Her heart accelerated. Pounded. Threatened to burst through her chest. There was no time to waste. He was coming. She knew it was Barnabas. She felt his power as she’d never felt it before. She’d had glimpses of it, but she’d been too cowed by him, too humiliated, to recognize anything but his cruelty.
Deliberately, she brought her wrist to her mouth, allowed her teeth to lengthen and tore a larger hole in her own flesh. Blood poured over the spine, so much that for a moment it scared her, but the terror of Barnabas coming anywhere near her again overcame the sight of her blood consuming the spine of the book. Now, there was only the wood to get off her and the book would be done with.
I can’t become vapor and he’s coming. He’s coming, Isai.
She needed him. Isai. Her savior. Her talisman. She needed him to get to her before Barnabas. She knew there was utter panic in her voice, that chaos reigned in her mind, and that her body was trying to shut down on her. Her legs and arms tingled, pins and needles striking throughout. Her lungs refused to work, desperate for air. Her head spun. She felt so faint she knew she would crash to the ground if she didn’t sit, but it was as if she’d forgotten how to move.
He’s coming now. Can you feel him? She didn’t bother to try to keep the sob from her voice.
I am on my way to you, little mage. Isai’s voice was as always—calm, matter-of-fact. Peaceful even, as if he wasn’t fighting a terrible, impossible battle with the hounds from hell, or that one of the most dangerous mages wasn’t striding across the battlefield toward them right that moment.
You are as powerful as he is. Remember that. He has experience, but you are both high mage and Carpathian. The moment you are able, dissolve into vapor. He can do a lot of things, but that he cannot do. He will not be able to find you within the storm. Close off every wound. That is important. One drop of blood can give you away.
She took a deep steadying breath. Of course. She was letting herself panic when she’d known this moment would come. Barnabas. It was just that no one else saw him as she did. They thought she was terrified of him because of the things he’d done to her. She knew better. There were many moments when she’d caught glimpses past the cruel mage into something deeper, something far more sinister than even she could conceive. That was what shook her. He might have long surpassed his masters in his ability to weave and bind with magic.
She sank slowly into the bloodstained snow. The scorpion and snake were doing their best to remove the last of the roots that had driven through her hand and twined around her wrist. She would help them in a moment, but she was weak from loss of blood and that ever-present fear she couldn’t quite let go of. Isai had to come. He would. He said he would. He just had to get there before the dark mage did.
* * *
• • •
Isai fell back, making his retreat as unnoticeable as possible. He realized when he made any move to go back toward Julija, the hellhounds adjusted their positions in order to cut him off. This was no battle where the massive creatures were just flung at him or put in place to kill everything in their path. They didn’t go around him to get to Julija. These demonic creatures from hell were being directed with purpose.
There was a general on the battlefield and he was ensuring his soldiers did exactly as he wanted. Each strategic move was designed to keep him separated from Julija. As he turned to face the threat coming in from the south, a stampeding group of four, an extremely aggressive attack came from directly in front of him. The beast was on him just as he let loose three arrows at the ones coming in from the south. He felt the hot bite of the demon’s breath as the jaws just missed his leg and then he was on the ground, the last place any warrior wanted to be, not when hellhounds continued to multiply no matter how many he managed to kill.
He slashed open the hellhound’s belly, rolling to keep the burning intestines from reaching him. As