Boundary Born (Boundary Magic Book 3) - Melissa F. Olson Page 0,100
me. For five hundred years, I hoped to finish what I started. Imagine my surprise when I found her hiding with one of my own deathlings.”
His face brightened into a sudden crooked smile. It didn’t look right on him. “But you’re mistaken about one thing. I have no intention of killing you, not tonight. With your—what did you call it? Your grade-A uterus?” He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “You need to learn manners, little girl. I can put your body through unimaginable horrors. I will kill you, break you, and teach you to obey me. I have broken so many before. Your mother, for instance.”
“My mother escaped you,” I said through gritted teeth. “She gave up her life for me, in every way possible. And I bet you don’t even remember her name.”
He snarled and started forward again. I stepped backward. “Which is fine,” I went on, “because you don’t deserve to say it out loud.”
That was when I stumbled.
It was my own fault—I’d forgotten to pay attention to where I was going as I retreated. In the back of my mind, I’d figured I had acres and acres to run from him, and as long as I led him deeper into the Gardens rather than toward the exit, I would be able to keep him away from people. Sure, there were foot-deep ponds here and there across the property, but I could survive wet feet.
But the topography of the park included more than just ponds and buildings. My foot slipped over the edge of the walkway and onto soft grass. I regained my balance and glanced over my shoulder, but there were no lights behind me, not even the little solar torches. I stared into the darkness, and after only a few seconds my eyes adjusted. I realized we were at the brink of the Garden’s grass amphitheater: four slopes leading down to a big tiled base in the center, where they held outdoor concerts in the summer.
In the seconds it took me to recognize where I was, however, Lysander saw his opportunity. He blasted me with another wave of energy, sending me flying. And even as I was in the air, I knew how much the landing was going to hurt.
I was right. I hit the grass a quarter of the way down, but my body kept tumbling, rolling with a momentum I was helpless to stop. My right wrist snapped as I instinctively tried to catch myself, but at that point it was just one more pain added to many.
I fell forever, losing both firearms in the process, and when I finally caught my body on the hard tiles at the bottom, it wasn’t fast enough for me to keep my head from thunking on the ground.
I don’t think I blacked out, but I was too stunned to do anything but collapse on my stomach, the tiles cool on my cheek.
My mind lazily drifted to the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones is trying to find a spot that doesn’t hurt. Everything hurt. Even my elbows and lips. My wrist and the bump on my head screamed the loudest, but I was too dazed to really register it. So much pain. I was in awe of it.
But he’s coming for you, Sam’s voice insisted. Groaning and keeping my bad wrist in the air, I managed to roll onto my back, giving me a view of the top of the embankment. It was too dark to see anything but the stars, drifting down toward me. Wait, no, that wasn’t right. Stars don’t all fall at once. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, trying to jump-start my sluggish thoughts.
“You want to resist? To be a hero?” Lysander called down to me. He was in the same position at the top of the amphitheater. “Fine. Resist them.”
The glowing figures descending on me were not, in fact, stars. They were remnants. Hundreds of them. Thousands.
On a whim—and because it was the only thing I could do that didn’t involve movement—I dropped into my boundary mindset, where I saw life as sparks inside of people. To my surprise, the remnants looked more or less the same in the boundary mindset: smoky wisps of people. But when I was viewing them through a lens of magic, I saw them in greater detail. Each of them was swirling with black, just like the gray fox, and they were being driven toward me like