Through the Ether (Force of Nature Book 5) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,32

trouble we’d faced the first time we’d returned from Faerie, when the secret passageway’s walls had crumbled and forced us out, this wasn’t a structural matter.

Structural problems didn’t screech like a banshee caught in a trap.

“What is it?” Jase shouted from the back, his voice barely audible above the din.

I grabbed Knox’s hand and prayed that whatever connection I had to Faerie or Etherian would grant me a shred of my power. “Light the way,” I said softly, begging my magic to oblige.

A tiny orb of light grew in my hand, though it flickered like a bulb on the brink of burning out. With a silent prayer, I threw it at the low ceiling. Like iridescent roots, it spread through the cracks and crevices, creating track lighting of a sort—like the kind leading the way toward an emergency exit, which was precisely what we needed. But with that light came the realization of what hunted us.

A terrible wall of darkness scaled the ceiling, sucking up my light as it grew nearer; an inky wall with bright red eyes and long sharp teeth that seemed to glow of their own accord. Teeth that could shred through flesh without resistance.

“You’d better run, bastard princess,” Etherian said with a laugh. “Or show me all of this power you hold—power you boast can kill the royals.”

“What the fuck is that?” Kat cried from behind me.

Then the press of bodies ceased, each of them stopping to face the beast stalking us from above.

“Nothing good,” Brunton replied.

I heard blades unsheathe, claws spring forth, and the collective growl of the wolves fill the corridor. Jagger pushed himself in front of me to join them—to keep me safe, as though he’d forgotten who and what I was. But why wouldn’t he? I’d all but forgotten in that moment, too, the memories of the king’s land having rendered me all but useless before.

But we weren’t in the king’s land. Or the queen’s. We were in a rogue part of Faerie cunning enough to spare a being that had been betrayed by the king and turn him into a weapon. That was energy I could understand.

Energy I could call.

“Hear me,” I muttered as I pressed my palm flat against the wall. “Hear my call, being of the darkness. Come to me…obey me.”

A prickle of magic coursed through the stone into my arm, and I gasped at the feel of it. It was unlike anything I’d ever felt before, rooted in anger and anguish and a bottomless need for vengeance; one that might never be sated.

I looked up to find those red eyes staring at me as though its head were cocked.

“Leave,” I told it while the others looked on, poised to act at the drop of a hat. The red eyes blinked twice before the creature scrambled closer, ignoring my warning. Blades sparked as they sliced through what looked to be a leathery hide, then scraped along the wall. There was no blood, no gore—no nothing. Their weapons had passed right through it, as though it were made of nothing. For a moment, I wondered if it was an illusion created to test how easily I would scare.

But then the would-be illusion snatched Kat up by her hair, lightning fast, and held her face next to its monstrous teeth as the ceiling grew higher, pulling her out of reach. Its jaw hinged open wide, and fear shot through me as she scrambled to get away—tried to fight it off. But just as the blades had, her hands went right through it. Bright blue eyes full of terror met mine, and I could see the resignation on her face.

“Let her go!” I screamed. A blast of air shot through the corridor, knocking us down—and Kat from the creature’s grasp. She fell on Knox’s boys, and Grizz scooped her up and wrapped his arms around her as though they were all the protection she’d ever need.

The creature shrieked again, then dove for me, red eyes blazing in the dim light of the tunnel. I lifted my palm to thwart it, and blue fire shot upward. Its dark, shadowy form dispersed for a moment, then solidified again on the ceiling behind me.

“You can’t kill it,” Knox said, frustration tainting his tone.

“Maybe not,” I replied as I pushed past the others to get closer, “but maybe I don’t have to.”

The creature cocked its head as I approached, and I let my anger rise like a wild and feral thing, pulling that vengeful magic from