A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,73

it up, given what was at stake. He knew he had to protect us. He had to keep Veliko and Zoltan and everybody else away while I got Seeley out of his binds.

“I… How… Wait,” Seeley replied, closing his eyes for a moment. He had known this moment would eventually come, and he had still been caught off guard. “Okay. Say Aloquian Mavris, three times, and cut each of the symbols engraved in my collar. Three times, Nethi, then cut.”

“I have to do it with every symbol?!” I croaked, briefly counting every rune etched into his iron collar. “There’s about twenty of them!”

“No one said this would be easy,” Seeley snapped. “Hurry!”

Veliko was the first to reach us, emerging from behind one of the marble monoliths. Again, he pointed his scythe at me, and it was starting to get really annoying. “You’re in so much trouble, witch!”

“Screw you,” I replied, then focused on Seeley’s collar. “Aloquian Mavris,” I whispered three times, then scratched one of the symbols. I said it three more times and scratched another. I kept going, watching how the symbols lit up white as I cut through them. It had to be working, I thought. Otherwise there wouldn’t have been a single light flaring.

“No, you don’t!” Veliko spat and came at me, but Rudolph jumped in.

Careful not to get himself cut with the Darkling lieutenant’s scythe, the ghoul snapped and scratched at whatever he could grab on Veliko’s body, proving himself significantly more agile than the Aeternae. He made himself disappear between attacks, too, for good measure. With a broken rune chain, Rudolph was less limited.

However, he still had the collar.

While I continued working on the runes, Veliko muttered a spell and forced Rudolph to reveal himself. He brought his scythe down and cut through the ghoul’s shoulder, causing ashes to puff outward, gray and shimmering in the faded daylight.

“Aloquian Mavris,” I said again, scratching out another rune.

“You’re doing amazingly well,” Seeley encouraged me, his gaze occasionally following Rudolph and Veliko.

Zoltan joined the party, casting an invisible pulse that knocked Rudolph down. The Scholar then vanished and reappeared right next to Rudolph, putting his foot down on the ghoul’s collar. The entrapment runes lit up red as Zoltan applied pressure, making Rudolph scream in agony. Whatever he was doing to him, it worked. It kept Rudolph down, forcing him to obey.

Veliko shifted his focus to me. I was only three Aloquian Mavris’s away from freeing Seeley, but I had to stop.

“Cut her!” Zoltan shouted. More Darklings and black guards gathered around us, forming a tight and compact circle. The ghouls had been brought over, the symbols on their collars glowing red, pushing them into submission. If they’d helped us before, they were no longer useful. The Darklings still had a magic hold on them, and Zoltan had clearly done something to force their obedience.

Veliko’s blade missed me by inches. I jumped away and brought my scythe up, trying to find the right attack angle.

“Be careful. The scythe will kill you if she hits a vital point,” Zoltan warned him.

Veliko scoffed. “I know!”

He came at me again, and I dodged multiple attacks. Whenever he lunged forward, I slipped to the side, swerving around and looking for an entry point.

“The liver!” Seeley shouted.

Veliko was halfway through another lunge, when I dropped, then jumped and brought the scythe upward with me. The blade cut through his side, causing blood to spray out. Veliko cried out in pain and landed on his knee. He couldn’t get himself back up.

Zoltan whispered another pulse spell, but I got out of the way. With only seconds left on the clock, I rushed back to Seeley. “Aloquian Mavris!” I said quickly, and scratched the last of the collar runes.

The iron band snapped off, energy buzzing outward like loose lightning.

Seeley was finally free.

“No!” Zoltan managed, his eyes bulging, rage making the veins on his temples pop and tick angrily. “NO! No! Dammit!”

“Your fault,” Veliko grumbled, still down and pressing a hand on his wound, blood trickling between his fingers. It would take a long time to heal, I realized. This was a Reaper’s blade that had touched him, not run-of-the-mill steel.

“Shut the hell up!” Zoltan hissed, then looked at Seeley, who now had my scythe in his hands. It was a loaner, sure, but it could still be used. It allowed him to keep me visible.

“It’s over,” Seeley replied, taking my hand in his.

For the first time in the longest days of my life, I felt