Blood Pledged (Arcane Arts Academy #3) - Elena Lawson Page 0,99

as though it was seeping right into my bones, but it also served to strengthen my magical connection to the earth and I sighed at the smallrush I got.

When we hit the bottom, there was only one way to go: forward. And down the wide corridor, we could see the bluish glow of witch light and the flickering orange glow of torchlight against the gray rock walls.

It was as though a great beast had chewed its way through the mountain itself to make this place. The walls were left jagged and sharp, and the floor felt as though it was coated with a layer of thick slime—though really, I was sure it was just condensation.

“I can hear him,” Draven said, his voice grim. He pulled off his jacket and let it drop to the wet floor, revealing the two lines of small blades in an X on his chest that he’d had that night in Elk Falls. I remembered how he’d used them to break the UV lighting overhead. If he was good enough to hit that small of a target from that far away, I could be confident that he wouldn’t miss.

My heart began to race again, and my renewed magic coiled up through my feet, shooting out through my limbs. Warming me. Strengthening me.

I inhaled deeply, but the breath was broken. I still couldn’t believe that the asshole Sigils professor was the one to blame for all this. I hadn’t liked him from the first moment I saw him, but this? Wait until Granger found out. Did she hire him? Or had it been the council who placed him here?

Didn’t matter now, I supposed, since I was going to kill him.

A small amount of the contamination from the blood magic remained inside me. I could feel it intertwining with the natural energies in my core, forming something that was part dark and part light. I shivered in ecstasy at the potency of it, wishing I could release it back to the earth—get rid of the black marks the blood magic spell had left—but I had a feeling I would need it.

“Let me go first,” Elias said, not really asking, but telling.

I nodded. We would be right behind him.

I threw up a ward around us, and Elias nodded his thanks. I was starting to feel impressed by my ability to call the sigil so easily and to hold it around a group so large as we moved. A few weeks ago, I couldn’t even have dreamed of pulling something like this off. The amount of power and focus it took to maintain the ward was so difficult back then. Now it was almost second nature, and the enhancement of the blood magic only made it even easier.

We moved through the chamber like silent wraiths in the night, soundless save for the beating of our hearts and the hissing of air as it sawed in and out of our lungs.

The wide corridor-like section of the underground chamber was coming up on a wide circular space. That was where the light was emanating from. And if I listened very closely, I could hear the shuffling of papers and sense the presence of a formidable power pulsating and crackling in the surrounding atmosphere.

Bianca was right. Donovan must’ve been more powerful than he looked. The magical energy was so strong, even from this far away.

Worried, I stopped Elias, whispering as quietly as I could. “I think I should go first.”

He shook his head once, sharply, his gaze fixed and mind made up. It was a hard no.

Stubborn ass.

He stepped forward to cross the threshold into the larger space and his body stiffened as though he’d been shocked. The ripple of silvery magic interspersed with threads of green wavered in the mouth of the corridor. It was a ward, but not the kind that gave invisibility. Sloane told us about these kinds of wards—they were infused with strong magic to weaken, stun, or injure any who tried to pass through.

Elias’ breath caught in his throat in a strangled gasp and he dropped to the ground. I stuffed a fist in my mouth to stifle my scream and fell to the ground next to him. “Elias?” I hissed, feeling for a pulse, brushing his hair from his face so I could see if he was alright. His breathing was shallow, but he was breathing. And though his pulse stuttered, it beat strongly against his ribcage. I leaned my head down and pressed my forehead to