Her First Mistake

Chapter Thirty-Four: Wait, What?

    "Wait, what?" Tate blanched. "Didn't you just say you were going to go after her? I'm not saying that you're not insane, because you absolutely are, but what happened? If you seriously think you can go after Dani, here's your shot." 

   "I'm powerless in here," I snapped at him, frustrated. He'd practically just said that I had no chance at beating Dani. 

   "She is too."

   "No, she's not!" I pointed the knife at him, my expression dangerous. "My source is the magic barrier on the outside of the Ghost Realm's wall. My magic is cut off. Dani doesn't use the barrier -- she uses me."

   Tate comprehended what I meant, but he didn't seem to understand. "How could you know she's here?"

   "Because the first time she was preparing to use the link, it felt like I dunked my arm in a bucket of ice water. The only way she could be causing that same cold is if she has access, and that's only possible if she's in the Ghost Realm." I dragged the knife down at an angle, ripped it out, and jammed it back into the wood. "I've got one more line to carve before the staff is done and we can leave."

   Assuming I can even get us out of here. I started to carve the next line when the mark on my arm exploded into pain. A cry tore from my lips and my back arched, searing agony zapping down my nervous system. I couldn't see past the stars dancing behind my eyelids. 

   Someone was shouting. As soon as it had started, the pain halted. I stopped moving, sprawled on the mud. My chest was heaving from shouting. Tate was bent over me, his eyes wild. "Roxie?"

   "She's coming," I said hoarsely. My throat was raw. The memory of the pain had been nothing. I'd forgotten how agonizing it was when she drew on the link. Wiping some blood from my lip, I looked at the mark on my arm. It had expanded about a quarter of an inch towards my elbow. It was now about four inches across.

   Dani had tapped into the link for a very brief spell. If she was anywhere nearby, she would have heard me yelling. I didn't know of any spells that acted as a locator, but I didn't trust my own knowledge. Dani was breaking magic law. There was no way to know if she had any way of pinpointing my exact location.

   Shaky fingers grabbed the knife and I jabbed it back into the branch. Tate got to his feet, grunting at the evident pain in his side. "I'm going scouting. If I don't come back in five minutes, leave without me." I started protesting, but he was already jogging to the trees. I was amazed he wasn't glued to me. Clearly, he trusted me to not leave without him. I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

   I focused on the staff, working the knife in the right pattern. It was going to be the sloppiest staff in existence, but it was my ticket out of here. Even though I was determined to kill Dani, I knew this was not the time. After that bout of pain, I was more scared than I wanted to admit.

   I shouted in triumph as I tore the knife from the staff. "I'm done!" The rune was sloppy as hell, but it was the personalization rune: the one Alexie had taught me that allowed only me to be able to use this staff to its full power. It was something like a crooked tic-tac-toe board with a few other stray lines.

   Tate scrambled out of the trees. He cleared the shifter's body with ease, his face pale. "She's not even a mile away. I can hear her gait. She was taunting me."

   I stood up hastily, staff in hand, and realized something was wrong. Tate saw my face. "What's wrong?!"

   "It's not working!" I examined the rune, alarmed. I felt no connection -- nothing to suggest I was holding it. "The rune's right, but I don't know what's wrong!"

   Tate opened his mouth when I felt a sting of pain up my arm. At the exact time, a tree tore from the ground and flew across the sky. I was frozen momentarily, trying to blink past the aching in my arm, but Tate acted. He crashed into my side and we went falling into the mud. The tree landed where we had stood, the branches covering my legs. It collapsed with a crash. 

   There were clinks of diamond and the sapphire crythal burst from the trees. Tate got up and helped me stand as I watched, stunned, as the woman appeared through the shadows. The crythal launched forward with his claws extended. The woman flicked two fingers. A jab of pain shot through my right side. I hissed. A grey wave materialized from thin air and batted the sapphire aside like he was a fly.

   He hit the ground and rolled back up, his ears flat as he snarled angrily. His hindquarters bunched. Another jump made Dani roll her eyes. She lifted her hand and the crythal was trapped in a storm-cloud. It condensed around him in an instant, dark grey swirling dangerously. He writhed and I shouted as he was launched straight upwards. It was an agonizing few seconds before he came back into sight, plummeting through the sky. Dani snapped her fingers. A spear shot down at the crythal and as he hit the ground, piercing him in his spine.

   Diamonds exploded outwards. My hand covered my mouth automatically. Dani shook her head at the remains of the crythal, almost annoyed. She'd made killing him look easy. I was simultaneously horrified and outraged. That had been my friend. My fists clenched. He'd died defending me. That was the second person. 

   "I thought those were supposed to be smart," remarked Dani casually, as if she hadn't just murdered a sentient being. "Anyway." She wiggled her fingers in a wave. "You're not looking too good, Reilly."

   My nails dug into my palms. Dani smiled. "How'd you like that little taste of pain? I know it hurt when I did it for the first time. I could hear your screams."

   Tate's hand around my bicep was getting painful. I could see a vein on his forehead getting larger. I wasn't the only person furious with Dani, obviously.

   But Dani was right. That pain had effectively scared the crap out of me. I couldn't fight her here. I'd lose. Dani seemed to sense that I knew I couldn't win. She took a step forward. I glanced at the rune. The only warning I had that Dani had moved was the lightning that zapped up my arm. I jumped automatically, my fist clenching, and the knife whizzed past my eye. I stumbled to the side.

   There was a prick on the side of my head and blood leaked down my temple. Some of my blood spattered onto the staff's rune, and the moment it did, it was as if someone had flipped a switch. Crimson magic seeped from the rune and I felt a tiny crack appear in my mental door -- the one that the Ghost Realm had sealed shut.

   The rune had activated. I looked up, realizing that it had been my blood. Dani paused, her eyes narrowing. I suddenly grinned. "You just saved my life, Dani. Thanks." Tate understood what I meant and his hand gripped my bicep tighter. I reached forward toward the barrier, lunging for the wall, and my consciousness hit it hard.

   I lashed out. Scarlet sparked around my hands. Dani narrowed her eyes and I felt pain prick up my arm just as the wall cracked. I grabbed the first swirl of the barrier's magic that seeped through and used it to further break my way through. A plethora of spikes aimed for us soared, and the second I was afraid I'd just screwed myself, my feet left the ground and the Ghost Realm vanished.