Battle Bond: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #2) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,104

elf again, his face handsome and pleasant. With all that lightning coursing across the chamber and into me, he should have been the ugly zit of an emperor from Return of the Jedi. All he was lacking was the maniacal cackle and the dramatic finger movements.

He stopped a few feet away, and the lightning paused, the chamber sinking into dimness. For a moment, the agony eased from extreme unrelenting pain to sharp throbbing pain. I was on my hands and knees, every muscle in my body quaking. Chopper was beneath me, but I couldn’t grip it, couldn’t rise, couldn’t do more than twitch my head to the side to glare up at Dob through spastically blinking eyelids.

Dob’s nose wrinkled. He flicked his fingers, and the gas disappeared from the air.

It was little relief. Dob was glaring at me, and I couldn’t move.

“You cut off my toe,” he said. “I’d kill you for that alone, you presumptuous mongrel excrement, but it will be even better, knowing your death will hurt that pompous scale-rotted dog.”

Was that Zav?

“This is the point,” I muttered, groping for something I could do to get out of this, “where it would be nice if my father showed up and threw you into a bottomless pit.”

He didn’t get the reference. Not surprising. I regained just enough control of my fingers to wrap them around Chopper’s hilt. Still on my hands and knees, I used my body to hide the movement.

On the far side of the chamber, the dwarf rose to a sitting position. I wished I could count on him to help, but he didn’t look strong enough to even stand up.

Coming, Sindari whispered into my mind as Dob turned his head toward the tunnel.

Careful. He’s ready for you.

Streaks of lightning shot down the tunnel. Dob’s focus was in that direction, his face turned away from me.

I leaped to my feet, wobbled, and gained my balance. I swung Chopper at Dob’s neck, hoping he was distracted enough.

But my blade halted, as if it had hit an iron wall, inches from his neck. His head turned slowly back toward me. He lifted a hand toward me. I tried to sprint for the door, telling myself I could come back for the dwarf if I could figure out a way to escape Dob. But power wrapped all around me, pinning me in place, one of my legs raised ridiculously in the air.

Dob smiled, a predatory smile that wasn’t appropriate on an elven face, and stepped close. I saw my death in his cold eyes.

Then he paused, looking toward the cement ceiling.

“He’s coming,” Dob murmured.

Zav? I started to feel a shred of hope, but Dob probably sensed him from ten miles away. I couldn’t feel him yet. Wherever he was, it would take him time to fly here, and Dob could kill me in a second.

Once again, I tried to move my muscles. It didn’t work. All I felt was the pain ricocheting through my body.

Wait, could the lock-pick charm work? It wasn’t exactly an enchantment that held me, but maybe…

“Unfortunately for him, he’ll find only your body when he arrives.” Dob’s gaze settled on me again.

I mentally willed the lock-pick charm to unlock this magical cage around me. It didn’t work. But it also hadn’t worked the first time I’d tried it on the dark-elf bonds.

Dob lifted a single finger, morphing his nail into a glistening sharp talon and leaning close to cut my throat. I threw all of my energy into that charm. With the mental roar of a tiger, I commanded it to open the cage.

Something snapped, echoing in my brain, and I had control of my limbs. Dob was only inches away. I whipped Chopper straight at his face.

He stumbled back, the blade sinking into his cheek. But he recovered and flung a wave of power at me before Chopper could take off his head. Once again, I was thrown back against the wall, my head cracking hard. What did it take to kill this bastard?

I waved Chopper defensively as Dob, bloody and furious, strode toward me. Blackness edged my vision.

A bang sounded from above, and the ceiling crashed down all around us. Huge blocks of cement fell, and I flung my arms up to protect my head. A slab of rock struck my shoulder, knocking me to my knees again.

Sindari surged into view as more and more debris rained down from above. A refrigerator slammed into the floor right next to Dob, and I gaped in