hair of dust and rocks before dragging their sorry arses away to the surrounding areas.
I have to get somewhere safe.The fact that she could stay a Phantom was a miracle, but her strength was waning.
She doubted she’d get far in the middle of the Veil, but it was less inhabited compared to the outer rings. If she could find somewhere to stem the bleeding, she had medicinal herbs she could use to aid with the pain and potential infection.
Lindiwe didn’t consider this a failure.
She may not have killed Katerina or Jabez, but she was sure she’d frightened the shit out of them. She’d proved she was someone to be wary of, and that her threats were anything but empty.
She was deadly, and would only be more prepared and cunning next time. She had all the anger, determination, and will, and all the time in the world to be locked in battle.
The winds picked up speed, and the first pattering droplets of rain fell through her transparent body. Thunder rumbled before a flash of light forked across the dark sky, and it mimicked the aura of her rage.
Fuck you, Jabez.
A time unknown, but of memory fragments
Weldir’s subconscious twitched.
It shifted, spiralling further and further apart, until his hold on the tethers unravelled into invisible fraying strings. He felt no desire to pull the pieces taut. He lacked the strength, will, or even the thought to do so.
Instead, the weightlessness crushed into him and pushed him deeper into the waves of his memories.
Of darkness, of nothing but his own echoing roars. Of heavy loneliness and abandonment that never ceased its yawning gulps.
His subconscious twitched again, and it twisted in reaction, pulling in on itself, only to scatter like dust.
