Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy 1)

A wall between them fell. Jared saw what she had been concealing from him, what explained the urgency she had been feeling and why she had been forced to interrogate Lillian through him.

Rob’s not here, she told him. I turned around and he was gone. I don’t know where he is.

Kami was alone in the woods. Of course, she told herself firmly, that was a great deal better than being in the woods with the man who might have killed Nicola. This was absolutely fine, in fact.

A rustle to her left made her spin around, and she saw a bird burst from the trees in a flurry of wings. Her heart felt as if it was trying to copy the bird. Kami pressed a hand to her chest and told herself to calm down. She could feel Jared coming, Holly and Lillian with him.

Kami reminded herself that she was a source and could send shadows away on her own. But just because she could do it by herself did not mean she wanted to be by herself. She saw light sifting and sparkling through the autumn leaves, and thought of Nicola Prendergast’s eyes, staring blindly up at a different sky.

A crack of wood made Kami spin again, waves of heat and cold breaking over her. Sweat prickled at her temples. Leaves played in the wind over her head, mocking her in soft whispers. She did not know where the magical threat might be coming from. The only thing being a source did for her was let her know it was near.

Panicking would not help. What might help, Kami thought, laying out her thoughts in a logical process, was finding a weapon. She knelt down amid the dry leaves and the snake-coils of tree roots and reached for a fallen branch. Her fingers did not get the chance to close on it, as someone grabbed her hair, pulling her head back.

She felt the sharp, shocking cold of a knife edge along her throat.

Kami gasped and tried to bite the gasp back. Suddenly nothing seemed as important as being terribly still.

The scrape of the blade against her skin felt hungry. The voice scraping in her ear sounded hungry too. “Not so brave now, source.”

Kami’s breathing was as shallow as she could make it. All she could see was the canopy of leaves. All she could feel was the touch of that knife. She reached out desperately for Jared, but she could only feel his stark fear for her. Rob Lynburn’s breath was hot against her cheek, a Lynburn knife cold against her neck, and if she did not control her own terror and Jared’s as well, she was going to die.

“Don’t even think of trying any magic, or I’ll cut your throat,” Rob instructed, and illustrated the point: she felt the knife slice in.

For a moment, all she felt was shock and a flare of heat, and then the pain came. She couldn’t move. She felt the burning sensation of blood, blotting out the chill of the knife, running down her skin. She felt Rob’s chest rumble against her back with a laugh and knew that her blood was giving him power.

Kami focused on a point directly above her head, on amber-colored leaves like gold lace in the sky. She disobeyed the madman with the knife to her throat and used magic. Above them, leaves rustled, clouds chased each other through the sky, and boughs creaked as if they might break and come tumbling down on both their heads.

Kami felt the jerk of Rob’s body as he looked upward, and felt him go slightly off-balance. Then she acted, because all the magic had been was a diversion. Kami reached up and seized his arm, digging her nails hard into a pressure point. She leaned into him, using her body and his weight to flip him over her shoulder and into the leaves.

A handful of her hair went with him, ripped out of her scalp. The pain made her vision blur, but she didn’t hesitate. She scrambled to her feet, lurching. Rob grabbed for her leg but she evaded his grasp and ran.

We’re coming. Jared urged her to keep running, pouring encouragement into her veins as she blundered through the woods. She had to find a safe place until they were here. She had to hide. Kami dashed toward the sound of the river. Twigs grabbed at her clothes and stabbed at her eyes. The woods were turning against her, doing the sorcerer’s will, fueled by her own blood.

Kami struck back in her mind, all of Jared’s rage behind hers. She heard Rob Lynburn cry out. It bought Kami time to reach the quarry and climb down, shoving her feet into the hollows and handholds she knew from childhood. Even this playground had been tainted.

At the bottom of the quarry was Angela.

She lay under a morning-bright blue sky, the tree above her dropping autumn leaves in shining drifts, like a shower of coins every time the breeze changed. Her hair was spread in a black pool on the stone around her, and her face was very pale. She was wrapped from head to foot in iron chains.

Kami ran toward her, and Angela opened her eyes.

“Angela,” Kami gasped out, fear and love closing up her throat so she could barely breathe. “Don’t worry. I’ll help you.”

“Don’t,” said Angela.

Kami stared. “What?”

“Don’t help her,” said another voice.

Kami turned to see who was in the quarry with them.

Ash sat with his legs drawn up to his chest, hands hanging empty between his knees, and his eyes wide and staring, fixed on Angela and not blinking. He looked as if he was in the grip

of a nightmare. He also looked resigned: his face as set as it was gray, as if he had accepted he was not going to wake up.

“What are you doing here?” Kami asked very quietly. She didn’t want to hear it; she didn’t want to believe it.

Ash said, “I’m supposed to kill her.”