Wicked Deal (Shadow Guild: The Rebel 2)

stopped abruptly, and I slammed into her, grabbing her waist as she stumbled forward. “What is it?”

“This doesn’t go up.”

“Yes, it does.”

“It doesn’t.” She turned with a frown. “I can feel it. We need to go down if we want to reach the roof.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve always had a great sense of direction. Eerily so. I’m right, I know it.”

“Let’s go, then.”

Side by side, we raced along the wide stairwell.

The stairs shifted and headed up instead of down.

“Sorcerers.” I shook my head. “Tricky bastards.”

We sprinted up flight after flight, passing several other hallways on different levels. Two of them were empty, but the third…

We passed it, and a surge of magic prickled the air. I turned back as a sorcerer lunged out of the hallway behind us. Cloak whipping in the darkness, he raised a hand that gleamed with sparkling green and gold magic.

My heartbeat thundered. This was a killing blow, a deadly variety of sorcerer magic impossible to mistake and one powerful enough to kill even me.

The sorcerer hurled it at us with an evil sneer.

The green vortex of magic expanded, filling the stairwell. I threw myself in front of Carrow, blocking her from the assault.

The magic plowed into me, blinding me. Agony exploded throughout my body, sending my organs into a meat grinder.

I stumbled and collapsed on the stairs.

Carrow

Green magic exploded around us, and I staggered and went to my knees. Behind me, the Devil cried out in pain.

I scrambled to my feet and spotted him below me on the stairs. He was unconscious. He’d taken that blow to protect me.

Dead?

Fear spiked.

The sorcerer raised his hand again, a vengeful gleam in his eyes. The magic that sparked around his palm was faint. Was he recharging?

I didn’t know much about magic, but I prayed that was true. I couldn’t survive the kind of blast that had hit the Devil.

I rushed the sorcerer, leaping over the Devil and hurtling down the stairs like a train. As I plowed into him, he crashed onto his back, breaking my fall with his body. Struggling to rise, he struck me with his palm, and pain blossomed as his magic slammed into me. My vision blackened, and my organs trembled in shock.

Blindly, I raised my fist and punched him on the chin. His head snapped to the side, and I blinked, my vision returning. I’d taken a partially charged blast, and it had almost wiped me out.

If he fully recharged, I’d be dead.

The sorcerer beneath me seemed dazed. I hit him again and he slumped, unconscious.

Heart pounding, I scrambled off him and up the stairs, crouching by the Devil’s prone form. I gripped his big shoulders and shook them. “Wake up, Grey! Wake up!”

His eyes fluttered open, though his gaze seemed blurred. “You called me Grey.”