He grunted and fell back. Rage flashed across his face, and he grabbed my ankle and dragged me toward him. I kicked him wildly with my free leg, but he backhanded me so hard, I nearly passed out.
He climbed on top of me and squeezed my throat. Blood dripped down the side of his head. “If you don’t stop fighting, I’ll fucking kill you, no matter what the sorcerer needs.”
I’ll never stop fighting.
I slammed my palms into his chest “I said, get the fuck off me!”
Time seemed to stop. Ice water flowed through my body, starting from my fingertips and toes, then spreading up my legs and arms. It narrowed to a point in my chest, then exploded through my hands.
A scream tore from Billy’s throat as the force blasted into his chest and sent him flying back into a tree. Shadowy tendrils snaked around him, and he fought them off as he writhed.
My magic. I scrambled to my feet and looked down at my palms. How do I do that, again?
Billy crouched and growled, his eyes bright yellow. He was wolfing out, and I was pretty sure he was actually going to kill me.
I spun and sprinted along the ridge above the shoreline. The dark water lapped against the worn rocks below.
Billy’s feet pounded the earth behind me. I leapt over a mass of twisted tree roots, fear clawing at my chest. My breaths came in ragged bursts. I couldn’t outrun him—even with my boots, he was too fast.
I dipped under a low branch and glanced over my shoulder. His claws were out, and hair bristled over his arms. Billy had checked out, and there was only a monster left where the man had been.
Not good.
Up ahead, a small ravine cut through the ridge. Dread settled over me. The gap was at least ten feet across.
Could I make it?
Only one way to find out. I sent a silent prayer into the universe and launched myself over the ravine. Weightlessness took over as the dark expanse flashed by below. My feet hit the rocky ledge, and my boots absorbed the shock.
Holy crap!
But before I could celebrate, a solid force—no, a body—hit me from behind, expelling the breath from my lungs. Claws sank into my arms as my feet were knocked out from under me. We hit the ground hard, and a stabbing pain shot through my shoulder. I screamed as Billy and I rolled across the ground, entwined together. We came to a stop, his weight painfully pressing my back into a rock. I gasped as warmth seeped into the front of my shirt. Blood. Was it mine?
Fury flashed through me, and my mind slipped away as rage settled into the driver’s seat. A burning sensation pulsed under my fingernails, and pressure built under my ribs, like my chest was breaking in two.
I was having a heart attack. My poor heart had given out from the terror, and I was dying.
Not without a fight.
My adrenaline surged, and I punched Billy in the nose, feeling it crack against my knuckles. Blood dribbled from his nostrils, and the metallic smell filled my mind. He stared down at me. Horror and confusion streaked through his tawny eyes. “It can’t be.”
A white-hot anger I’d never known before burned through me.
Tear his throat out.
I grabbed the front of his shirt, and rammed my other fist into his chest. That cool energy from earlier returned, erupting through my fingers in a painful flurry. Billy let out a guttural sound as his body launched backwards like a rag doll and disappeared over the ledge.
My muscles spasmed, and I collapsed. Exhaustion weighed down on me.
Get up, Savy.
I shook my head but crawled over to the ledge and peered down. Water lapped against the rocks—water mixed with blood. I could smell it, though that made no sense at all.
I gripped a tree root and climbed down the steep, rocky slope. My boots slid on the dirt, and I landed on a limestone boulder. My heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my temples.
The moon’s reflection glinted on the dark water, and I scanned the shore and froze. A dark shape lay motionless at the lake’s edge, rocking gently in the waves, shielded from above by an overhang.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped closer.