Page 39 of The Bound Blood
The wall is split wide, a bleeding crack in reality where creatures that haven’t been seen in centuries crawl free—mouths open too wide, limbs bending wrong, eyes glittering like obsidian stars. Councilors have already fled, robes abandoned in their rush to escape what they’ve caused.
And at the center of it all—her.
Lindsay stands like a flame refusing to be snuffed, magic pouring from her body like wildfire, runes spinning around her in an impossible language even I can’t fully translate. Her skin glows, her eyes too bright, too far gone. She’s burning from the inside out. Too much power. Too much pain.
She’s going to break.
I move.
In a blink, I’m in front of her, slamming a ward into place with both hands, casting a containment circle made of old magic—Veil magic. Mine. It snaps into place just as her knees buckle. I catch her before she hits the ground, her body limp and hot with residual magic.
“Lindsay,” I murmur, brushing hair from her face, my voice low and raw. “I’m sorry you had to do this alone.”
She doesn't respond. Her lashes flutter, and her magic still flares wildly under her skin.
The chamber door slams open behind me.
“Lindsay!” Raiden’s voice.
Nolan skids in beside him, both of them freezing at the sight.
Raiden shifts into his animal form halfway, claws glinting in the low light, chest heaving like he was running through fire to get here.
“She’s safe,” I say without looking up. “But barely.”
They step closer, careful of the magic still cracking in the air around us.
Nolan's voice is a whisper. “Is she?—”
“She’s alive.” I wrap my arms around her, grounding her with my body, my magic, my will, anything to keep her in one piece. I should have been with her, I should have ignored the ramblings of my old teacher. Regret is a bitter pill to swallow as my gaze goes up to the crack in reality. “But the Veil is damaged.”
We all look at the crack in the wall—creatures still crawling through, shadows stretching toward us. And for the first time ever, I feel fear settle in my bones.
The Veil is broken.
And Lindsay is the one who shattered it. There is no going back now.
She trembles in my arms. Her magic pulses once, twice—then begins to dim like a dying star. Still there. Still powerful. But spent.
She’s unconscious, her body pressed against my chest, her pulse fluttering too fast and shallow.
“She needs to be moved,” Nolan says quietly behind me. “We can’t let her stay here.”
“No,” I say, standing slowly, cradling her close, unable to release her. “The moment I lower the barrier, they’ll come straight for her.”
Because they canfeelher now.
Every creature that slipped through that crack—they know who woke them.
And they’re hungry.
A shriek splits the chamber, too many teeth flashing in the dark as the first of them lunges forward, skittering sideways like it’s not bound by the same rules of physics. Claws scrape the stone.
Raiden steps in front of me without hesitation.
He’s in half-shift, his body stretching, growing, that long tail lashing behind him. He roars—loud enough to shake the floor—and slams the first creature into the wall.
Another comes, and Nolan—gods help him—plants his feet and throws a glowing glyph straight into its face. It erupts in sparks, sending the thing skittering back with a howl.
