Page 77 of Tethered Souls
I would save Rudy over any of the others. As much as logic would dictate he is at the bottom of this list, capable of protecting himself if he must and self-sacrificing, I can’t bring myself to leave him even in just my thoughts. So I must save him first so I can then concentrate without any distractions, so that hesitation leaves my body.
Then Maddox. He’s the craziest and smartest of us all, but he isn’t very strong physically or magically yet. He’d be least likely to survive a fight.
Then Khalid. Though he’s reaper and capable of holding his own, he is the only one I truly trust. Life without him would be too hard.
Then Krypto.
Enoch.
Leno.
Ezriel.
Talon.
Vinny.
Myers.
Mother. She would kill me herself if she wasn’t at the bottom of my list. Her children always come first.
So I have a list. One I’ve thought long and hard about so I can act without hesitation when the time comes.
Micha, obviously, isn’t on that list.
Sheshouldn’tbe on that list. I barely know her. Don’t even want to know her. I am willing to give her up if she can’t conceive. There’s a chance she’s only temporary, that within a year, her face is one I’ll never see again.
And yet…
My concentration keeps breaking with every inhale that is filled with the coppery scent of her blood, with the smell of her stomach ruptured, its acid seeping into the rug she’s lying on. I know there is nothing I can do for her. I am not a healer. And even if I was, I can’t turn my back on Myers, can’t leave my brother alone with him. Khalid might be a reaper, but he’s over a century younger than our uncle, and Myers taught him almost everything he knows. In a one-on-one fight, my little brother will die.
And yet… My eyes go to her.
A mistake that I pay for instantly as Myers launches a ball of red magic at my brother. Khalid throws up a blue shield to protect himself. I swing my attention back to our uncle just as his knife jabs in towards my face. I dodge but only barely, getting a cut that nearly takes out my eye. As it is, the blood is blinding.
His blade comes in again. Rapid strikes that I only just manage to avoid. I don’t have time to strike back at him, but I don’t need to. I just need to buy my brother time.
So when Myers starts to turn, aware that Khalid needs dealing with now that his magic is no longer pinning him down, I slash out at him, leaving my side open. It’s a small hole in my defense, minuscule, one most people wouldn’t even see. But Myers isn’t most people. He twists back to me, and his blade slides into my side.
I drop my own knife to wrap both hands around his wrist as pain buckles my knees. “Why?” I ask as his other hand comes up to blast me with a spell that will undoubtedly kill me.
“You’re an abomination,” Myers says as he strikes.
He didn’t stop to monologue, but that was all the reaper needed. That turn, that slight distraction as Myers focused on the weaker prey. Khalid has shifted into his shadow form behind him, a black mass that connects this world to the Plane of Monsters.
Just as Myers’ ball of red magic burns the hairs on the side of my head, I let both my knees buckle. He staggers off balance. I headbutt him in the stomach, then roll over the knife. It opens my side up more, but he expected me to go the other way, so threw his ball of magic in that direction.
He tumbles to the ground and spreads his arms just as Khalid races forward. Our uncle must sense my brother has changed, must know he is coming for him, because feathers shoot out of his skin. His left arm shrinks. His legs come up, merging with his body as his magic starts to change him into a crow. I draw a new knife and stagger towards him as he hits the ground. He claws himself forward in his half-shifted shape, using his arm that’s still human, his blade still in his hand. He’s not aiming for the open door or even away from me. He’s just trying to escape the black mass chasing him.
But he can’t.
My brother’s shadow form wraps around one of his scaly, twisted legs, and he screams. A mixture of human and crow, the sound chills my spine. But I don’t stop, don’t hesitate in my strides towards him.
Although not every Shadow is strong enough to hold the portal to the Plane of Monsters open long enough for the monsters to make their way to it, Khalid is. And now they are eating our uncle, sinking their teeth and claws into his flesh, using his body as a handle to pull themselves out of that pitch-black world and into this one. They can’t come all the way through, Khalid isn’t strong enough, but they can eat whatever is pressed against their cell door.
As our uncle shrieks in agony, I step through the black mass surrounding him without hesitation. I might be an abomination, but I’m still a Shadow by blood. The monsters will not grab me.
Just as I get close enough to skewer him though, Myers slashes his blade at my ankles, forcing me to jump back. Then he swings his arm low and severs his own leg above the knee. He drops his knife, that arm now shrinking back into the shape of a wing. I dart forward, drawing on my secret speed, but before his blade even hits the ground, Myers has transformed fully, not even missing a leg now given his much smaller shape.
