A Search for Death (A Shade of Vampire #73) - Bella Forrest Page 0,74
that sounded like, “Revellis,” but maybe I’d heard it wrong. He managed to touch Herbert—a mere slap on the shoulder—before Herbert dodged and moved away, the adrenaline pushing him to glide even faster. Whatever that word was, it had an unexpected effect. It made Herbert visible again.
What the hell? I thought, gripped by shock and fear.
It’s a trick he’s picked up from an ancient swamp witch. I’ll tell you about it when we get to safety, Herbert managed. He cursed under his breath and sped up. They were gaining on us, and they could see us now. This was some potent magic, to mess with a ghoul’s subtle form like that! I wondered if Ibrahim or Corrine or any of the other GASP witches were aware of it—from what I’d picked up, it was ancient, and I had not heard of it before.
Herbert dashed over the field and snuck through a cluster of stony hills. I could hear the ghouls’ steps just forty yards back—tap, tap, tap, tap. They were fast, and they seemed to be toying with us. They laughed as they directed each other to spread out.
The hills rose higher around us, then dropped, almost suddenly, and so did the ground level. It took Herbert by surprise. One of the original ghouls made it close enough to throw a leg out. It made Herbert trip—a downside to being stuck in his physical form. We fell and tumbled down into what looked like a steep ravine.
My field of vision changed rapidly—ground, stones, sky, then ground, stones, and sky again, over and over, until we came to a painful halt. Herbert grunted from the pain. His bony knees were scraped. His ankle was swelling rapidly. And the ghouls were getting closer.
I was helpless inside him. I didn’t have my abilities. I couldn’t use Telluris to reach out for help. My worthlessness was close to throwing me into a full state of panic, until I noticed a narrow crevice not far from us. “Herbert, look to your left,” I whispered.
He did and saw it. I could feel his hope blossoming, his dark blood pumping as he pulled himself up. He made a run for it, and Kill missed us with his claws by mere inches. The others came in from the sides and moved in on us. But Herbert bolted and slipped through the crevice.
He didn’t stop, snaking between the few inches of space we had, his shoulders occasionally scratching the rough stone walls. Oh, I miss my subtle form already, I heard him grumble internally.
When will you get it back? I asked.
A few minutes, maybe. It’s a short-term spell, but these few minutes might be the end for us right now.
The darkness swallowed us, and all I was left with was my hearing—the incessant scraping and tapping of original ghouls’ feet and claws as they climbed through the crevice to catch us.
Light burst ahead, and I prayed to all the gods that we’d survive this. Images of Caspian and my parents and my siblings flashed before me as the light grew bigger. We got out of the crevice and bolted to the right, higher up the ridge that stretched in front of us now.
“I need a higher altitude,” Herbert said, panting. “I can’t just jump from here, as malleable as space is for me.”
I understood that. He needed a certain velocity with which to pierce through the many holes in space he’d told me about. And that wasn’t helping, given that the ghouls were hungrily chasing after us. Herbert glanced back for a moment and spotted them—mere ripples through the air, invisible, as they were on the hunt.
“You’re not getting out of here with that soul,” Kill said from somewhere in front of us.
It brought Herbert to a sudden and dusty halt. The air shimmered lightly about ten yards up the ridge. Kill lunged at us, and Herbert’s body was paralyzed. He was no match for these original ghouls, and we were in so… much… trouble…
A distant bang made Kill stop just as he revealed himself to us, his long black claws out and ready to slice Herbert in half. It was quickly followed by a fireball—it came down and swallowed Kill whole. The ghoul screamed in agony and managed to scramble away from it. The fireball grew larger, the flames licking at the sky.
It was enough to scare the others back, as well. Herbert and I were equally confused, until a familiar voice beamed from the blazing manifestation. “Harper,