Page 34 of Fate Unchained

Her hand tightened around his. “But what is it doing now? When I activated the tuthark to spring the cage, it disappeared afterward.” She thought back to everything she’d read about runes. What was this? “I don’t think this is a tuthark rune. I think it’s something else.” She gulped. “Something not too great.”

13

“All runes bind. Books, people, magic, all sorts of things.”

“Maybe skip the full lecture on runes until later, yeah?” Kyril said, scanning the symbols above them. Sulfur tinged the air. Not a good sign. Shades were the only creature from Peklo without an odor because they didn’t have a skin for the scent of the underworld to cling to. Yet from the moment the shade stepped into the cave, he’d scented sulfur. Faint, yes, but still there. “Just tell me what I need to know.”

She huffed. “It’s not a lecture, I’m telling you what’s important.” With her free hand, she pointed at the runes above them. “It’s five runes jumbled together, but look at the one in the center.”

The symbol in the center was larger than the others and resembled a bent, backward K. The other symbols seemed to crowd it, and it was bulging, as if struggling to get away.

“The rune in the middle is a power rune, and the other runes are bound to it. They’re … controlling it. We need to cleave the runes apart.”

“Right.” A flash of green lit up the cave, and ozone filled the air—the scent of magic battling magic. “How?”

When the shade first appeared, he’d thought she’d summoned it. That she’d caged him, then intended to kill him. But the scent of real fear plumed off her, and then she’d attacked the shade with the exact thing he’d needed to defeat it, and something shifted inside him.

They had fought as a team.

Her hand clutched at his more tightly. “I don’t know. I told you, I’m a novice.”

“You know runes. Think.”

“This is all about slashing things apart. That’s your thing.”

He bit back a smile. “We’re going to attack with words. Words are your thing.”

She stood a little straighter and nodded. “Do I remove one at a time …” She was quiet for a long moment. “No! It’s a trick, just like with unlocking the books.” She murmured under her breath, saying strange syllables he assumed were runes.

The runes overhead darkened. A blast of green lightning shot directly at Lilah. Kyril grabbed her and spun. The lightning hit his shoulder. He already had burns all over his chest and back from battling the shade, which stung, but he’d shaken them off. This felt like someone had poured molten fire on him. He snarled and scrambled as far back into the cave as possible.

“Lilah—” Another blast of lightning, but this time he was ready. He sprang forward, holding her tight against him. The lightning blasted past him. It hit the perimeter of their cage, and the golden dome lit up. A large crack shot through the cave, and the dome flickered. Streaks of white flared out from where the rune’s lightning hit the barrier of their cage, just like when a stone hit glass.

The cage was breaking.

“A rune is powerful enough to attack another rune,” he said. He sprang back to where he’d previously stood. “Good to know.”

Lilah’s hand glowed more intensely, and a faint pull, a whisper of cool air, floated across his skin. The pull of magic. “It’s a word! Cleverly jumbled and moving, so it’s hard to discover, but the runes all together spell out a word. I think if we say it, we control it.”

“Hold on, don’t destroy it yet,” he cautioned.

He moved closer to where the streaks along the dome of their cave still remained. This should be about the right place. The runes above him shot another blast of lightning. He waited until the last second, then twisted out of the way. It struck the dome of their cage exactly where it had hit before. This time, the dome shattered into a sea of golden sparks. “Attack now!”

One hand gripped his, and she raised the other. Wind blasted through the cave, dousing the fire until the only light was from the milky threads of dusk coming in from the skylight and Lilah.

Lilah spoke, “Crackle.” Or it sounded like the word crackle in the common tongue, but in a twisted, flat way.

Light shot from her hand and punched directly into the smaller runes. More wind whipped through the cave, and he staggered, holding them both upright. Magic pulled at him, sucking the warmth from his limbs.

The runes disintegrated, leaving only the larger rune still floating above them.

The wind died. The dark smog whisked up through the skylight and vanished. The rune in front of them was now a soft white. It bobbed a moment or two, then faded.

Lilah sagged against him. “We did it. And you destroyed the cage.” She turned to him. “That was clever.” She hugged him.

Her arm brushed over where the first lightning blast had hit him, and he flinched. Lilah jerked backward. “You’re burned and I’m hugging you.” She shook her head. “We need to take care of this right away.” She took his arm and rotated it, peering down at his skin.

“I’m a vulk. In an hour or two, I’ll be fine. Especially after the moons rise.” He wanted to add he’d rather have her stay in his arms, but he didn’t.

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