Midnight Truth (Shifter Island #4) - Leia Stone Page 0,91

cancel out all my powers.

Zia appeared beside me, but her expression of surprise turned to horror as she absorbed my predicament.

‘You need your body to pull that stone out,’ she said, shaking her head.

‘Is that the only way to get it out?’ I asked. Please say no.

She just looked aghast—which was the worst kind of answer.

What could I do?

And then Reyna’s words came back to me. Don’t hesitate…

But if I brought my body here and merged it with my spirit, Reyna would be the one to absorb this agony when it traveled through my shields. She might even die because of it. My awareness somehow found my body and bounced between my body and my soul, and I forced my body to look at Reyna. I had no idea how, but she turned to me—as if I’d called her name. I was clutching my stomach, agony on my face, and then she shifted into her wolf form and howled. Honor howled, and then Kaja too. She’d already shifted into her wolf, and now the three of them darted into the battle. Instinctively, I knew they were coming for my spirit.

If they arrived, they’d all be killed by the blood mages!

This was not how my plan was supposed to go!

I needed to put my body and soul together to get this dagger out, or … but I couldn’t even consider that.

Mother Mage…

Letting the beacon of my soul pull my physical body across the space, I crossed the rocks in human form, stumbling and clutching at my stomach, and let the two halves of myself merge.

I sat up with a gasp of pain, hands clutched around the hilt of the knife, ready to yank it out.

“Ah … here you are,” the queen said. She was a blur of action as she zoomed into my space and raked her claws over my face.

Pain sliced along my cheeks, and I screamed, but the agony evaporated as well as the wound as my shields absorbed it.

‘Nai!’ Rage’s voice came through our bond. ‘Where are you?’

‘Get the teams off the cliff!’ I shouted at him.

He shouted something back, but it didn’t register because, at the same time, I ripped the shard of celestite out of my stomach, and white-hot agony exploded in my mind. The pain disappeared once again, and then I lunged for the queen. She darted away, a mere blur of movement, appearing once more in front of me.

The realization hit me; I couldn’t outrun her, not without canceling her magic. I reached for the last of the bombs Jakko had made … but it was no longer tucked in the band at my waist. The carefully wrapped powder bomb now lay ruined in the mud where that damn celestite shard had pierced through!

Time for a new plan.

My mind raced, and my only thoughts were those of desperation.

‘Rage!’ I shouted into his mind. ‘Tell Carson to tear the cliff from the mountain, and let it go into the water. Now! Trust me!’

If Rage responded, I missed it as a vicious growl demanded my attention. I spotted Reyna closing in on the queen and Kalama. She snapped and lunged for the blood mage rulers, providing the distraction I needed to execute my cobbled-together plan B. I was pleased to see her wolf was still alive, though bleeding from the stomach and muzzle from my wounds.

Once more, I pictured a location for a portal. This one, I’d been to only a few times before, and I could only hope the owner wouldn’t mind. Much. I was out of options, and the queen and her daughter were going to be nearly impossible to kill and just as hard to contain. If we didn’t get them before they jumped off the ledge…

My spirit slid from my body, and I opened my eyes to find my spectral form standing next to the Adonis-like figure of the Keeper of the Dead.

“Nai?” He narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing here?”

In my physical form, I brought my hands together—and then buckled forward as something struck me from behind. My physical body was being attacked back on the cliff, and I could feel it in my spirit.

“I’m … going … to … open a … portal,” I told the Keeper.

He pursed his lips and then shook his head. “Well, you’d better hurry, or your physical body will be dead.”

I glanced at my hands, my spirit hands, and saw they were covered in blood. What the…? How? I looked further down, to my