Wanted (book 2 of Wielder series)

Chapter 33 - A Wielder

Alie slipped.

   She wasn't even sure how it happened. One moment, her boots firmly gripped the throne room floor. The next, they swept out from under her. She fell hard, her knee striking the ground with a crack that vibrated all the way up to her hip.

   The strange blobs were upon her before she could even cry out. Dozens of them threw themselves upon her. Their talons dug into her side. Their teeth clamped down ravenously on her arms. They pulled her hair. They burned her skin. They tore the Ultimate from her grasp...

   Magic wasn't responding to her. She didn't realize until the Ultimate slipped through her fingers. Its magic was its own, guiding and directing her. But the magic in the air? That was all gone.

   Alie gritted her teeth and flailed. The pulling and biting made her skin feel like it was on fire. She couldn't think. She could barely breathe. She needed magic, even just a small amount to help her fill her lungs with air...

   "I'm trying!" Willy screamed in her mind. "I'm sorry. I think... I think while I'm taking magic from her, she's taking your magic from you."

   She heard the words, but could barely make sense of them. One of the Evil had buried its teeth in her shoulder, and the fiery pain burned deep within her blood. It was all consuming, as if it had shot venom through her veins.

   She wouldn't survive this. There were too many. They would eat her alive. They already were.

   A thin thread of magic brushed against her senses. She grabbed onto it, prepared to twist it into a light so bright it would incinerate every Evil in a two-mile radius. But as she pulled it toward her, she realized it had already taken form. It already was a shield. It just wasn't protecting her.

   It was protecting everyone else.

   Despite the pain, she hesitated.

   "Forget about the shield!" Willy cried. His voice was strained, like even he was barely holding on. "Let it go!"

   Alie couldn't. She couldn't fail her friends. She couldn't let innocent people suffer.

   She couldn't feel her legs.

   A wicked smile broke through the black mass of Evil, one painted in red lipstick and revealing perfect white teeth. Lady Zia's ruby eyes glowed with the light of her power. Her arm reached out and grabbed Alie by the throat, the one area the Evil had left surprisingly untouched.

   Alie couldn't do anything. Zia's power washed over her, overwhelming her even greater than the Evil already had. Willy was right; she could feel even that tiny thread of magic linked to the shield being sucked out from her where Zia's hand gripped her throat. In the span of a breath it was gone, and then Alie was left truly, utterly helpless.

   Zia squeezed her neck until she choked. Her grin grew wider. "Do you know how many times I have dreamed of this moment? How many nights I spent wishing I could watch you suffer for taking the life of my brother?" She chuckled, a wicked glee flashing in her eyes. "He was such a fool. Such a hopeless, romantic fool."

   Alie couldn't feel her hands. Her arms still burned with unquenchable fire, but her hands had turned numb and heavy. Her vision hazed over. Her lungs burned from lack of air.

   Still Zia's fingers squeezed tighter. They squeezed all of Alie's power from her, and then they began to squeeze the life from her, too.

   "I am going to enjoy watching you die," she said, her voice sweet and smooth as chocolate. "And perhaps, if I'm lucky, it will be just as enjoyable as when I killed my brother's wife."