Page 10 of A Shade Too Far
There was no time to lose.
If I hadn’t hopped onto the first stair to the ring, intent on stopping this madness, I might never have felt the touch, featherlight as it was. That wasn’t some magic skill, it had been honed from Sadie trying to sneak lemon candies out of my pocket one summer.
I gripped the gloves tight while Delilah elbowed Naveen in the throat.
Coughing, he swung the staff and knocked me to the grass, my calves burning from his strike. His shadow fell over me, blotting out the sun, the staff raised high.
Delilah grabbed his weapon and yanked, buying me a few seconds to roll sideways and jump to my feet. A group of Ohrists ran past, putting more space between myself and Naveen.
Save myself and the deadly demon artifact or save Santiago?
I got all of three steps closer to Torres when his screams cut out with a suddenness that made me shiver.
The dybbuk flew off Santiago’s lifeless body like a mini tornado and into the woman with the sunglasses. Her shoulders slumped momentarily, but she shook it off and left.
I gasped. That weird dybbuk had just enthralled her. Why her and not Torres?
I pivoted sharply, intent on saving her—if that was even possible with this spirit—but there was a faint squeak of a shoe at the edge of my awareness and a refracted prism of light hit my eyes. Naveen was moving in once more.
“She’s enthralled. If you don’t let me save her, Laurent won’t forgive you.” I snidely parroted Naveen’s words back to him.
He raised his light staff. “Laurent has his mission, I have mine. Give me the gloves.”
“You hypocrite,” I spat. How dare he accuse me of being heartless and then go right ahead and do the same thing?
A quick glance toward the inhabited woman revealed that she was walking normally, no sign of the spirit having temporarily gotten the upper hand as they did during enthrallment.
Even if I couldn’t go after her now, I had one week to find her and save her—I hoped. Though nothing was certain where this dybbuk was concerned.
I ran as quickly for the airfield as my wounded knee allowed, cloaking myself along the way. The battle was lost, but I was alive, and this war wasn’t over.
