Page 101 of Wings of Snow
More and more magic was pulled from me, the strength and feel of the spell holding me in its embrace, like a powerful hand had wrapped around me, caging me in until I couldn’t move, couldn’t think.
We were all vessels, all empty beings holding the magic the spell demanded, and it tookeverythingfrom us.
The words the Fire Wolf chanted grew stronger and more forceful. Energy strummed around him, the parchment in front of him lifting and hovering midair.
His channeled portal burrowed even deeper until it came to a twist of black webs and oily strands buried deep within the land. My eyes widened when the congealed mass slowly began to lift, like a sea creature’s writhing tentacles rising from the depths of the abyss.
Minutes passed as my magic grew more drained. Sweat poured down the hunter’s face, and I could only guess he was giving just as much of his magic as we were.
Slowly, the black web of coiled strands and never-ending darkness began to surface. It was so black that it was as if I stared into Lucifer’s soul.
I instinctively recoiled when the heart of the warlock’s netting rose in the tunnel created by the lava rock, and then was fully revealed. The rest of the ground bulged around it but held, only the heart exposed. Its web-like structure fanned out, stretching into the soil and traveling to who knew how far on our continent. The webbed netting crackled and writhed, as though it were a living creature, and all I could think about was how many lives had been taken to form it and fuel it.
Fire glowed in the Fire Wolf’s eyes as he beheld the warlock’s terrible power. His hands trembled from exertion, and his shoulders tensed as veins in his biceps bulged.
He reached for the ax, the power from the weapon causing a ripple of magic to pulse around us. With the ax gripped between both palms and the yellow crystal hovering over the veil’s heart as our magic was channeled into holding it, the hunter lifted the obsidian blade. It gleamed in the sun, like a thousand black stars were encased within it, and then with a blurred swing through the air, the ax fell right on the heart of the web as the Fire Wolf roared the final words of the spell.
Ahugecrack cleaved the writhing heart in two, and then a shockwave of magic burst through our circle.
Wind like a hurricane whipped my hair behind me.
My body flew back, only the strength of the prince’s and his guards’ grips holding us together.
The very air from my lungs ripped out of me, and my heart throbbed in my chest as blood pounded through my veins.
The magical dome from my air affinity shattered as though a hundred knives had torn through it.
Winter wind abruptly raged around us in the same second that the thousands of writhing black veins extending from the veil’s heart obliterated.
Hundreds of pieces of black netting that had slithered through the soil disintegrated as though they’d never been.
The force of the warlock’s magic breaking was as powerful as the release of that ax’s might. It rippled through the land, the soil undulating beneath my toes as the putrid black strands disappeared.
For as far as I could see through the raging storm, the magic from the spell echoed, and then the huge tunnel before us re-filled, black and moist soil taking its place, the ugly gray dirt gone.
My life-giving affinity surged, sensing the shift in our land.
A second passed before I could suck in a breath of air. Norivun’s hand had clamped down on mine so tightly that my bones shifted.
All of us still stood in the circle, death grips on one another as my eyes drooped, and my magic felt as if it’d run dry.
A burning sensation came on my wrist, and with wild eyes, I lifted my sleeve. The single petal that the bargain had burned into my skin glowed and then vanished. I shot a look toward my mate. The same happened on him. The broken heart burned and then was gone as was his bargain with the hunter.
Our bargains were complete.
“We did it,” I whispered.
The crown prince gave me a tired smile, satisfaction gleaming in his gaze.
The hunter panted, that wild, fiery look still on his face, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say that he’d just enjoyed that epic display of power. Standing slowly, the hunter lowered the ax as his chest lifted rapidly with each breath.
He gave all of us a cocky grin. “Thank you. I think that did the trick.”
He snatched the hovering yellow crystal from midair and whispered a few more words. In a blink, the pull on my affinities stopped.
Still reeling that our bargain had been completed, I hunched over. Nish and Haxil did the same, both sucking in breaths of air.
“Blessed Mother!” Nish proclaimed as he gulped. “I’ve never in all of my life ever?—”