Page 25 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody
It doesn’t matter. That eyeball is just a monitor, a way for its user to see us.
He’s a sorcerer, Svenn.I want to tell him.
We need to get away from this place before he uses another spell. But my husband just stands there in the dark, staring at the giant eyeball.
What is he doing?
My stomach flips. I hope he’s not considering the sorcerer’s vile promise.
Make me human.
I know I’ve taken too long to fulfill my promise to Svenn. Perhaps, he got tired of waiting for me.
The world slows to a stop when Svenn slams his fist into the eye vortex. Smoke and vapors rise from the contact.
“What the hell are you doing?” the sorcerer’s scream echoes in the walls, scratching my ears.
Scarlet energy surrounds the vampire as he keeps his hand buried inside the eyeball. The maelstrom of power is palpable, I feel the tremor deep in my bones.
“Unhand me! Let go!” That shrilling sound of that voice sounds closer now. It’s almost like we’re in the same chamber.
By the gods…
He’s trying to pull the sorcerer out from the eyeball. But—but it’s impossible…
A loud ripping sound shreds through the air, like the tearing of a fabric… Svenn is tearing the fabric of the realm itself. I cover my ears from the loud noise.
Svenn’s impassive expression does not change. His eyes remain unfeeling despite the violence he unleashed. The tunnel shakes under the force of his calm wrath.
“Please, please…” The proud voice from the eyeball starts pleading. “Here me out—”
“I will not,” Svenn grits out. “Pray to whoever you do and die.”
The force of his power turns volcanic, seismic. Pebbles from the ceiling rain to the ground. This passage will collapse on us before Svenn can pull the sorcerer’s entire body out. I cradle Shade’s head in my lap, doing my best to protect him from the crumbling walls around us.
The sewer lights up with a flash of blinding light, brighter than my lamp crystal.
“No! You can’t do this!” Hands flail from the lens, desperately trying to push Svenn from dragging him out. It’s the last thing I see before the glare from the energy becomes too unbearable for my eyes.
“Svenn…” I murmur. My heart thunders in fright as the earth trembles beneath my feet.
The quaking gradually ceases. I open my eyes, squinting at the buzzing energy still whipping the tunnel.
A huge crater had replaced over what had once been the giant eyeball. I find Svenn standing with a remnant of half of the sorcerer’s body in his grip. A spike of fear goes through me at the sight of this person, the Shadow Fae—face charred, limbs torn, vessels shedding blood from a still pumping heart.
Svenn plucks the beating heart, smashes it, and tosses it aside like garbage.
Heavens above…
He closes the distance between us once again.
“Are you hurt, Nel?” he asks softly.
I shake my head.
“What were you thinking?” His voice suddenly turns rough, chilling.
Before I can answer him, Shade suffers through a bout of coughs in my lap.
