Page 3 of Black Hearted
Squaring her shoulders she peered up at me with a steely look of determination. “Okay, fine. Let’s go. But remember—”
“You have super scary powers, and you’ll kill me if I try to hurt you,” I finished for her, and she nodded.
“Yep.”
“I’m Zane,” I said, holding out my hand and dropping the lord from my title so as not to scare her even more.
“Nellie.” She shook my hand quickly.
“Shall we go?” I offered her my hand again, but this time to help her step up out of the closet. But she shook her head and climbed down herself.
She walked over to a cupboard, grabbed something that I couldn’t see, and then tucked it inside her clothes. It must have been small.
“You okay?” I asked.
She swallowed and looked around the room and although we really had to move on, she paused and said, “It’s just my nana’s favorite necklace. I want to keep it with me.”
I realized how hard this must be for her, leaving her home in fear of what might happen to her if she stayed.
“Okay, take a few more minutes if you need it.”
But then she shook her head.
“Okay, I’m ready,” she said. And with that, we left the house.
When we reached the porch, we both stood there, black liquid almost up to Nellie’s knees and my shins. Going to the railing, I glanced out over the edge of the cliff, where the oil poured over like a dark waterfall.
Nellie hooked her hands into the straps of her backpack. “How are we getting down?”
“You ever ridden piggyback?” I asked.
She made a sour face. “Not since I was five. And that was alongtime ago.”
I shrugged. “Well, how about just this once because I can’t think of another way?”
She didn’t look at all impressed with me but nodded, and I crouched down to make it easier for her. When she climbed onto my back, she pinched my ribs with her knees and hooked her arms around my neck.
“Hold on tight and close your eyes,” I told her. She did exactly that. Actually, she held on so tight that she squeezed my throat and restricted my breathing.
“Could you just release your grip a little bit?” I asked in a bit of a muffled voice.
“You just told me to hold on tight!” she huffed.
Phew, this was going to be hard work in more ways than one.
“Fine,” she said, but there was a wobble in her voice that betrayed her fear.
I hated that I didn’t know what was on the other side of this cliff. How far down did it go? How flooded was it at the bottom? I had no idea, but we couldn’t stay here, so what other choice did we have than to descend?
When I went to pull for my magic, it didn’t come at first. Fear knotted my chest, but before I could panic, a bolt of lightning grew from my palm, and the knot of dread loosened. I threaded the black lightning’s edges with shadows even as I grew it and then lassoed the large willow tree next to the cottage.
I took my time braiding the thick rope of magic so that it would hold our combined weight. I was more proficient with mylightning magic than I was with the shadows, so it had taken me a long time to figure out how to do this, but I was glad I’d had the patience to learn. This shadow-coated lightning rope was going to save both of our lives.
“Okay, don’t be afraid. I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” I said as I began to wade further into the deep, oily water.
“My nana said that right before she died,” Nellie sniffled in my ear.
“Did your nana have shadow powers?” I asked her as the current of the thick substance rushed past my knees and up to my thighs as I walked down the porch steps.
